February at the refuge
By DON MORROW
The clouds had cleared off about an hour before first light, revealing a sky full of stars and a thin crescent moon hanging above the eastern horizon. The temperature was in the upper 40s and the brisk north wind made it feel all the colder.
It was not a quiet night. There is nothing louder than a cabbage palm in the wind and the levee edge had many.
Despite the sound of the wind in the palms, I had heard the calls of Sora and Virginia Rail on my way out to the far end of Stony Bayou, but the owls were quiet, as they often are when the moon is not bright.
As the sky began to lighten, a pair of eagles began their whistling call from the cypresses on the far side of the marsh.
I was out to do a shorebird survey, but the north wind had overcome the incoming tide, exposing the coastal flats and scattering shorebirds. I went through the motions of running my route, but halfway through it became obvious that the shorebirds were not cooperating. I will try it again next week.
It is January at St. Marks, a time that can simultaneously be the cusp of Spring and the dead of winter. January sees mornings alternating between frog choruses and frost. At the Double Bridges most of the trees are bare, but red maples have burst into flower and their tiny red flowers are attracting newly emerging pollinators.
Our winter ducks are still with us, but their numbers are beginning to drop as birds stage northward. Refuge duck numbers on the interior ponds peaked at 2,066 ducks in mid-December and have now decreased by a third. The only regular species not being reported is Ruddy Duck.
Over half of the refuge’s ducks are on Mounds Pool 3. The seasonal closure of the outer levee on that pond means that the best viewing is from its inner levee. You can access it by turning right at the T-dike intersection or by parking at the 132 gate and turning left on the first side trail.
Several of our nesting Bald Eagles are feeding young eaglets. It’s a dangerous time to be a coot, a preferred eagle food. Bald Eagles take between four and five years to attain their full breeding plumage. These older non-breeding darker-plumaged juvenile eagles will start migrating north at the end of the month. The breeding adults and this year’s eaglets won’t leave until May.
A pair of Groove-billed Anis are wintering at the refuge. Basically, a species of Central and northern South America, they breed in southern Texas, which is likely where these birds came from. They are feeding along the north levee at Stony Bayou 2. They are skulkers, staying low in the brush to feed and it takes some patience to find them, but they occasionally pop up and perch on sawgrass seed stalks.
It is an interesting winter. We are dealing with drought, an abnormal warm spell in early January and an abnormal cold spell in mid-January. I’m not sure what comes next, but I’ll check on the wind direction before scheduling my next shorebird survey.
Come down to St. Marks. We’ve got a full complement of anis, eagles, and wintering ducks.
Don Morrow can be reached at donaldcmorrow@gmail.com.