Posted by Paul Bithorn on December 01, 2002 at 19:11:27:
During a family Thanksgiving journey up to Altoona, Florida, which is in
Lake County on the southern border of the Ocala National Forest, I made a
day trip on Friday the 29th up to Gainesville in search of Fox Sparrow and
Dark-eyed Junco.
After a 1 1/2 hour drive north, with temperatures plunging to 28 degrees and
frost coating the ground, I arrived at the San Felasco Swamp at 7:15 a.m. I
had the privilege of being joined by local birder,Rex Rowan,who led me to
the area where the Fox Sparrow had been seen earlier in the week by Mike
Manetz. Five hours of quietly hiking the area produced several adrenaline
rushes. However, they would all be false alarms. Hermit Thrushes, Ovenbirds,
Brown Thrashers and Eastern Towhee were amongst the perpetrators.A bird was
heard scratching in the leaves under a Saw Palmetto and after five-minutes,
frozen in time, finally emerged into the open, only to be a female Eastern
Towhee. But wait a minute, it had red eyes,not the white eyes typical of the
southeastern race of this species. It was a bird of the northern, red-eyed
race, a fact unbeknownst to me, until Rex shared this little nugget.
Now for the Ripley's "Believe It or Not!" part of the adventure.While
quietly walking though the woods, I picked up a hitchiker on my shirtsleeve.
"Rex, have a look at this," I whispered. A bat looking like a giant
cuff-link clung by one foot. After estimating the reddish brown body length
at 4 inches and the wing span at 11 inches, Rex carefully grabbed the tip of
the dangling wing and gently draped it over a branch until it let go.
My bat research led me to the www.floridabats.org website, where I searched
the few species that are solitary in nature. I narrowed it down to either
the Seminole Bat (Lasirius seminolus)or Red Bat (Lasirius borealis). Red Bat
appears to be the species, based on its habit of roosting in the dense
foliage of trees, and their habit of hanging by one foot and looking like a
giant leaf. They also have small rounded ears, where the photo of the
Seminole bat shows longer ears.Interestingly enough they both have 32 teeth.
The bats mouth was agape, clearly showing his pearly whites.He appeared to
be hibernating, due to the temperatures well below the 65 degrees when this
species becomes active.
Rex gave me directions to Cones Dike, part of the huge Paynes Prairie
Preserve, where Fox Saprrows also were seen recently. I birded about a mile
out on the dike finding Swamp Sparrow, Sedge Wren and Orange-crowned
Warbler.
Song Sparrow,Chipping Sparrow and Eastern Bluebirds were mixed in with a
flock of Pine Warblers foraging along the side of CR-234 on the drive south
to Cones Dike.
On Saturday morning, back in Altoona, 31 Wild Turkeys were grazing along
side my father-in-law's two Limousins, a breed of beef cattle, sharing their
oats and cracked corn.
Life is good...........when birding with friends who share your obsession.