Bill Tuckers Field Journal

While not following my own advice from a Journal entry or two back I had the most productive morning with the White Pelicans in Placida for flight shots yesterday that I have had in a year or two.  Now truth be told I really didn’t head out looking to photograph anything. I was going out specifically looking for one juvenile brown pelican that had been spotted two days in a row at the same bridge in Placida with his foot tied to his chest via a treble hook. While it’s reported the bird still flies he isn’t having an easy time catching food and is in danger of becoming entangled as he is also trailing fishing line. As I was up early I thought I’ll drag my gear along and see what type of shots I can get out at the white pelican island first. I was figuring it would be a few brown pelicans and great Blue Herons and such. Not sure why, maybe the cold front that rolled in or the tide being wrong but the whole flock of white pelicans was not interested in leaving the island. Many would take flight to move from one side of the island to the other when the gulls would get upset about something. This led to two and half hours of  opportunities with these guys. I still would not change my recommendation based on one morning though. Over the years I have seen them totally leave the island before sunrise too many times!

Afterwards I set out looking for the one brown pelican that had be reported. Despite looking all over Placida, the bridge he was spotted at three times I never found him. I even decided to head north into Sarasota County to check the next rookery island to the North incase that is where he roosts.

While I didn’t find him I found another pelican that had himself hooked with line and tied to an island. This is really awful to see as a bird is litterly on deaths doorstep at this point. If the line doesn’t break or some kind person doesn’t find them in time they litterly will starve to death or hang themselves depending on how they are hooked and entangled. Either way it’s not a pleasant way to die and totally avoidable. This pelican wasn’t too bad off. He was only hooked with a standard hook into his one wing and entangled himself in a way that hook wasn’t being pulled on when he tried to move about to get free. I suspect he hadn’t been entangled too long as he wasn’t weak, thin or dehydrated yet. After cutting him out branches I brought him on the boat and was able to easily remove the hook. After checking over, making sure his wings still extended and moved properly I was able to set him free and that honestly made my day.

With the great weather we have been having lately I decided to make a last minute trip out to the Dry Tortugas to check out the fall migration. The drive to Key West was uneventville except for the traffic, I had forgotten how bad traffic in the Keys is on a weekend and some hunting season (probably alligator) was in progress so there were a lot of people on the road through Big Cypress. Despite this I arrived at the marina in Key West only an hour later than I had planned. After getting on the water we reached the Marquesas by sunset. After stopping for a few sunset photos it was onward to the Tortugas arriving around 10pm.

The first morning we were greeted with 15+ mph winds from the east. Despite the winds not being ideal I headed out to photograph Boobys. During the last visit I found them all to be roosting on Middle Key. I now found Middle Key underwater which is not abnormal for it. The Boobys were now residing on Hospital Key. It was obvious that the number of both species of Boobys were higher than a few months ago. The Brown Boobys soon departed to feed and perch on pilings for the day. The Masked Booby’s remained on Hospital Key and were cooperative. Over the three days this ended up being the target subject of the morning.

Hawks – there were a large number (estimated at around 75) on Loggerhead Key and Fort Jefferson. For whatever reason they were the most skittish hawks I have ever seen. The first day I thought maybe the stronger winds may be disturbing them as any animal has more difficulty hearing predators when it’s windy out. The winds were much better the next two days and the hawks still would have nothing to do being approached. They were hunting all day long and some would relentlessly harass the Kingfishers. I am not sure if they were looking to just chase them off or if they actually wanted to take them as prey. As I never saw them kill or even strike a Kingfisher I guess they wanting to chase them off.

Songbirds – there were many species of warblers around the grounds of the Fort Jefferson. They were extremely approachable, mostly wanting to be on the ground and around any person. While sitting one of the benches under a tree one afternoon I had one hop up and perch on my shoe. It seemed they were preferring to stay on the ground under trees and near people to avoid being picked off by one of the hawks.

One of the biggest surprises was spotting a pair of Saltwater Crocodiles up in the cove of Bush Key & Long Key. Apparently these guys have been living in this tidal pool for the last five years. And to think I waded in this very area last trip! They appeared to be stalking some of the wading birds and feeding on the huge amounts of small baitfish that were present. At other times they would stay under some of the mangrove trees where the Frigatebirds nest. Some of the young Frigatebirds seemed quite concerned and/or curious of these guys in the water below them.

Magnificent Frigatebirds were present in their normal area. The little fluff balls that I saw on my last visit have all grown up but are still being cared for by their mother. They now cry for food around the clock and it appears the mother will hunt and feed them even during the night. There were fewer males present then I would have expected. A few were mating and bringing sticks in to build nests. While male Frigatebirds mate every year females only mate every other year as it takes almost a year to fledge a Frigatebird.

A few other changes have taken place since my last visit. Most noticeably the park serive dredged the mote to remove the sandbar that was obstructing the natural flow of water. The areas that were closed for brick repairs before are again open. Many new picnic tables have been added and they have installed an underwater camera under the main dock to view the aquatic life. It can be viewed at: http://floridakeyswebcams.tv/teens4oceans/teens4oceans2.asx

Saw more turtles during this trip both around the Tortugas and in the open waters returning to Key West. Also more Pelicans, Herons & Egrets were spotted along with Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls and some very tame Ruddy Turnstones around the beach and docks of Fort Jefferson. During the visit I only saw one other boat outside of the daily ferries. It was a dive boat that spent one night in the harbor. Weather was hot, no signs of fall in the Tortugas!  Only saw rain once, a light drizzle late morning on the first day. Weather forecast remained allowing for us to leave as planned. Return trip was a little rough but not too bad.

Looking forward to returning next month. Hoping the weather will cool down by then and possibly the hawks will calm down some too.

As yesterday was such a nice day I spent most of it out on the water in Placida / Charlotte Harbor. There was hardly anybody else out. I think I saw more dolphins than boats. At low tide, which unfortunately occurred around mid-day, birds were all over the shallow flats feeding. We still have a large number of terns and skimmers in the area, which I guess is partly due to the quiet hurricane season we have had. The brown pelicans were still only on the outer island and the lack of spotting any white pelicans made me think they had not yet returned.

After checking various spots in Gasparilla Sound and runing out to Cayo Costa I decided to head up to the Sarasota area even though I had just been there a few days before. I spotted a Royal Tern in the water off Stump Pass that was entangled in fishing line and doing the survival float. After picking him up I continued north. After checking a few islands around Nokomis and Sarasota and running in to Mooch the dolphin I headed back south to Placida.

When I got back to Placida and into the harbor and the pelican island was in sight I knew my earlier conclusion about the white pelicans was wrong. There was a sea of white on the one side of the island, which could only be them. As I got closer to the island it was clear the whole flock had already returned for the winter. There were at least 150 white pelicans there. I spent the next hour and a half with at the island until sunset.

If you are interested in a trip to photograph these guys I only recommend doing it in the afternoons. Mornings are certainly possible but these guys are very unpredictable in the morning.

It was also obvious that the Ospreys around Placida have started claiming nest sites, no signs of pairing up or nest building. I have not seen this with Ospreys further north.