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






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