Molly and I have escaped northern Minnesota for a few days. The temperatures at home will push -20F by Friday (not wind chills). Anyhow I had a laugh when I looked at the local Fort Myers forecast … windchills of +27F this afternoon (temps rise to the 70’s by Tuesday morning. I am definitely going birding tomorrow morning in Florida.
Fort Myers: -+27F
Duluth: -35F
Some of you may be familiar with the play / movie, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Donny Osmond made this brilliant coat famous (email subscribers: video link to see the coat … skip forward to the one minute mark). Dolly Parton please accept my apologies … this is the coat of many colors! LOL.
Recently while birding in both Minnesota and Florida, I saw birds with “coats of many colors”! In Florida I watched Painted Buntings at the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp and in Minnesota I watched Ring-Necked Pheasants on a snowy backroad. First here are the birds, followed by a discussion about Corkscrew Swamp vs Six Mile Cypress Slough (both in the Fort Myers area).
Technicolor Plumage #1: Painted Bunting
Technicolor Plumage #2: Ring-Necked Pheasant
Now the promised discussion … admission to Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp is very expensive ($17 per person). While 2.5 mile boardwalk is impressive, AND I am an Audubon member, I really don’t think the price justifies the cost of admission … particularly if there are multiple people in your group. The cypress trees are truly majestic at Corkscrew, but I actually find the birding there much worse than at Six Mile Cypress Slough (Google Maps Link) which is right in Fort Myers. Six Mile Cypress’ entrance fee is only the cost of your parking … depending upon how long you wish to stay … a couple dollars for your car. It is important to get to Six Mile Cypress EARLY in the morning before the crowds arrive. If one walks their boardwalk shortly after sunrise it will be just you, the birds and one or two other people. The boardwalks are impressive at either location and should be a part of any trip to southern Florida. My wife, a non birder, visited Six Mile Cypress with friends “in the afternoon” and came home raving about the beautiful birds!
Molly and I just completed 3 days of driving across America … south to north. During my last day in the Fort Myers area I revisited the Pelican Ballfields in Cape Coral. Although for this northern boy the winter temperatures seemed warm early in the morning (45F and sun), I suspected the local Burrowing Owls might think that a calm, sunny morning after two days of rain and mid 40’s were worth catching the sun’s rays like their northern cousins. Upon arriving home, I visiting with the northern cousins of the Beach Bums!
I was correct in that assumption, the “beach bum” owls were out getting warm near their burrow’s entrances.
“Beach Bum” Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral!
Northern Owls love to sit in the sun on sunny calm windless mornings. Look for the owls on the northern side of forest roads catching the rays from the sun in the southern sky. Anyhow, upon arriving home yesterday afternoon a bit before 3 pm, after taking 1/2 hour to unpack and stow away warm weather gear from the car, I was off to enjoy our local owl irruption. I did not need to travel far, and found two Great Grays hunting.
Great Gray Owls … the northern beach bum’s cousins!
Owl #1
Owl #2
I was actually home from my birding excursion within two hours of when I first got home from Florida. It was time for a leisurely glass of wine!