The trip to Florida wasn't entirely reptile focused (it was mostly Disney focused in reality!) but I also did loads of birding. Up in Orlando we were staying at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and Great Egrets were all over the place. We also had Mourning Dove and Collared Dove breeding in the grounds along with a stack of Common Grackles. Each evening as I enjoyed a beer on the balcony watching the Zebras and Giraffes potter about Common Nighthawks were seen hawking over the hotel. I got some terrible photos which was great! White Ibis were everywhere on site, acting as a multi-handed (or billed) clean up gang. In the damper areas including the pool and the Flamingo enclosure were small groups of Mottled Ducks. A handful of Barn Swallows scooted overhead most days and there were occasional sightings of Northern Mockingbird and Eastern Bluebird with family parties of both kicking about. Each morning round the hotel you would get loafing Black Vultures waiting for the thermals to build so they could search the area for dead stuff.
Blurry Nighthawk
In the parks there were plenty of great birds to see. Our first day at Magic Kingdom started with Fish Crows making their odd call, with a few American Crows chucked in. By the end of the holiday I still couldn't tell the difference without call. Parties of Boat-tailed Grackles bothered the queues into the parks, scavenging what they could. An unidentified warbler overhead had yellow on it. Without bins I was struggling - thankfully I kept them in the backpack most of the time. Overhead at Magic Kingdom were a plethora of Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures and my first Swallow-tailed Kite. The latter species was a lifer I was very much looking forward to but the distant views of it circling several hundred feet up with the vultures were disappointing. Hopefully there would be more to come? Both Green Heron and Tricolored Heron messed around near the water areas of the park along with the ubiquitous White Ibis. Obviously there were House Sparrows. We moved onto Animal Kingdom park late in the day for a change of scenery and were greeted in the Avatar themed land with our only Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the trip which popped up briefly looking all the world like a CGI knock-up.
One of several million White Ibis seen at Disney
Across the rest of the parks it was a similar story generally but Epcot had a plethora of Anhinga and Double-crested Cormorants and we eventually found the Ospreys. A Red-tailed Hawk was seen sat up in the rafters of the buildings at Epcot, hiding out of the sun. Amongst the scavenging Ibis was our only Limpkin of the trip. A probably Wood Stork thermalling was too far away to be sure and I let that go. On our way in we saw a band of Turkeys foraging on the side of the Osceola Parkway with Sandhill Cranes doing the same the following day en route to Blizzard Beach. Our first Starlings were seen somewhere during this period but quite where I have no idea. By the end of the time at Disney I was getting itchy feet to do some proper birding and I wasn't to be disappointed.
Now the juicy stuff! I got out into the Everglades National Park a number of times both day and night and there will be another post about the birds but two nights and three days in the park produced many highlights including those featured below.
Apologies for the glut of swearing early on. It was an extremely visceral and exciting experience finding a snake that big! In an effort for chronology I will start at the beginning.
Prior to heading to the Everglades the only native reptiles I had seen were a couple of Florida Softshell turtles. I had been in the Keys for a day before I sought to explore. I headed straight for the Anhinga Trail within the park, a couple of miles west from the gate. Immediately on arrival there were Brown Anoles everywhere along with giant Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers. Out on the pool were two American Alligators. I was the first person on the trail and was alone with these two giants. A third gator bellowed out in the sawgrass beyond the pool unseen. The smaller animal hauled out by the path providing a nervous obstacle to navigate. I breathed in and moved past it on the other side of the path.
The first gator hauled out.
Further Softshells were messing about in the water and I saw my first Red-bellied Cooter messing about in the water chowing down on Water Lilies. A Green Anole was seen on the rail of the boardwalk, the first of three I saw in a similar location (the final one was a brown morph). No further Alligators were seen on my first trip although I had a favoured loafing spot pointed out underneath the board walk which would later prove productive.
Green Anole flashing a bit of dewlap.
A trip down to Flamingo provided plenty of birds but no reptiles. The star was a brief Manatee which was seen in very turbid water round the jetties. I failed to find any Crocs in this area.
I returned to the park road in the evening determined to try and add some snakes. A number of Southern Toads and dreaded Cane Toads were seen on the road in plus two freshly killed Yellow Rat Snakes. I cruised at 20mph to prevent myself from squashing the targets (and it was the lowest speed the cruise control dropped to).
I turned back towards the Anhinga trail and about half a mile along there was a speed bump on my lane. No, it was moving. It was an enormous snake. My first live snake of the trip and it was a monster, the invasive Burmese Python. It ran from the centre of the road to the margin, 2.5-3 metres in length. Not the fattest of specimens and not enormous but to me outrageous. Mixed feelings about the status of these reptiles contested and lost to the awesome animal I watched slowly making its way into the verge. My sweary bit of video isnt good but it shows the moment for posterity. I had been told not to mess with these guys if they are over 2.5m due to the risk of being overpowered (and the nasty bite they possess).
Burmese Python
I moved onto Long Pine Key after passing a dead Banded Water Snake and flat Cottonmouth. I was 4-1 down, dead snakes to live ones but thankfully I didnt see any further dead ones that night. I did however manage to see a Southern Ring-necked Snake, a small fossorial species amongst the pine needles and toads in the hammock.. This species is a mildly venomous rear fanged colubrid which is pretty tiny. It isnt really able to bite so poses no risk to humans but I failed to make the grab instead contenting myself with some awful video as it thrashed across the road.
After this I cruised towards Pinelands and was greeted by a beautiful juvenile Florida Cottonmouth on the road. A real diddly job this guy was loving the warmth from the blacktop. I managed some terrible photo before a fake strike had me retreating. A Great Horned Owl at the turn was awesome in the headlights before sallying off into the mosquito filled darkness. The return failed to unearth more snakes but I did find a Southern Leopard Frog amongst numerous Cane and Southern Toads.
Florida Cottonmouth juvenile. Ive managed to cut the yellow tail off.
Southern Leopard Frog
A return visit during the day revealed similar stuff but with the family in tow it was fun to show them the gators and my wife found her own one out in the Sawgrass. We had further views of Turtles and Manatees to go along with the gators but failed again with the Crocs. Izzy was determined to come along for a herping trip after seeing the area and my successes.
Angela's Alligator
My final diurnal visit was again similar but I found a loafing Alligator in the canal just outside the park whilst looking at Swallow-tailed Kites. I also had some great views of Gar and weirdly a Plec catfish more familiar in fish tanks. On the Anhinga trail a nest of Florida Softshells suddenly erupted beside the path and I managed to get 7 of them into the water before they were trodden on or molested. One was picked up and bothered by a family but I think they all made it into the water which isnt bad. An amazing site and one that brings home the odds for the small hatchlings. At Flamingo the magic happened. Two Manatees were drinking from an outflow giving my best views of the holiday when they shifted aside. A French-Canadian family started shouting 'Alligator' but I had a feeling it would be a croc. I quickly dodged round and saw a fabulous, if slightly small American Crocodile' with its head in the outflow briefly. The Manatees were hardly bothered and slowly drifted away whilst the toothy predator drank before sinking into the muddy waters not to be seen again. On leaving Flamingo a very freshly dead Everglades Racer was on the road. A very sad sight for a big, active snake.
American Crocodile
Manatee
Hatchling Florida Softshell
Returning back to base I picked Isabelle up after a flying feed and we headed back to the park with stocks of coffee and sweets and bedding for her to nod off. She didnt though! We started off with a couple of Southern Toads before we were tailed by some herpers doing a much greater speed. More fool them as they overtook us near the ranger station. We turned and they carried onto a dirt road. We got 100 yards further along and a Banded Water Snake came out onto the road. This was a big fat Nerodia and I didnt want to mess with it but Izzy was right in there having a look as it left the road. The other herpers returned just as the snake left the tarmac and didnt stop. More fool them. Both Izzy and I were buzzing after seeing this. It was really impressive and great to see a live one after the RTA victim.
Florida Banded Watersnake
It wasnt long before we found another snake, this time a Cottonmouth. Izzy had to be restrained from getting too close to the highly venomous pit viper. We got excellent views as we encouraged it to leave the road as cars whizzed past. It was bigger than the previous nights individual with little yellow in the tail.
Retreating Cottonmouth
A dead Corn Snake was a blow as it again was pristine and very fresh. We didnt do well with rat snakes on this trip sadly. A second Cottonmouth of the night was on tarmac near Long Pine Key and we got further excellent views with Isabelle being a bit more circumspect this time. It had lost its tail tip but was feisty enough.
We called it a night as both of us tired and I kept confusing pine needles for herps. An excellent way to round off a great introduction to herping in North America and I definitely have a sidekick for future missions.
This is the first of my blogs on my holiday from Florida. One of my main aims was to see some of the interesting herpetofauna of Southern Florida during the second half of the trip and a reasonable amount of research on species, locations and techniques (I am a very green field herper) put me in reasonable confidence that I would be able to catch up with some stuff and as you can see I did ok. A few thank yous need to be given at this stage, to my mates Paul and Neil Rowntree who gave me loads of stellar advice including books, locations and answered all the stupid questions I had. Be sure to check out Neil's blog - linked above for their epic trips. Also unknowingly helping me was Noah from NFKHerping who through watching his videos gave me loads of info on field skills in nearby Georgia and how to go about actual herping. You should watch his videos and subscribe to his channel if you like snakes. I purchased a couple of books, the Peterson Guide to Herpetiles of the Eastern States and Bartlett's Snakes of Florida. Both proved invaluable although the taxonomy in the latter is a little outdated and they both undersell the extent of non-natives in Florida.
Tropical House Gecko Hemidactylus mabouia
We spent seven nights at Disneyworld, Florida staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Here there were a plethora of non-native Brown Anoles Anolis sagrei which were in all habitats during daylight hours. Large numbers were seen particularly in Animal Kingdom and Epcot. On our second full day we found a Florida Softshell Turtle Apalone ferox swimming merrily round the ornamental ponds of Epcot. This wasnt our last softshell sighting. The only other confirmed reptile sighting from Disney (despite many 'gator' sightings from the bus by my kids) was a dead Southern Ring-necked Snake Diadophis punctatus punctatus which had seemingly been freshly stamped on at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was of course extremely disappointed by this.
Brown Anole (juvenile)
Southern Ring-necked Snake (dead)
Southern Ring-necked Snake (dead)
A 300 mile trip south to Key Largo from Disney opened up new herping opportunities but still omnipresent were the Brown Anoles and now they were joined by Northern Curly-tailed Lizards Leiocephalus carinatus and Green Iguanas Iguana iguana. All three species occurred in the Hotel Grounds. At this point I had seen four species of lizard and all were non-native. Part 2 will follow shortly and it is juicy!
I'm at home having barely done any birding for a few weeks bracing myself for a trip to Florida which is hopefully going to see me spending extensive periods of time in the Everglades and the Keys. I thought, perhaps it is time to reflect on the large chunk of the spring and early summer I failed to mention on the blog. Blogging has become more sporadic as I have moved from pouring over websites on a laptop to endlessly scrolling through twitter. Apologies and that...
So May went pretty well - I managed to twitch the Baikal Teal at March Farmers and then latterly as it moved north at Hornsea Mere for my lifer and Yorkshire tick but I was happy enough. At least until it decided to move to Northumberland for the summer... Now, well, lets wait for the BBRC eh? In between the two I saw briefly and heard extensively my second British and first Yorkshire Great Reed Warbler which set up territory at Wintersett Reservoir, one of two holding territory in Yorkshire and perhaps a dozen or more that are known across the country. Confirmed breeding must be on the cards...
Curlew Sandpiper
The end of the Spring produced a female Subalpine Warbler which was probably western like my previous UK subalp plus a fine male Black-headed Bunting which was new to me and a fine discovery by Craig Thomas at Flamborough. A Black Guillemot floating off the foghorn did the decent thing and hung around just long enough to make it 4 Yorkshire ticks in a fortnight. I also dipped a Rose-coloured Starling a couple of miles from home. A handful of visits to Frampton led to awesome views of breeding plumage Little Stints, Curlew Sandpipers plus a Wood Sandpiper, Little Gull and a couple of Turtle Doves plus an enjoyable yap with Toby Collett, the warden.
Garganey
Little Stint
Turtle Dove
Work saw me monitoring lots of pairs of breeding Peregrines which was great and I am very fortunate to do so. More recently I have been down in Somerset working on the River Parrett with plenty of Mediterranean and Yellow-legged Gulls plus the first returning waders. On my way home the other week my 5th Yorkshire tick in a brief spell was a Gull-billed Tern at Adwick Washlands which was kind enough to hang on overnight after initially being mis-identified. These have been really hard to connect with in Yorkshire and is my second UK record after one in Devon with Pete Clark a couple of years ago.
I have also bee reigniting my love for things non-avian and a quick look at my Instagram will show I have been a busyish bee on that front. Highlights recently include new orchids (Marsh Helleborine, Southern Marsh Orchid and Lizard Orchid), new bees and wasps (Andrena chrysoceles and Symmorphus bifasciatus) and new Butterflies amongst several others (Marsh Fritillary and Silver-washed Fritillary).
Lizard Orchid
Marsh Frog
I hope to have loads of photos from Florida and one of the things I have been doing most work on is Snakes. Hopefully there will be video of a couple and some birds but if not know this - I tried! Below is a rather confiding Fox cub from Skerne Wetlands a few weeks ago whilst watching the Marsh Harriers doing a food pass.
I'm pretty rubbish at finding rare birds. I've been birding for 15 years properly more or less and have a grand total of zero rare birds found but recently I have been turning up the odd county rarity both home and away with a couple of accepted Rough-legged Buzzards in Northumberland and Yorkshire, an American Golden Plover in Northumberland, Great White Egret in Nottinghamshire, Caspian Gull, Bee-eater and Leach's petrel in Somerset, Crane in Lincolnshire and a few more. Nothing earth shattering there but I really enjoy looking and sometimes I get a stupid idea about a bird and poof it appears. It happened for the Rough-legged Buzzard at Barmston and it happened again for the AGP at St Mary's Island. I thought the conditions and timing all looked good for the species and I was tuned in and expecting to find them. It happened again last week. I went to Thorne Moors looking for Red-footed Falcon. I was fortunate in that I had an afternoon of free time as I couldnt get back from a course to set up the laptop and my wife and kids were out with a friend so I could utilise the warmth of the late afternoon sun that was heating it up to 18c after a misty, murky start.
Tim Ward's shot shows exactly how I saw this bird initially.
I knew that the first Hobbys should be in at Thorne in a pre-breeding aggregation and that these would be concentrated by the fresh hatches of insects given the cool, early conditions. Thorne is a classic Red-foot location but the date, 30th April, was perhaps a week early. The air-flow was from the south and I marched to the middle of the moor watching a lanky looking ringtail harrier fold-up and dive from a couple of hundred meters up. Its jizz screamed Monty's but there was a significant heat haze and it was perhaps 1km away so a brief view wasn't going to go anywhere in terms of firming up species. A Red Kite ambled over - these guys seem to be everywhere now. Underfoot I disturbed a large male Adder which was foraging and shot off into the undergrowth. Marsh Harriers and Hobbys were obvious across the moor as I made for the picnic bench, north of the watchpoint, with at least half a dozen of each on view most of the time.
Another shot from Tim Ward showing the slightly blunt winged appearance
Watching the Hobbys I started checking them for Red-foots but the strong lighting made everything look dark underneath. I had 15, 16 no...20 Hobby in the air at the same time. Everywhere, high, low, in singles, pairs and loose groups. It was humming with them after a massive hatch of Four-spotted Chasers and Large Red Damselflies. Two probable Swifts were just too high to be sure they were Hobbys. Everytime I scanned with the scope more falcons were behind the ones I was locking on to. A loose group of half a dozen birds started hawking low-down infront of me. I noticed one looked a little smaller with gleaming white patches on the inner primaries of the upperwing. Watching it, it worked in a more relaxed way with less aggressive hawking behaviour and generally flew lower at a more consistent height. It came a little closer and my anticipation grew. It banked and was slatey blue-grey underneath. An adult male Red-footed Falcon no less. This was exactly as I imagined it but what I hadn't anticipated was quite how bright and obvious those upperwing flashes would be.
Not obviously dark underneath when strongly lit
Over the next 90 minutes it hawked to within 50 meters, remaining fairly loyal to the loose group of birds. I was joined 15 minutes after I found it by David Slack. It was great for someone to corroborate the sighting as I had forgotten my camera and try as I might, I failed to phonescope the bird in flight. I got lots of shots of fresh air and the odd blurry Hobby as I latched onto the wrong bird. Tim Ward very kindly let me use his shots from the following day here and there are photos out there on Graham Catley's blog:
Nb - whilst I was looking at the bird I was talking to David about features I was seeing and he was agreeing yet we realised we were looking in different directions. Neither of us saw two birds simultaneously but two adult males were seen together on 12th May which at the time of writing is the final sighting.
Like most birders I love a trip to Spurn. Despite my relative proximity I dont get there as often as I'd like. I have managed two trips in the last nine days. The first, for my 37th birthday no less was on Good Friday. I spent the entire time at Numpties and it was great. Hirundines were streaming south in reasonable numbers with 3 figure totals for both Sand Martin and Swallow plus a ringtail Hen Harrier went south and three Whimbrel north which were my first of the year. Ten Arctic Terns headed east out of the Estuary for another year tick. Four Wheatears scampered around Clubleys Field and a Hooded Crow blogged about. A handful of flava and alba wagtails south harboured at least two White Wagtails. Tardy Redwing and Fieldfare were great to see as was a female Brambling that wheezed its way past. The highlight of the visit was a surprise breeding plumage Water Pipit which pitched into Clubleys as I was thinking about packing up. I failed to get a photo and was on my own without my radio. It slunk out of site and I assumed it would walk back over the shallow brow in the grass but after 30 minutes I'd given up. I was walking back to the car when it picked up out of some reeds onto a bund. I managed to rattle off a few phone scoped pics before I headed off.
Red Kite
After yesterdays Black Kite at Spurn and the Alpine Swift at Flamborough I was optimistic for this morning at Spurn. Initial promise fizzled out but I still managed to catch up with a few decent bits and pieces including a 2CY Spoonbill heading south at half 6 and a 3CY Red Kite which blogged about, both of which were Spurn ticks for me. A little movement over the sea included 3 Manx Shearwaters and 4 Sandwich Terns. A female Ring Ouzel pitched onto a bush by the warren briefly and I was leaving a Marsh Harrier was briefly strung as a Black Kite. Alas it was not to be. A single Whimbrel went north on the sea and there was a steady stream of Yellow wagtails south. Cool winds and rain seemed to stop any movement and only a handful of swallows passed whilst three House Martins were hawking over the Kilnsea. A Tree Pipit alighted briefly on wires by the Warren and I managed a pants shot of it.
I have had a pretty decent April after a quiet start to the year. I found a Great White Egret whilst working in Nottinghamshire and a Crane at RSPB Frampton Marsh whilst there was a volunteers meeting so it turned into a big twitch. I've also been lucky enough to find half a dozen Peregrine nests and a few other rare breeders both whilst working and here in East Yorkshire.
Crane - Frampton. It was dark and distant!
Great White Egret - Catton, Notts. iPhone binned.
Obviously migrants have been the order of the day over the last month and the first Blackcaps and Willow Warblers opened the month up and I have caught up with most of the warblers now with Garden and Grasshopper still to go. I took a brief trip to March Farmers in Cambridgeshire on the Nene washes whilst I was working in the Fens and saw 18 of the 21 reported Cranes in one flock.
Thirteen Cranes at March Farmers. Great birds.
Andrena fulva - one of many females I have seen round and about.
