A Birding Trip to Florida - Part 1

A vulture cut through the sky the other day. It was steady and straight, not the usual teetering and side-slipping the vulture usually employs in its endless flight in search of carrion. Most vultures have a keen sense of smell, and their constant twitching while on the wing reminds me of the tongue of a snake, flicking in the air to sense the odor of potential prey.

This bird was moving north, a clear sign of first spring here in New England, for vultures retreat in the face of heavy snow, looking for warmer climes. The warm rains recently bared the ground and brought them back, probably from as near as the New Jersey coast. We have two different species in eastern North America, the turkey vulture and the black vulture. Both have been extending their home range farther north over the last fifty years.

The turkey vulture is now a firmly established resident of most of New England, roosting on steep cliff sides or in stands of tall trees adjoining an open area. These birds are big, and it means extra effort for them to take off from the ground. They prefer to alight where they can swoop off again on set wings and catch the wind currents or thermals instantly.

Every day last week there were hundreds of vultures in the air around myself and four friends as we explored south Florida. We were not in the usual places most people know, but rather at Snake Bight, Shark Valley, Imokalee, Loxahatchie, Tamiami Trail, and Corkscrew. A bight is a shallow bay, but the mosquitoes surely do bite there. These are the real lands of the state of Florida, not the fantasy lands of Orlando or Miami.

The open expanses still stretch for many miles as they did in the times of the Seminole Indians or Spanish explorers. Always the vultures are floating in the tropical air, sometimes only two or three coursing over the ground, very often in circling swarms that rise from horizon to near the zenith.

However, it is not the only kind of bird using south Florida as a winter feed trough. Red-shouldered hawks are the most numerous of several species of hawks, being both residents and visitors here. They are seen circling or sitting tamely in a low tree, or just moving from one perch to another.

Very common are American kestrels and loggerhead shrikes, smaller raptors that sit on wires and posts, waiting for insects or mice below them to make a meal. Ospreys and bald eagles begin nesting here in February, their nests built blatantly in the tops of tall trees. The osprey is especially plentiful, even nesting near people.

Also returning from Central America to breed is the beautiful swallow-tailed kite. We watched for it at Corkscrew Sanctuary, the only place where the cypress forest that once covered much of this region still stands in its ancient splendor. From the platform over the marsh, we saw these graceful white and black birds with deeply forked tails sail past just overhead.

South Florida is also the only place in the United States that the short-tailed hawk and the snail kite is found. We sought these two species with special fervor and we finally found them as we walked the paved trail at Shark Valley. They were the reward for venturing past two alligators that guarded each side of the trail, only ten feet away lying quietly in the grassy waters, like a pair of watchful dragons.

Once we were past these ancient watchful creatures, our first prize appeared, a snail kite sailing along the nearby slough, its black body and white tail patch a welcome sight. It was searching for apple snails, its only food, which it extracts from the shell with a sharply curved bill adapted specially for this one purpose. Soon there was one and then two short-tailed hawks overhead, also dark birds, the black bodies and fore wings contrasting with the gray hind wings and tail.

The amazing hawks were one wondrous group of birds found in this land, the wading storks, herons and egrets are the other. Would you believe that the vultures may be members of this second group, not the first? Recent DNA testing reveals that vultures may be more closely related to storks than hawks. More about the wader family of birds and the land where they abound next week.