FLORIDA: Urban Wetlands

Continuing up the eastern coast we stopped in at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, a small rehabilitation center that successfully released a Red-footed Booby several months back. It had been returning in the hopes of being fed but on this day it was undoubtedly feeding elsewhere. There was excellent close up looks at Brown Pelicans (above) and Black-crowned Night-herons.

West Palm Beach has created two extraordinary waste water treatment facilities – a perfect model for all such facilities in the States. The older and smaller of the two is Wakodahatchee Wetlands (above) with a half mile boardwalk that twists through stands of fireflag, pickerel rush, bulrush and islands of pond apples.

This popular site is utilized by many people, and for most of them this is their introduction to nature – and what an eye-opener it is. It does not get any better than this! An Alligator eating a Red-bellied Turtle; Great Blue Herons mating (above); courting Least Terns with the male feeding a fish to the female; nesting Black-necked Stilts, Green Heron and Least Bittern; fluffy cream-colored Anhinga babies; Mottled Duck and chicks; Purple Gallinules (below) within arms reach. Everyone, from those in wheelchairs to those without cameras, as well as our group were in awe of this magnificent wetland.

It’s sister facility is the Green Cay Nature Center less than a mile away as the White Ibis flies. This has a boardwalk over a mile in length taking us over more open bodies of water and through several well vegetated hammocks. Though there are many similar species between the two facilities, such as those mentioned above, along with Glossy Ibis, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Common Moorhen and Tri-colored Heron we also found many others that delighted us.

These spots are such a pleasure for wildlife enthusiasts as everything is so close, such as the Florida Soft-shelled Turtle (above) that swam below us and the Sora (below) feeding in the open mudflats.

Wood Storks slowly flapped over the center; Blue-winged Teal were busy upending themselves to feed on the wetland bottom while American Coots were happy to dip their heads in to pick up aquatic vegetation. Shorebirds were represented in small numbers with Lesser Yellowlegs, Least and Common Sandpipers.

Art spotted a waterthrush walking along the muddy edge of an island hammock which gave us a chance to work out the difference between Louisiana and Northern. It was the latter. Several shrieking Limpkins (above) alerted us to their presence and by the end of the walk we had seen our first of the day.

Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge on the other hand is a well established wetlands of thousands of acres adjoining the northeastern section of the Everglades National Park. Here we saw other fauna that included Black Saddlebags (dragonfly), White Peacock (butterfly) and a distinctive lizard species, the Northern Curlytail (above) that was found around the small platform by the canal. For the bird list we added a Solitary Sandpiper and a couple of singing Marsh Wrens.

Of great interest was seeing a Glossy Ibis and Roseate Spoonbill feeding side by side (above) each with their own distinctive feeding technique. The ibis probing its bill and the spoonbill swinging its bill from side to side.

Owls are everyone favorite, and we ended a wonderful first day with a very cooperative pair of Burrowing Owls (above) along the main road to Lantana.