Florida: Limpkins and the Like

Of all the birds you can find at Green Cay Wetlands, the most interesting - and peculiar - is probably this one: the Limpkin (Aramus guarauna). 

Limpkins are odd in any number of ways.  They are the only living members of their family, the Aramidae.  They have no obvious close relatives, though they are probably closest to cranes.  They are dietary specialists, feeding almost exclusively on apple snails (Pomacea sp.).  Their call is a blood-curdling shriek - hearing one at night, you might be forgiven for thinking that some poor soul was being murdered out in the marsh.

They can be difficult to see, and are far from a guaranteed sighting at Green Cay, so I was quite enthusiaastic about showing this particularly compliant individual to my grandson Ryan, on a visit to Florida from Malaysia in December 2012.

 

Though I think Limpkins are quite beautiful, in a subdued way, I'm not sure that Ryan (who was five at the time) necessarily understood why this particular bird was so much more interesting than the other feathered regulars in the neighbourhood.

I'm not sure that the Limpkin was enthusiastic about us, either.

Oh, well, on to other birds.  Here is one that is even harder to see at Green Cay than a Limpkin: an American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) peering at us from its hiding place in the vegetation.

I don't know if I ever noticed before That Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) have yellow soles to their feet. This immature, busily scratching its head, demonstrates the fact quite plainly.

 These rather more sedate adults appear to be quietly waiting for the evening hours to arrive.

 Meanwhile,  the more diurnal wading birds were active as usual, giving Ryan plenty to look at.  Here, a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) flies past.

 A Cattle Egret  –  here, a Western Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis),  less orange-headed that the Eastern Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus coromandus) that Ryan  might have seen in Malaysia – poses among the reeds....

... while a White Ibis (Eudocimus albus), the bird we saw Ryan admiring in my last post, stands guard along the boardwalk.

Land birds show up at Green Cay too: Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) breed here...

...while Palm Warblers (Setophaga palmarum) drop by for the winter.

The standard bird of prey at Green Cay – vultures aside – is the well-marked Florida subspecies of the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus).

 It is not the only one, though. A Merlin (Falco columbarius) often winters here...

...as do Northern Harriers (Circus cyaneus).

 This is not an ideal shot, but it does show one of the Harrier's chief field marks, its white rump.

Ospreys are frequent in the area too - no surprise to find a fish-eating hawk over a wetland!

Like any child, Ryan enjoyed watching the ducks.  This is a male Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors), the commonest wintering duck at Green Cay.

Green-winged Teals (Anas carolinensis) are considerably less numerous.

I had to explain to Ryan that, appearances notwithstanding, this was not a duck but a Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps).  He was happy to watch it all the same...

...and I was particularly happy to get this photo of a grebe with its wings open.  They don't pose like this very often! 

Florida : Ryan's Wetlands

I had long wanted to bring our grandson Ryan to Florida.  Ryan, even here at the age of five, is a seasoned naturalist and experienced globe-trotter.  Malaysian school holidays fall in November and December, so when we returned from Malaysia in late October 2012 we brought Ryan with us.  His arrival, sadly, coincided with the passing of my father.  It was a sad group that brought my mother to her winter home in Florida a month later, on her own for the first time in sixty-seven years.  In retrospect the timing of Ryan's visit couldn't have been better - he brought us a much-needed ray of sunshine, and just as I knew he would, he had a wonderful time.

 

Most children of five, on arriving in Florida, would want to head either for the beach, the pool or Disney World.  Ryan wanted to see wetlands.  As readers of this blog will know, there are some splendid - if entirely man-made - examples near Boca Raton, and we ended up making repeated visits to Wakodahatchee Wetlands and the Green Cay Nature Center.  Here are some of the things we saw.

Reptiles top any child's list of nifty wildlife.  Even for a child from Malaysia, home of the largest crocodilian on earth (the Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)), American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) are pretty wonderful creatures.  At Green Cay Ryan first got to meet a litter of babies...

...and later, much to his delight, a particularly large adult.

After alligators, turtles come a pretty close second in a child's eyes.  Ryan is very particular about getting names right, so he would want you to know that these animals, perched on their favourite basking log, are Florida Red-bellied Turtles (Pseudemys nelsoni). 

Well, to be honest, I'm the stickler on the scientific names, but Ryan would never be content to simply call this a "turtle".

Florida Red-bellies, like many turtles, are quite variable in appearance.  I had no trouble telling Ryan the name of this brightly-marked individual...

But this one, with its head-stripes almost gone and the pattern of its shell obscured by a growth of algae, gave me some pause for thought.

Snakes can be even more exciting than turtles, even if they are, like this Florida Water Snake (Nerodia fasciata pictiventris), entirely non-venomous.

Like his Grandpa, Ryan enjoys watching birds...

...especially when they are as tame and approachable as these White Ibises (Eudocimus albus).

We'll see more birds in my next post, but here is a ibis portrait in the meantime.

Ryan was content to let Grandpa stop at the bird feeders at Green Cay to watch these female Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris)...

...though admittedly these much sought-after birds were less exciting here than in my mother's back garden, where we could watch a stunning adult male as we ate breakfast.

Ryan did his best to be patient while Grandpa stopped for less obviously thrilling creatures.  These Rambur's Forktails (Ischnura ramburii) were certainly pretty, but perhaps a bit unexciting after the alligators.

Rambur's Forktails come in a range of colours.  The males look like the insect in the upper photo, but females can be either male-like, mostly orange, or olive-drab as shown here.  I think these are, in fact, both females.

Ryan was a bit more interested in the butterflies.  This is a White Peacock  (Anartia jatrophae).

Here is a Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia), a common but apparently nervous butterfly that seldom holds still long enough for a decent portrait.

Ryan's luckiest find: a River Otter (Lontra canadensis).  Otters live at Green Cay, but seeing one by day is a rare event (you are much more likely to find their droppings on the boardwalk).

Alligators, turtles, snakes, birds, insects and otters - more than enough to make a young naturalist eager for new adventures!