Wesley Chapel, FL 12/7 - 12/9

    My wife and I continued our short holiday vacation by heading up to Wesley Chapel to visit my aunt and cousin.  Wesley Chapel is about 20 miles north of Tampa.  It lies between Land O’Lakes and Zephyrhills and is the most populated community in Pasco County.  It is an inland community, but one doesn’t have to walk far anywhere in Florida to find some water.  This was a family-first visit, so birding would mostly be incidental.  Like elsewhere on our short Florida vacation, birds like osprey, red-shouldered hawks, anhingas, ibis, egrets, herons and the like were not hard to find.

Mottled duck (left) and anhinga (right).  © S. Weiss
Unlike cormorants, which are similar in appearance, anhingas will soar hawk-like high in the sky.

Strolling through my aunt’s neighborhood I found some ponds that hosted mottled ducks.  Mottled ducks look very similar to female mallards.  Of course, mallards and mottled ducks hybridize which can make identification tricky at times.  In past visits I have seen (and heard) black-bellied whistling-ducks and swallow-tailed kites flying over, but not this trip.  I did come across a common ground dove on one walk, and my wife and I came across a couple of sandhill cranes on another walk.

Sandhill cranes.  © S. Weiss

With a couple of free hours on one of our days, I drove to the Land O’Lakes recreation complex where a bronzed cowbird had been seen in a flock of brown-headed cowbirds.  Bronzed cowbirds are mainly a Central American species with areas extending into very small portions of a couple southwestern states.  Unfortunately, I did not find any cowbirds during my time at the complex.  I listed 37 birds for the day there, of which only six would be rare in New Jersey.

I did find a couple other non-feathered creatures that made my trip to the complex worthwhile.  I came across a Florida softshell turtle sunning itself at the edge of a pond.  Surprisingly it did not scurry into the water as I approached.  I respected its personal space, took a few photos and let it alone.

Florida soft shell turtle.  © S. Weiss

I spotted a couple of butterflies and moths that were new to me and a few I have only seen previously in Florida.  My newbies were ceraunus blue, phaon crescent and barred yellow butterflies, orange-spotted flower moth and coffee-loving pyrausta moth (gotta love that name).  White peacock and gulf fritillary butterflies were rather numerous.

White peacock (left) and gulf fritillary (right).  © S. Weiss

Phaon crescent (left) and ceraunus blue (right).  © S. Weiss

Barred yellow (left) and gray hairstreak (right).  © S. Weiss

Coffee-loving pyrausta moth (left) and orange-spotted flower moth.  © S. Weiss

Two new dragonflies joined my life list too.  Roseate skimmers and Rambur’s forktails appeared to be numerous around the complex’s ponds.  Scarlet skimmers, which I had only seen in Boynton Beach, were also flying about the ponds.

Male roseate skimmer.  © S. Weiss

Female Rambur's forktail (left) and male Rambur's forktail (right).  © S. Weiss

Male scarlet skimmer.  © S. Weiss






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Jersey’s First Limpkin. 11/13/2023

Image
     Yesterday, reports were circulating of a limpkin  at a private residence in Manasquan, Monmouth County.  Pictures of the bird appeared on a Facebook page.  The reports were confirmed, and this was the first limpkin for New Jersey.  Pending acceptance by the New Jersey Birds Record Committee, this will be the 497th species recorded in the state. I am not a Facebook subscriber, so I did not hear about the bird until late on Sunday.  Earlier today, an administrator of the NJ Rare Birds GroupMe reported that the bird was still in town and the homeowners were allowing viewers to see the bird.  I saw that report in midafternoon.  I have seen the bird many times in Florida, where it should be.  I always threw that bird name out whenever there was a discussion about what would be among the next possible birds to appear in the Garden State.  So, after some self-contemplating, I decided to give it a try.  I put the address in to my car navigation system and I was less than a half hour away.
Read more

24 Hour Cape May Pelagic, 6/18-6/19- Skua, Jaeger, Beaked Whales, Devil Ray, Hammerhead Sharks and more

Image
     Just a few days after returning from a Bahamas cruise, I headed down to Cape May for a 24-hour pelagic trip aboard the American Star .  We left the dock at nine in the evening to make our way out about 90 miles offshore.  After about an hour I decided to turn in for the rest of the night.  The boat is set up for daytime whale and dolphin watching tours, so there are no real sleeping quarters on board.  I enveloped myself in a sleeping bag on a metal bench on the upper deck.  The bench was only as wide as me, so it was not a comfortable night.  The sea conditions were not bad, but I catnapped through the night ride trying not to roll off the bench.  Around five o’clock, daylight started to break up the night sky and people began emerging from their makeshift beds.  I’m sure those who brought beanbag cushions slept much better than I did.  Either way I survived the night and the day ahead turned out to be well worth the ride.  We saw the expected pelagic birds for this season, plus
Read more

Cruise to Bahamas- Antillean Nighthawk, Red-legged Thrush & Bahama Woodstar

Image
     This past week my wife and I took a cruise from New Jersey to the Bahamas.  Our ports of call were Port Canaveral, FL, Nassau and the cruise line’s private island in the Bahamas.  Prior to leaving I made a list of new birds I would like to see on the trip.  The list constituted new life birds that could be seen at those locations at this time of year.  In reality it was more of a wish list as I knew I would never get all 35 birds.  I would have been satisfied with one new bird, but I got three and happy. We left Bayonne on Friday and arrived at central Florida on Sunday afternoon.  Before we left I became aware of a wayward Large-billed Tern that showed up in Brevard County.  Large-billed terns are a South American species and look kind of like our Royal Terns , but (of course) with an exceptionally large bill.  This mega rarity would have been a great score, but I had to take a pass.  It seemed too convenient as Port Canaveral is also located in Brevard County.  Unfortunately, a
Read more