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- A powder puff flower that is made up almost entirely of male stamens
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- A male cloudless sulphur butterfly that was numbed by a cool night
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- A caterpillar of an orange barred sulphur butterfly that is feeding on the flowers of a senna/cassia
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- A flock of sanderlings finds a few moments to rest on the beach
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- The flamboyant reddish egret is a bird that is more common in the Caribbean
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- This male anhinga is drying its wings and/or warming up on a cool morning
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- This snipe is very well camouflaged and feels safe along the edge of Ollie’s Pond
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- A yellow rumped warbler prefers drinking from a water drip
Winter in SW Florida means sunny warm days with almost weekly cold fronts that deliver chilly nights and strong NE winds. Now flowers are a bit constrained this time of year, especially our beloved native species. Thus I enjoy cultivating exotic flowers which bloom in winter, are non-invasive, and have specific benefits for wildlife. One of my favorites is the spectacular powder puff from South America, which has a flower made up primarily of the showy male stamens. It would seem to be a classic hummingbird-pollinated flower, but is attractive to other nectar feeders.
We have had many cloudless and orange barred sulphur butterflies in our yard laying eggs on our cassia/senna plants. On a very cool morning this cloudless male was barely able to fly and I was able to pick it up, whereas they normally fly very swiftly. One orange barred Sulphur caterpillar escaped from the wasp predators and was feeding on flowers of cassia.
At our favorite beach on NW Knight Island I found some sanderlings resting for a moment. They seem to spend most of their time scurrying around the waves looking for mole crabs. They are so tiny yet manage to migrate to the Arctic to breed. Nearby along the edges of a lagoon there is a spot where a sub-tropical reddish egret is often found; I was able to get a close-up of its shaggy neck and keen eye- the better for chasing fish in shallow water. They have a very flamboyant method of feeding, involving spreading their wings and lurching around, that must confuse their prey.
At a traditional New Year’s Day birding spot, Ollie’s Pond, I found a male anhinga in a spread-wing pose that is traditionally interpreted as a means of drying their wings after they have been fishing. Tom Poulson from Loxahatchee has added a new hypothesis for this behavior- namely a means of warming up on cool mornings. A sharp-eyed birder noticed a snipe huddling along the bank nearby, close to passing visitors. This illustrates how much easier it is to observe wildlife where they have become adjusted to the presence of people who do not threaten them. Snipe are also so well camouflaged that they may remain still when danger threatens.
One of our favorite places to observe wildlife is in our own yard on Manasota Key and one secret to attracting birds is a water drip. This photo shows a yellow rump warbler getting ready to take a sip from the drip. I think birds immediately recognize the drip since they are accustomed to drinking from morning dew on plants. Fresh water on the barrier islands is a scarce commodity so water is often more attractive to birds than food.