Edge of the Season

 The Madtom Mad-dash gave me mixed results. I found fish, catfish, and I suspect at least one Madtom, but nothing conclusive. I discovered a lot about looking for fish under water, and have a plan for next time. Should be fun. 

Bird wise, we're on the verge of migration. All the Northern Parulas are grown, the White-eyed vireos are looking better than in July, and there are recent eBird reports of Louisiana Waterthrush in peninsular FL.

Time to go birding around Saddle Creek.

First, I debated with myself about whether I wanted to chase a reported Gray kingbird at the Cox road Kingbird roost. The observer reporting the sighting knows birds, so I trusted the observation. Gray kingbirds in Polk county though don't tend to hang out. The scattered reports over the years tend to be one and done, but at least in similar areas. This isn't the first report of the bird in this area, not even for this year. I decided to stay closer to home, in part so that I could be handy to the family when they woke up. Plus, it's August now, time to start looking for migrant birds!  With visions of waterthrushes dancing in my head, I set out. 

Here's a map of the area around Saddle Creek Park, the blue dot at the top is the eBird official hotspot location for the park. the red X and line are where I park and approximately where i walk when going down the saddle creek park trail. I often bird from the car, or close to the car along the yellow line. I log it under a separate location, that I call "Saddle Creek Entrance And Road To Park" . I started my list with a Least bittern. The bird was flying around a group of cattails. I added several other usual suspects on the way to the entrance, nothing too terribly rare. Some birds were uncommon to me though, in this location, notably, a group of 7 chimney swifts. I also found an eastern bluebird and Barn swallows flying around on the way up the road. 

Another reason why I chose Saddle creek was because I wanted to see roosting Swallow-tailed kites. Despite being there about 10 minutes after sunrise, I didn't see any roosting kites, bummer! I did see some kites later down the trail though, a group of seven. They were probably just flying from a roost in the area, I just didn't know which dead tree hosted them last night. Right now Saddle Creek has a lot of dead trees.

After parking and applying insect repellent, I began trekking along the trail, hearing birds like Carolina Wrens, Northern cardinals, a couple of Tufted titmice, and what's that? a vireo? What! not a white-eyed for sure.

I couldn't tell if that particular bird was a Red-eyed or yellow-throated. I suspect Red-eyed based on one I saw later, but after trying to draw it out, i continued on. There were a few other people on the trail that morning, walking dogs. Not a lot of birds. Mostly just fledge Northern Parulas, a few post-breeding Blue-gray gnatcatchers. Bird of the day was a Yellow-billed cuckoo, calling and then spotted some distance across one of the lakes.

Fortunately I managed to see some good butterflies and moths, and even got some good pictures of this Polyphemus moth:

Reports are picking back up now though, it won't be long before migrating birds make me twitch!

Madtom Catfish and Citizen Science

 Do I blog enough to detail some non-birding topics I think birders might like to hear about?

Of course! this is my blog, and I'm interested in it's content :D

Let's talk catfish.

not the online type, where one person attempts to persuade you that they are 21, and love you for your personality not your money, but could you please send 300 bitcoin.

This is about Catfish catfish, only real tiny ones.

Genus: Noturus. Known as "Madtoms" or sometimes "willowcats". These are a group of small, usually not more than about 3.5 inches long catfish.

I'm going to search for them in the Ichetucknee river. One species has been reported at Ichetucknee Spings, but nothing from the river itself. I want to change that by finding at least one of two possibilities:

1. The Speckled Madtom (Noturus leptacanthus)  This one has been reported in 2026 in the Santa fe, upstream from the Ichetucknee confluence.

2. The Tadpole Madtom (Noturus gyrinus) This was reported in Ichetucknee springs, back in 2023, looks like the guy holding it was a diver. If i can i may revisit the springs, and snorkel around the edges.

There are things working against me. There's weather possibilities, low water conditions, and the water may be moving too fast.

Won't know until i Try though, and i'm determined. 

Snorkel and GoPro are ready for the MadDash to see MadToms!

I'll see birds too....

In the meantime, check out this cool documentary about some common species of Madtoms:

Top Ten of Infamy

 Let's talk top ten, in this case, the top ten birds I need for my US life list.

According to eBird, I've seen 272 unique species in the area they define as the "United States".

I decided to check my top ten list to see if there's any that I have a hope of seeing in Polk County, FL where I live.

#1 is a species of Hummingbird in the west.

lol.

Almost all the birds in the top ten are not likely to be seen where I am. I highlighted number 13, "Rose Breasted Grosbeak" because there will likely be at least 1 report this spring of this bird here. They do migrate through in very small numbers. There's a March 2020 report of Red-breasted nuthatch, and a January report of Golden-crowned kinglet from 2025. I remember that because it was a "one and done" type report from Circle B Bar reserve, and I had just been there. There's a couple of birds missing from Polk county altogether that kind of surprised me given where else in the state they've been spotted. The number 9 bird on my list, Brown creeper, is one of them. I've seen that one in Louisiana, but only as a kid. My parents have an oak tree in their front yard, and one morning I watched it from my bedroom room window spiral it's way around the tree, probing for bugs in bark. The most recent sightings in 2020 came from the east side of the state, and the closest sightings to me occured in 2008. 

At some point in time I'm sure it will appear on my state list at least. the other bird that's missing from Polk's list that I need on my "US" list is Common Merganser. That bird could be out there right now. I need to study the habits of this fishing duck to determine a good place to anticipate them.

I can dream. 

I can also focus on nailing some birds I still need for Polk County:

These are the top 10 (13) I need for Polk county, FL. Some of these birds I've seen already, even in this state, like Northern Pintail.

First of all, I doubt every Monk parakeet sighting reported in Polk. We have Nanday parakeets here for sure, and i've seen them many times. Usually right where Monk parakeets are also reported. I circled the red-cockaded woodpecker because I can go see that year round, but it will require a trip out to specialized habitat. The green highlighted whip-poor-will is another bird that requires a trip to the boonies to see, but there's not as much hassle seeing/hearing them. There's a chance i can see them before they migrate back north too.

American herring gull is blue because chasing this bird has made me blue.  I've chased reports of this bird for at least 6 years. I've also put myself in the areas I would expect them when there haven't been reports. Chasing this bird has been frustrating. It's also been rewarding in other ways, usually in tern and/or duck species. The fact that Bonapartes gull made it to my eBird list before Herring gull is hilarious to me. This has the ubiquitous distinction of being the only bird on my Polk list that I've seen in Polk county, but not since starting  my eBirding list in 2014. 

I highlighted the American Pipit in Yellow because I'm cautious about reports for this bird. I've chased them out at the sod fields in winter, and come up empty handed, but I did see many palm warblers. It's possible I've misidentified some pipits as Palmies, but I just don't know. I need to see a group so I can judge for sure.

Spring migration is here/around the corner. Resident mockingbirds and thrashers have already hatched a brood of chicks, Carolina wrens too. I even saw a freshly fledged mourning dove last week.

Time to get into the field and see some birds.

First of Season

 Every year, as a birder, you look forward to your "First of Season" sightings. Usually. Sometimes you see those birds that you know mean that migration is closing down, and soon it will be the same ol' same ol'. I'm rethinking my thinking on this subject tonight, mainly because I know how I'll feel about the birds I saw today in January. 

The specific bird I saw today, that harbinger of doom and end of the migratory period (although none of that means anything because there will be many birds that don't arrive until well into December) is in many ways my best friend during the winter. Small, drab and bouncy, the only herald it wears of color is in a yellow vent, a truly "butter butt" but that's not the name of this bird. I call them "Pam Wobblers", you call them "Palm Warblers", but "Setophaga palmarum" usually heralds the end of migration. Today I saw five. Surely that means the migratory end is near. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I'm glad to see them. They're a reliable indicator that ornithological life exists outside of Limpkins, Gallinules, and large waders during the mild Florida winter. They're loveable little brown jobs, who arrive and stay when everything else is just passing through. They fight the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in a complicated dance. They are the good guys, twitchin' tails and taking names. I recently reviewed a list of the birds i saw in mid October at the local warbler trap. My buddy Chris and I saw 17 species of warblers that day, including 16 (at least) individual palm warblers. 

what a crazy day.

Truth is, once the palmies come, I begin looking for sparrows and weird warblers, like Wilson's, and Orange-crowned. These birds come through occasionally, sometimes staying the whole winter too.

The palmies in the background don't care, their chip making my day as the temps mellow out, sometimes dipping below 60F. 

Then, they get new feathers and move on..

I suppose there's a lesson in that somewhere.

#BRDNLKND Presents Lake Hollingsworth

This is me, hoofin' it along the south shore of Lake Hollingsworth.

I will probably be doing more of these videos soon.