Spring! Yellow-crowned night herons, yellow-bellied sapsucker, limpkin, and crow

A friend reported that a pair of Yellow-Crowned night herons is building a nest over the pool in the Woodlawn area in the same place pairs have nested for years. I grabbed my camera and headed over to look up. Woodlawn neighbor Eddie showed me two other nests in nearby slash pine trees. That makes 3 pairs nesting!

On my walk home, I spotted a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a migratory bird protected by state and federal wildlife law. I've been watching for this bird in this place because the palm has the bird's characteristic horizontal holes from feeding. Those holes usually cause no harm. 

While walking up to my front door, I looked up and saw a Fish Crow with nesting material. After reading Jennifer Ackerman's book, Genius of Birds, I know this is one of the smartest of all birds (probably recognizes my face). (What's a Fish Crow? Look here. How did I know? The Fish Crow's call is distinct from the American Crow's caw. Listen here to hear what I mean.)

There's more.

A Limpkin lit on the tree out our back window and called loudly. How loud? Like this. It was my first sighting of this crane-like bird in Wildewood, though neighbors report seeing them. A thrilling birding day.

Lois says hello, then talk about what we appreciate in Wildewood

Photo - bottlebrush tree near our place.

"The simplest way to begin finding each other again is to start talking about what we care about." - Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future.

Last week I was outside watering the garden when neighbor Lois peeks through the bottlebrush tree and says hello. We start talking about flowers and trees native to Central Florida. That leads to a mutual appreciation conversation about the Wildewood habitat and things we noticed this week, such as a large number of monarchs migrating through our neighborhood. 

Photo credit - Monarchs hibernate in oyamel fir trees in Mexico.

And a female yellow-bellied sapsucker on a palm tree.

Photo, Susan Michael Barrett. Pineneedle Drive, near the bed of blanket flowers.

Female, yellow-bellied sapsucker. 

Photo credit, Arthur Morris/VIREO. On the Audubon website.

So, on an early morning walk today, the day before Thanksgiving, I pass Lois and her husband, Walter. She notices that I'm carrying a couple of plastic soda bottles. "Oh, you're picking up litter! Did you see the pieces of trash at the entrance of Wildewood and on 34th Street?" Lois asks. Within a few minutes, we decide to meet and do a little clean up.

In one hour, we collect three bags of trash. 

 Lois with a found stick to pull trash under the fence.

The majority of the garbage is fast food and drink containers. Oh, and a pair of tennis shoes!

Three bags of trash. We empty one bag before we take this photo.

There's more to clean up, so we agree to meet again for an hour next month and invite anyone else who wants to join us. Lois suggests we post a note on the bulletin board. Look for it.

11.23.16