I have traveled to Eastern Washington several times just to look for Burrowing Owls. They are tough to see, because they are often in agricultural fields far from the road. The population of owls are declining in many areas due to degradation of habitat. The city of Cape Coral in Florida has made it a policy to protect these birds. They provide the proper habitat all over town, and if you are lucky enough to have the owls nest on your property, you do not have to pay property tax. It is a great incentive for homeowners to protect the birds. I traveled to Cape Coral on my last day in Florida. I was in Eastern Florida the night before, so I had to get up at 3 am in order to get to Cape Coral by sunrise. It was well worth the effort. 

I first went to the public library where I knew of a number of nests. Right off I found 6 or 7 nests. I saw birds in two of the areas, but no chicks. I then walked the neighborhood to scope out other nests. Across the street from the library I found 3 nests. All were occupied, but only one had chicks visible. Apparently there were chicks in one of the other nests, but for some reason they were much more skittish than the first one I found. I spent the next 3 hours watching the chicks. At first I was in the street, not wanting to tresspass on the property, but the homeowner came out and invited me to view the nest from his yard. Thank you Peter!!

The Cape Coral Owls are known to have some highly variable eye color, but the nest I photographed had the usual yellow eyes. When I first arrived, the sun had just risen, so their pupils were fully dilated.  Both the chicks and the adults watched me very closely when I first arrived, but after a while they just ignored me, no longer seeing me as a threat. For most of the time I was there, I saw 3 chicks. Only once or twice were all 4 out of the burrow. I was not entirely sure which was mama and which was papa, but I guessed that this was mama, as she spent a lot of time feeding and grooming the chicks.  The male spent most of his time protecting the chicks from a Northern Mockingbird. This bird was very agressive, attacking the male multiple times while I was there. I am sure the Mockingbird had a nest nearby.  The chicks were just learning to fly. At this point, it was more of a long hop with flapping wings. It was very cute to watch.  I am guessing the chicks were about 3 weeks old. They took frequent naps while I was there. This little one looks like the nap was imminent.  Owl chicks are so entertaining to watch. If I did not have a plane to catch, I would have been there all day. Here are a few more images I captured.  Doing its best Swan immitation.    The chicks were also very watchful for the Mockingbird. They looked up every time the Mockingbird flew by.  Many thanks to the town of Cape Coral for protecting these threatened birds. I am also glad that you have created a tourist attraction so that people like me can come to view these wonderful Owls.   

I saw many new birds on my trip to Florida last week. Most I had heard of before, and very much wanted to see. The Least Bittern, on the other hand, was not something I had heard about, likely because it is very secretive and very hard to see. It is a tiny bird, maybe half the size of a Green Heron. While touring the Wakodahatchee wetlands, I was told to watch out for this tiny bird. I was told that the best way to find it was to look for the dense cluster of photographers. When one is spotted, everyone crushes in to see it. I ended up spotting this bird about 4 or 5 times on this trip. Each time I found it on my own, which was truly amazing to me. It kept appearing wherever I was. I decided that I must have good Least Bittern karma. My first view was right by the boardwalk. He flew in and was foraging in the shallow water.  He slowly stalked for a few minutes, but flew off without catching anything.  The next day I was watching Common Gallinule fighting. I think the kerfuffle flushed the Bittern out of the reeds.  I was thrilled to actually get a shot of the bird in flight.  After landing, he popped up again in the reeds, but surrounded by flowers.  The next day I was visiting a different wetland, also a managed area with boardwalks. It was called Peaceful Waters. Unfortunately, it was landscape maintenance day, so it was far from peaceful there.  This male bird started to sing, so I set up to take video. Unfortunately, the landscaping crew were very close, and very loud. Only once was it quiet enough to hear his call.    This bird is now on the top of my list of favorites. I was completely won over by how many sightings I had of this very secretive bird. 

I have visited 100's of birding hotspots, but this is the most amazing place I have ever seen. It would be interesting to see it in the non-breeding season, but at this point in time, it is an incredibly active area with 1000's of nesting birds. The predominant nesting species are Wood Storks, Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Anhinga, Tricolored Heron, Green Heron, Great Blue Heron, Common Gallinule, Purple Gallinule, Least Bittern, Grackle and Alligators. The area is owned by the city, and is part of their water management. They built a boardwalk to allow visitors to view the birds without disturbing them. Their efforts were wildly successful.

First, the Wood Storks, very funny looking adults and chicks!      Chicks are very sturdy looking.   Second, the Anhinga, known for their amazing fish tossing ability.         They are very beautiful birds in the right light.     The babies are very odd looking with a pouch under their bills.    Tricolored Heron have an amazing method of fishing. The birds dance across the water, while intermittently dragging their bills in the water. Another photographer described it as a ballet. It was beautiful to watch.   It is amazing to me that this method is efficient enough to catch fish, but apparently it works.   There was a Tricolored Heron nest right by the walkway, giving us very good views of the chicks. There was just one spot to stand where you could see the chicks well. In the audio, you can here a woman stating to me that I had the best spot (sub text, she wanted me to move). We ended up rotating giving each person a chance to see the chicks.    I loved this view of the Purple Gallinule in the purple flowers.    This Purple Gallinule was determined to reach the tasty seeds at the end of this flower stalk.   He munched on the seeds and flowers for a long time.     The more numerous type of Gallinule is the Common Gallinule. What is interesting about this next photo is that I think there are two generations of chicks here. The gray bird on the left looks to be a several month old chick, but was very actively helping to feed the few day old chicks. I LOVE the coloration of the chicks!  The Least Bittern was the biggest surprise for me. They are tiny birds, maybe half the size of a Green Heron, very secretive, but I kept seeing them over and over. Here he was hunting. I will be writing up a whole separate blog post about this tiny Bittern.      Last but not least, The Alligators. There was one HUGE male alligator named Big George. Much to my surprise, a small female approached him to show him her affections. It was a very graceful dance she did aound him. Fascinating to watch.    I would love to go back to Wakodahatchee many more times to see it in different seasons.