Pond level lowest ever?

When I went outside to take a photo of the pond level, a male Pileated Woodpecker was also peeking out. May 15, 2023

Many notice the low pond level. I found a photo from June 21, 2021: 

Here is the pond today, May 15, 2023. What do you think? An advantage: I stepped down onto the pond edge and removed a large "Ian" branch.

This is another personality of the pond. Photo taken on August 31, 2016 (Hermine).

And here are a few recent photos from the neighborhood.

An idea about what might be going on: a male Northern Cardinal is keeping watch over a younger cardinal. It could simply be an adult male and female, but the way the male red hopped around in the Wedelia looking for the bird when it was in there makes me think it's a juvenile. 

The first photo, see them both? In the second photo - the younger bird is now in the butterfly garden tended by Jim and Betsy while the adult watches over it.

A Spoonbill Roseate (with an injured leg - is it the same one year to year?) and a companion Snowy Egret. Neighbor Susan sent a photo, too. We were looking out together!

An adult Opossum across the pond scurrying to take cover in the overgrowth. Some of you will say ick when you see one. It's one of my favorite animals. A marsupial that does not carry rabies and loves insects. Come to the butterfly garden, Opossum.

Last, the native Pink Milkweed is blooming!

A red Passionflower also blooms. That's an ant. Ants like flower nectar, too.

See what you can see - January 2023

White Pelicans, January 28,2023

This week I revisited Jon Young's, What the Robin Knows, a book that deepens the kinship between humans and species. In it, he offers a simple suggestion to foster that kinship: go outside for twenty minutes to see what you can see. 

I did that. Here's what I saw after immediately stepping outside. A Yellow-rumped Warbler and then a Blue Jay.

Then I headed to the big pond. Ringed-necked Ducks, male and female

This photo of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher shows the color of its name. Contrast this photo with this one taken at sunset. This photo deceives - this bird is super tiny.

Red-winged Blackbird

A Common Snapping Turtle crossing Oak Drive. There are two types of snapping turtles in Florida. The Alligator Snapping Turtle has more ridges on its shell.

Two Northern Mockingbirds doing a spring dance - either territorial or mating.

And here's what neighbors saw recently. 

Vicki from Palm Village saw an Opossum. I've written in the past about our good neighbor, the opossums.

Kat tends a butterfly garden behind her unit, one with many Monarch caterpillars. She noticed a Monarch Butterfly just before it emerged.

Betsy saw a Monarch butterfly on the Mexican Marigold bloom in the butterfly garden.

Marc Holtsberg came upon a thriving hive of European Honey Bees. Beekeepers tell us this is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. 

Maybe those bees were the ones who found nectar from the Dombeya in front of our place.

Marc also took this beautiful photo of a juvenile Bald Eagle (at Robinson Preserve).

He also was delighted by the Great Horned Owl fledgling. Its nest is adjacent to the entrance to the north entry of Robinson Preserve.

Nadia noticed the sunset. Look at that color.

Birding fosters community

Wood Ducks, male and female and a Mottled x Mallard duck. March 6, 2021

Birding fosters a sense of community. It is delightful to hear from you about what you're noticing in Wildewood Springs. 

Steve from Woodlawn emailed. "Saw the Wood Ducks bobbing head courtship behaviors. Time to watch them." Yesterday I watched for over an hour and noticed that 2 hens are tending the nesting box! This photo is early morning; perhaps this is the nesting wood duck family.

Late morning, I can almost hear this hen say, "Your turn." Notice the change in light quality?

Maureen reported Red-shouldered Hawks mating at the corner of Wildewood and Oak Drives. If these red-shoulders have chicks, they'll look like this.

Maureen is a Lakeside neighbor who regularly picks up trash in and around our neighborhood. Maureen, do I say thank you enough? Thank you.

Faith saw an Osprey carrying large nesting material to their nest in the neighborhood and later, a pair perched together atop a tree on Wildewood Drive. She also saw one fly while carrying snake (a delicious meal if you're a raptor). So here is a photograph of a Wildewood residing Osprey taken by neighbor, Marc Holtsberg. Maybe its chick from last season is one Faith saw returning to its nest to have a family.

(Faith also saw 3 otters playing in the big pond. I photographed one in the Pineneedle pond this morning.)

Walter saw a Green Heron. I saw one of the pair flying back and forth nearby and then perch. I photographed it with Walter's camera. He loaned it to me when mine was recharging. Thanks, Walter.

Lois paints from her second story porch. While painting she said she had a visit from a small bird nibbling small insects from the window. Maybe it was a Blue-grey Gnat Catcher.

Or a warbler? Was it this one, Lois? A Palm Warbler? I took this photograph near the carport where your car is. Or look at this post for other warbler types. What luck to see these sweet, small birds up close.

Betsy mentioned that her sister who is visiting Wildewood thought that she saw an Oystercatcher since it had orange on its beak. This is possible, though I've not had a sighting in Wildewood. Head to the beach and you'll see them. 

Using that orange on the beak for a clue, I've seen the Black Skimmer skimming the big pond. Mostly I see them at the beach in large groups. Here is one of 3 skimming the water and some other photographs I took of their courting behavior.

Or, perhaps Betsy's sister saw a Common Moorhen or Common Gallinule. There are regular sightings of this bird here, especially on the edge of the big pond. 

Or maybe, it was a Muscovy Duck. Here's one I photographed near Timberlake. The fun part is that with our clues, we can check bird books and websites for help with identification.

Some exciting news! 

This week Jeanne and Tom Higbee and Toni had their first sighting of a Yellow Crowned Night Heron in the Slash Pine that held multiple nests for over five years. Though they are year-round residents in Florida, this is the time of year that they nest. Betty Pander wrote to say she saw the Herons on the bleached branches across from the Pineneedle and Woodlawn pond. Their sightings inspired me to go outside and look. There were 3 on the bleached branches.

Then they flew off in the direction of the Slash Pine they favor.

At 4 AM, I saw one of my favorite wildlife neighbors, an opossum, from our back window. I've been a fan ever since I had a chance to hold one when a wildlife group visited my classroom years ago. I wrote about how the opossum is a good friend to our habitat. 

Last, a common query: have you heard those two geese (Canada Goose) fly over like they're our early morning alarm clock? I have. These two.

Here is one settling in for a nap after waking us up. 

That opossum with a toothy smile is a good neighbor

 Virginia opossum. All images, Backyard Zoologist and Creative Commons

What a treat. Rosalie knocks on my door and says a baby opossum is scurrying about near her place. I search but don’t find it.

But! I go back later and find the months-old opossum in Gwen’s wonderful garden. What shall we name the baby? Baby opossums are called joeys. The male are called jacks and the females are called jills.

I didn’t have my camera, but gosh, that sweetie looked like a super-miniature terrier from the back.

Well, sort of.

Seeing it brought back memories of visits to the Ohio Wildlife Center while I was leading conservation work in our neighborhood ravine park, and a chance to hold their adult resident opossum. When animals cannot successfully be returned to the wild, the Center use them to educate and help us understand why these not-so-cute creatures are important to our ecosystem.

And good neighbors. Opossums are good neighbors? I know, I know. But keep reading.

They are scavengers (reminding us to keep our garbage cans sealed), eat carrion working with vultures so that we don’t have to clean up dead animals and despite that, are meticulously clean, and they love snails, slugs, snakes, and ticks, eating up to 4,000 a week. They make it so we don’t have to spray as many chemicals in our garden and they find snakes delicious, which some neighbors say are scary.
(I’ll write a post on snakes that will change your mind about snakes. Soon.)

Possums, like many other small and medium sized mammals, are hosts for ticks looking for a blood meal. But opossums are remarkably efficient at eliminating foraging ticks.

"In a way, opossums are the unsung heroes in the Lyme Disease epidemic."

Rick Ostfeld, author of a book on Lyme disease ecology and a senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, explains...
"Because many ticks try to feed on opossums and few of them survive the experience. Opossums are extraordinarily good groomers it turns out – we never would have thought that ahead of time – but they kill the vast majority – more than 95% percent of the ticks that try to feed on them. So these opossums are walking around the forest floor, hoovering up ticks right and left, killing over 90% of these things, and so they are really protecting our health." (Cary Institute)

So it's in our best interest to have opossum neighbors.

The opossum is the United State’s only marsupial. The one we see in our neighborhood is the Virginia opossum. It has a prehensile, grasping tail, and like kangaroos and koalas, mama opossum carries its babies in a pouch. (Jack from Timberlake stopped to introduce himself and say he saw an opossum hanging by its tail!)

Oh! And their abilities. I’m quoting Backyard Zoologist: “One thing I find particularly endearing about opossums is their hands and how they use them. 

They actually have opposable “thumbs” on their back feet, so they are excellent climbers (and swimmers) and sometimes use their hands to eat."  Here is a minute video of an adorable baby opossum using its hands to eat a grape.

There are two things an opossum does when they’re afraid: they offer a huge “smile” to show their 50 teeth. They hope that scares off what or who they confront. If not, their fear causes an automatic reflex that causes them to literally pass out and flop over, sometimes with their tongue out.

Accounts of an opossum carrying rabies are extremely rare.

Their lifespan in the wild of Wildewood Springs is about two years.