Burrow, Owls... Burrow for Your LIVES!

Besides Daggerwing, another stop that we took on our south Florida trip down memory lane, was a visit to our alma mater, FAU. If FAU sounds familiar to you, it may have something to do with the well-deserved run of very bad publicity they've had over the past year, not least of which involved naming their new football stadium after a private prison company with a long record of alleged human rights violations. The name has, thankfully, been changed but the stadium, unfortunately, is there to stay.

The stadium mockingly known as "Owlcatraz"

Construction on the stadium began before I left with my doctorate, but completed after we arrived in Savannah, and so we hadn't had the chance to see the finished product yet. To be clear, this mattered to us for one reason, and one reason only: the construction site had seemed to pose an existential threat to the campus' resident Burrowing Owls, and we needed to know that they were doing alright.

Burrowing Owl doing alright

The owls happen to be the school's mascot, which, in practice, yields no benefits to the owls themselves. On campus they primarily occupy a strip of flat, grassy land that runs parallel to an area for student parking colloquially known as "the runway". During WWII the campus was used as an airfield by the Army Air Corps, and parking has since been converted from an actual runway (airports are common places for Burrowing Owls to nest). They've long had to contend with heavy student traffic, but the real danger was that the administration was going to sacrifice the owls in the name of "progress", what with new construction projects breaking ground constantly. Just before they had begun the stadium up they had bulldozed an adjacent plot that I'm fairly sure contained Gopher Tortoises, so our concerns were by no means unjustified.

I hope so

Despite our fears, however, the owls seem to be doing okay. A wooden fence was constructed around the entire strip, and plenty of signs are posted declaring it a protected area. Most importantly, there were so many owls! When we visited, we could make out dozens of wooden perches that had each been placed by a burrow. The grass was getting kind of long, obscuring the farther burrows somewhat, but even just a few meters inside the enclosure we could see an entire family.

And what a family! We saw one adult lazily standing beside its burrow, dozing off, while a couple of curious owlets stared at us from across the road. The next time we looked, there were a couple more owlets… and then a couple more! They kept popping up from out of nowhere, and stared inquisitively at us like we were the most fascinating things in the world. We were old-hat to the adult, though. Certainly nothing worth missing sleep over. (Note that we weren't at all close to the burrow -- we just happened to be the only things around to look at).

The owl family seemed impressively huge, but is actually pretty typical of Burrowing Owls, who have clutches sizes of about 9 eggs, on average. If anything then, this may have been on the smaller side! In any case, we're happy to report that the FAU Burrowing Owls are still hanging in there. With any luck, the land will remain a conservation area indefinitely, despite the administration's ambitions for a sprawling, expensive-to-maintain complex of unnecessary structures. Hopefully the new salience given to the owls by the fence enclosure will give the FAU community an increased awareness of their presence, and a renewed sense of responsibility toward our mascot.

Atala: A Butterfly Back from the Brink

During our first year and a half of living in Savannah, we'd not really had occasion to return to old stomping grounds in south Florida, although we sometimes reminisce about the species we've left behind: Snail Kites, Limpkins, and Spot-breasted Orioles were merely the stuff of dreams now. But wait! 6.5 hours isn't that long a drive -- surely, it's not impractical of us to dip down and catch up with our old favorites. And if we timed it right, we could leverage the 4th of July into a long weekend...

Well, okay, as romantic as that sounds, the real impetus for our visit was to see friends. But we did intend to soak up some of the area's distinct natural character while we were there, and at the top of our to-do list was walk the trails at Daggerwing Nature Center, where Maureen and I first came into our own as budding naturalists. The Palm Beach County budget hasn't been particularly kind to the park system during the past several years, but our friends who manage the nature centers have done a superb job with the little they have to work with.

One important new project, has been to help support the local population of the Atala (Eumaeus atala) butterfly, by shipping in caterpillars and letting them loose on the Coontie outside in the butterfly garden (and Atala love them some Coontie!). During the middle of last century the Florida subspecies of Atala was feared extinct after people overharvested Coontie, but thankfully these small butterflies have made a strong comeback as a result of conservation efforts like those at Daggerwing.

This one still had its wings all curled up, like he had just emerged and was straightening them out for the first time

Atala have an extremely limited range, and they can't be found anywhere in North America, other than at the southeastern tip of Florida. When we lived in Boca Raton, I managed, briefly, to spy one flitting across the FAU campus. Shortly after, I brought Maureen out to the same place so that she, too, could see an Atala, since our time in the area was running out and we wouldn't have the chance to see them anywhere else. Unfortunately, we missed finding one that day, and we moved away without Maureen having seen any.



What an awesome surprise then, when we learned that Atala were thriving in the Daggerwing butterfly garden. There were Atala everywhere, and in every stage of their life cycle! The Coontie was covered with them, in fact. When we returned to south Florida, we'd hoped to have some distinctly south Florida experiences, but we couldn't have asked for a better one than this. Special thanks to Kelli for her always superb work in making Daggerwing meaningful and beautiful!

Featured Feathered Friend: Baby Edition! - Downy Woodpecker

Here's a little quickie FFF post to highlight the delight of seeing all the new baby birds that I'm sure many of you have been experiencing lately. I know that Nick and I have been coming across all kinds of new baby birds in the past few weeks, including warbler chicks, like Northern Parulas and Pine Warblers, that we never got to see when we lived in South Florida.

Dad with bits of bugs still left on his bill after dropping off food to the little one

"Hey, where are you going?!?"

So speaking of South Florida, we had spotted a Downy Woodpecker chick right in front of our apartment in Boca Raton back in May 2009. We had noticed a couple of Downy Woodpeckers hanging around the trees in our parking lot, which was such a treat to see in itself. But we were even more delighted when we discovered that the Downy Woodpecker pair had nested right in the tree just steps away from our front door. We first heard the anxious chatter of the chicks as they were awaiting mom or dad to bring in some food. And then we finally got a peek of a chick as he poked his head out to see what the delay was for more lunch.

Downy chick and adult

"Yum yum, gimme some!"

This little guy gave us great looks at his Downy Woodpecker sweetness. This chick showed off his bright red cap as he looked around for mom and dad. These are already one of the cutest woodpeckers as they are the smallest, add to that a baby one, and you've got cuteness to the 10th power! I fondly and clearly remember sometimes opening the front door to be pleasantly perked up by the sound of this baby Downy calling. I think I giggled with joy every time. Such a sweet and desperate little cry.

Sweet little face =)

Oh so hungry!

Featured Feathered Friend: Baby Edition! - Green Heron

This FFF features a face that only a mother could love. Here we have a darling little Green Heron fledgling. We found this little guy right outside of our old apartment in Boca Raton, FL in mid-May 2009. We were lucky to have a man-made pond there that attracted a number of herons and egrets, Green Herons being no exception. Often when we'd walk by, we'd spook one that we may not have even seen until he took flight.

Green Heron fledgling

Showing off his stubby wing feathers

Green herons are quite a funny heron. The first one we saw was in the typical crouched position with his neck tucked in. And the next time we saw one, we saw it with its neck fully extended, and we were astonished! "Could this be the same bird?!?!" we wondered. And we quickly found out that it was, and we've been entertained by this funny little heron ever since.

He kept falling asleep... Awww... 

What a fuzzball!

This little fuzzball here was all on his own, it appeared, when we found him. I recall it being a bit breezy, and he was just clinging on to dear life onto the delicate branches of this bush. But he held on strong even though he looked so fragile. We watched him for what seemed like an hour, just mesmerized by this almost so-ugly-he's-cute baby. This may have been one of the first baby birds we encountered after becoming birders.

Showing off the typical Green Heron stance

HELLLOOOO!!!

The last photo is of another baby Green Heron that seemed to have a little more gusto as he was venturing out on his own and strutting about, feeling that stretch in his neck! We didn't relocate these fledglings afterwards, but I'm sure they stuck around the pond, stealthily lurking about as Green Herons do.

Sweetness

Strutting his stuff!

Featured Feathered Friend: Baby Edition! - Limpkins

Today's FFF shows off the incredibly adorable chicks of Limpkins. We miss seeing (and hearing) these Florida specialty birds in our waters. Some say that these birds are hard to find, but we've never had problems finding them. They often are right out in the open in freshwater areas looking for and feeding on large apple snails and sometimes freshwater mussels. Limpkins will pick a pond clean of all apple snails in sight, competing with another Florida specialty bird that eats only apple snails, the Snail Kite.

"Remember to keep your wings up for balance!"

Serious cuteness going on here

Limpkin parents and a trail of chicks

If you've been to Florida and haven't seen them, then you may have heard them. If you ever hear what sounds like a flamboyant diva screaming while running away in heels, then you may have heard a Limpkin. This can be especially startling in the middle of the night. But fear not, it's most likely not some scandalous mischief going on - it's just a Limpkin calling.

Doting Limpkin parent and chicks

That's a big foot, mama!

Limpkin parents showing how to forage

Well before you get a loud, wailing adult Limpkin, you have these precious little brown balls of fuzz! We stumbled upon this family of Limpkins at the end of May in 2009 at a pond right in front of a local public library. We were already pleasantly surprised to find two adult Limpkins together. And then we noticed these little fuzzballs trailing after them. We quickly went home to grab our camera to capture this uber cute sighting!

Family Portrait

Love seeing those tiny wings!

These Limpkin chicks were just as cute as can be! There were a group of 4 of them following mom and pop looking for snails. It was nice to see both doting parents caring for their young ones and showing them the ropes.

A perfect portrait of baby Limpkins in these flowers!

Another lovely family pic