A summer walk at the refuge
By DON MORROW
By sunrise, I was almost two miles down the Otter Lake Trail at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Chuck-wills-widows have quit calling and it had been quiet on the way out, just the peenting of a Common Nighthawk and a few noisy towhees. As sunrise approached and it grew lighter, I saw a Great Horned Owl fly silently through the pine canopy and noticed that there were Wild Turkey tracks in the sand. The size difference in the tracks showed that a hen turkey with young had passed through earlier.
It is mid-summer at the refuge and I was trying to get some birding in down on the Panacea Unit before a heat advisory took effect in late morning. The St. Marks fire crew did a burn here in late winter, resulting in a wildflower rich forest floor with pine hibiscus, pale meadow beauty and marsh-pink. It was good pinewoods birding. I found Bachman’s Sparrows, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Summer Tanagers and Eastern Kingbirds. Due to the heat, I decided to detour onto the Piney Woods Loop, which would make a shorter hike.
While birding in the terminal heat of late July, it is hard to remember that Fall migration has begun. However, my recent shorebird surveys are showing about a quarter of the shorebirds now on the refuge are trans-migrants, based on the presence of newly-arrived species, like Stilt and Spotted Sandpipers or by birds in breeding plumage, like Short-billed Dowitchers. I have also had two migrant songbirds at the refuge in the last week; Black-and-white Warbler and Yellow Warbler. I have probably seen other migrant songbirds and not realized it.
As a general rule, more southerly-breeding individuals of a species migrate earliest in the Spring, finish their breeding cycle sooner and migrate earlier in the Fall than individuals of the same species that breed further north. Our local Prothonotary Warblers, for example, are already nesting by the time Prothonotary Warblers arrive further north. If we’re already getting migrant Yellow Warblers, whose southernmost breeding territory is in north Georgia, it indicates that birds that bred further south, like our Prothonotaries, are gone and that any Prothonotary Warbler you see now is a Fall migrant that is just passing through.
With obligatory detours to go off trail chasing birds, I ended up hiking for almost six-miles. Technically, it was a miserable hike in the heat and humidity of a Gulf coast summer. It was, though, a great morning bird walk. I found an owl feather. I passed through miles of blooming yellow partridge pea, punctuated by patches of purple ironweed. I watched as a Pileated Woodpecker, calling loudly, flew over to a pine to harass a Red-tailed Hawk. The hawk flew and was attacked by a kingbird. Kingbirds commonly engage in mobbing attacks on hawks or crows. However, I had never before seen a Pileated do this.
I arrived back at my car, hot, sweaty, and tired. I was thankful for a bottle of water, air conditioning, an orange and that I had gotten up early to brave the summer heat and go for a walk at the refuge.
Don Morrow can be reached at donaldcmorrow@gmail.com.