Subscribe
- A Cottonwood Seed
- BehindTheBins
- Bird Cinema
- Bird Freak
- BirdChaser
- Birdfreak
- Birding for Handicapped
- Birding is Fun
- BirdingOnTheNet
- BirdNote Podcasts
- Birds, Etcetera
- Central NM Audubon
- Chapel Trail Nature Ctr
- Children & Nature
- Cornell Online BirdGuide
- Cottonmouth moccasin
- Eagle Nest
- Great FL Birding Trail
- Hawks Bluff Park
- Illinois Birders' Forum
- Janine Images
- Jones Meadow Park
- Kane County Audubon
- KidWings
- Laura's BirderBlog
- Les Arends FP
- Lippold Park
- Nature Photography
- Nelson Lake FP
- New Jersey Audubon
- Ornithology Course
- Rick Wright
- S Florida Eagle Watch
- Somewhere in NJ
- South Florida Audubon
- SurfBirds
- The Hawk Owl's Nest
- Tropical Audubon
- Tucson Audubon
- Vermillion River Wildlife
- West Miramar ESL
- Wild Bird Wednesday
- WingAndSong NM Blog
- General
- Birding & Outdoors
- Rutherford & NJ
- NM & SW US
- Florida & SE US
- Medical
- INDEX to Blog
- Hurricane Camille
- Getting Drafted
- Supai Canyon AZ
- Grandchildren
- Sandia Crest
- Capulin Spring
- Illinois
- Birding “Patches”
- Bald Eagle Nest
- Alaska
- MyWorld
- Wild Bird Wednesday
- Book Reviews
- Bird D’pot
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Nov | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
Posted by: Ken @ 4:37 am
With a couple of other birders from South Florida Audubon, I visited Corkscrew Swamp east of Naples. This Audubon sanctuary is a marvelous place. If you can read the sign below, it shows the habitat features traversed by more than two miles of boardwalk trails.
Since fall migration is in progress, we rather expected to be treated to many warblers. For some reason this did not happen. There were several warblers, but all were high in the trees, deep in the shadows, or back-lighted by the sky. It was an enjoyable trip, despite the heat and humidity.
Entrance sign (click image to enlarge).
This section of the boardwalk meanders through a Pond Cypress stand.
The Pond Cypress swamp looked promising, but we found relatively few birds.
A Pileated Woodpecker foraged near the entrance. Good views of this species are almost guaranteed on any visit to Corkscrew Swamp.
Great Crested Flycatchers were numerous.
Tufted Titmouse were calling everywhere.
A Carolina Wren was going the other way, but this was the best I could do.
A light morph Short-tailed Hawk flew over, but it was impossible to get a photo through the intervening branches. This Red-shouldered Hawk, seen from the viewing platform in the open Central Marsh area was more cooperative.
Because of the high water that disperses aquatic prey, waders were few and far between. This Little Blue Heron is the only heron we saw within the preserve, though many were out in nearby retention ponds.
A Green Tree Frog clung to a plant stem.
I believe this is a Florida Red-bellied Turtle, but I welcome confirmation of the species.
A Swamp Lily almost seems to glow in the shade of the cypress trees.
A highlight of the walk was seeing two rare orchid species in bloom.
The Clamshell Orchid is quite rare in the Everglades, as it has very demanding habitat requirements. Florida can have cold snaps, and the water in Corkscrew Swamp holds onto the heat and protects tender vegetation. However, this orchid ranges in the tropics from Mexico to Brazil and is common in many orchid collections.
The Ghost Orchid is so called because it lacks leaves, yet from some angles its flower resembles Casper the Ghost. The plant consists only of a spider-like root system that clings to the bark of trees, and flowers that boom infrequently. It grows only under very hot conditions. It is very rare in the wild, and only two specimens are visible from the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp.
The second Ghost Orchid had just finished blooming only two days previously. Here is its root system and the dried-up remains of a single flower. The orchid is not a parasite, but an epiphyte that dwells on the tree and derives no nourishment from its host.
Despite the lack of birds, we found many other photographic subjects, including this poisonous White-marked Tussock Moth. Its hairs can cause a nasty painful rash.
I could not identify the species of this orb weaver, but it has rather distinctive dorsal abdominal markings.
October 15th, 2012 at 6:56 pm A lovely walkway and location; great shot of the Pileated Woodpecker and Great Crested Flycatcher And I loved the little Ghost Orchid; what a lovely find.
October 15th, 2012 at 7:16 pm I love that place! Very cool photos of the Tussock moth and the orb weaver.
October 16th, 2012 at 4:58 am Beautiful photo series showing Ken - many of these beautiful birds we do not have in this country …. maybe they have some of these species in the zoo - or Randers Rainforest (a zoo with exotic animals / birds) PS! Thanks for your comment on my blog. Wish you a good day / good week. Hanne Bente
October 16th, 2012 at 11:57 am Really like the Little Blue Heron, but all great captures.
October 16th, 2012 at 12:27 pm Gorgeous shots! I’ve never been able to photograph a Pileated Woodpecker. I love the Little Blue Heron!
October 16th, 2012 at 2:05 pm gorgeous shot of the little blue and the pileated! beautiful!
October 16th, 2012 at 2:54 pm What a wonderful walk! I love the pileated woodpecker, of course and the orchids are magnificent! What a nice day you had there! I have only been here once and I remeber it as the place i saw my first purple gallinule and where I first identified a blue-gray gnatcatcher! It’s a great place and what a wonderful post!
October 16th, 2012 at 3:08 pm Beautiful photos. The Pond Cypress Swamp is magnificent. I always hoped to see Cypress swamps (while I was in the USA) but unfortunately never had the chance to travel east to where I would see them.
October 16th, 2012 at 3:55 pm Wow, cool post! Loved all your birds. The Blue Heron and the Pileated are my favorites. Great shots!
October 16th, 2012 at 7:16 pm Beautiful walk through the Swamp.
October 17th, 2012 at 1:43 am Sometimes those little warblers just don’t cooperate as we would like, but looking at that boardwalk route there’s lots of places for them to hide. Fabulous Pileated shot and some interesting plants too.
October 17th, 2012 at 4:27 am The woodpecker is my favourite - but then I biased towards these birds. I have managed to see them in the wild - what a great bird. Thanks for linking to WBW Stewart M - Australia
October 17th, 2012 at 6:04 am All of these are great image shares, loved several and you did a really fine job~
October 17th, 2012 at 7:23 am wonderful series of photos, I shared a pileated woodpecker that visited our garden a couple of weeks ago, we had never had one in the garden before
October 17th, 2012 at 9:56 am All marvelous photos. Absolutely lovely!
October 18th, 2012 at 10:45 am Lovely shots of the denizens of the swamp.
October 18th, 2012 at 2:01 pm Thank you for taking us along on your adventure to Corkscrew Swamp. I really need to visit this area next time I’m on the west coast of Florida. Gorgeous photographs! Oh how I would love to get a close-up look of a Pileated Woodpecker. They are so very elusive on our country property. A joy to visit your wonderful blog!
October 27th, 2012 at 3:11 pm Thank you all for visiting and sharing your comments!