One Tree in the Keys

 

Faithful Beauty (Composia fidelissima) sipping nectar from the small green
flowers of Devil's Claw (Pisonia aculeata). This colorful, day-flying moth is found
in the West Indies and South Florida, including the Keys.
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

The flora of Florida has a decidedly tropical feel.  The further south you go the more tropical it gets.  By the time you get to the Keys the plants are those of the West Indies.  On a recent visit to the Keys we visited several hardwood hammocks and got to see these trees close up.  One particular tree caught our attentions on several islands.  It was Devil’s Claw (Pisonia aculeata).  This small tree has a pantropical distribution but in the United States it is only found in South Florida and the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. 

Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) on Devil's Claw.  The bees have
collected pollen on their hind legs in pollen baskets. 
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida.

Devil’s Claw was in full flower in April.  This tree produces abundant, tiny green flowers and attracts many pollinators.  At the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge on Big Pine Key we walked up on a Devil’s Claw and the first thing we noticed was the hum of dozens of Honey Bees (Apia mellifera). It is likely these bees were the Africanized Honey Bees (aka “Killer Bees”) since there are many colonies of these insects in Florida. 

Honey Bees collecting nectar and pollen on Devil's Claw.
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

Other insects were pollinating Devil’s Claw too.  Two butterflies, the Florida Duskywing (Ephyriades brunnea) and the Hammock Skipper (Polygonus leo) were visiting the flowers.  Florida Duskywings are small butterflies with the males a silky black and females mottled brown.  Both sexes have tiny white spots on their forewings.  These butterflies are found only in southern-most Florida, from the Everglades to Key West.  

A male Florida Duskywing (Ephyriades brunnea),
resting on a Cattail (Typha latifolia) leaf. 
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida.  

A female Florida Duskywing pollinating Devil's Claw.
Females have larger spots on the forewing than the males.
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

Hammock Skippers are larger than Florida Duskywings, also very dark with three large white spots and three tiny white spots on the forewing.  This butterfly is found across the southern tier of the United States.  

Hammock Skipper (Polygonus leo) on Devil's Claw.
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

Two odd, day-flying moths were also sipping nectar on Devil’s Claw. One was the Polka-dot Wasp Moth (Syntomeida epilais).  Despite appearances it was a moth not a wasp.   Its long wings and narrow waist do make it resemble a wasp and so scares off predators. In addition to looking like a wasp, this moth also has a graphic color pattern.  The Polka-dot Wasp Moth’s wings are black with white spots, the abdomen is metallic blue with white spots and the tip of the abdomen is bright red.  The bright colors shout a warning that this insect is chemically protected.  The larvae feed on poisonous Oleander (Nerium oleander) and other plants in the same family.  Polka-dot Wasp Moths concentrate the toxic cardiac glycosides of Oleander in the tissues of both the larvae and the adult.  

Polka-dot Wasp Moth (Syntomeida epilais) visiting
Devil's Claw. The feathered antennae show this mimic is a moth and not a wasp. 
 Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

The second interesting moth we found on Devil’s Claw has a wonderful name, Faithful Beauty (Composia fidelissima).  This spectacular native of the West Indies and southern-most Florida has black wings with large white spots, the fore-wings are edged by bright red spots and the top of the abdomen and part of the hindwings are iridescent blue.   The black body of these moths is striped with white. As you would expect by the colors, these moths bear a load of noxious chemicals.  Faithful Beauty caterpillars feed on some of the same plants as the Polka-dot Wasp Moth and the adults retain the toxic chemicals that protect them from bird predators.  

Faithful Beauty and Honey Bee sharing an inflorescence of  Devil's Claw.
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

It was great to see this one native tree feeding a host of pollinating insects including some spectacular ones that are rarely seen outside the Florida Keys.  With all the invasive plants and animals in South Florida it was heartening to find an intact piece of this ancient ecosystem.

Faithful Beauty and Honey Bees on Devil's Claw. The bold colors and pattern
of this moth advertise that it is chemically protected. 
Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

1000 Birds

 

Bridled Terns (Onychoprion anaethetus) in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida.

I saw my thousandth bird species, Bridled Terns (Onychoprion anaethetus), on April 22, 2021. Diane and I went to an isolated island, Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, Florida.  These keys can only be reached by boat or seaplane and this isolation makes it a favorable nesting location for Bridled Terns.  These tropical terns are found in warm oceans around the world, but in the United States, Bridled Terns nest only in the Florida Keys.  

My first bird list from December 1979. 

One of my goals, when I retired two years ago, was to see 10% of the birds in the world.  There are about 10,000 described species so my plan was to see 1000 of them.  I have been watching birds most of my life and have been writing bird lists down for over forty years.  

Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major), Palm Beach County, Florida. 
The next few pictures are of birds I recorded on my first lists in Florida.
(A note on images:. Most of the first sightings of birds on my lists were before
I started using digital photography. I have included recent pictures
of birds from the same general area, when possible)

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), Palm Beach County, Florida.

My first recorded birds were in the late 1970s in South Florida, where I grew up.  I was in graduate school in Georgia at the time and would return home to visit my family several times a year. I would usually take some time to visit the beaches, lakes and swamps I frequented when I was a kid to look for birds.  On these lists, I recorded common birds in the area.  During this early period, I went birding in Georgia and the nearby mountains of North Carolina and saw more species.    

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura),
Palm Beach County, Florida.

Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), Palm Beach County, Florida.

Bird number 100 on my life list was a Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis) on Key Largo, Florida in September, 1980.  This large flycatcher sits conspicuously on wires throughout the Keys. 

It took until February, 1982 to find bird number 200, an Orange-crowned Warbler (Vermivora celata) in Athens, Georgia. Orange-crowned Warblers breed in the far north and winter in the southern states.  These tiny birds are famous for being plain and some people say they have no field marks.    

Orange-crowned Warbler (Vermivora celata).  A tiny patch of orange is visible
on the top of this bird's head. Horry County, South Carolina.

Our first trip to the west coast was to Alaska.  Bird 300 was a Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) seen from a boat in Kenai Fjords National Park on July 5, 1988.  This boat trip also yielded a number of other northern seabirds including a second species of puffin, two different murres and several species of auklets and murrelets.  

Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Bird 400 on the list was an introduced species in my old neighborhood in Pompano Beach, Florida.  A group of Eurasian Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) were hanging around the 7-11 on January 1, 1997.  The next day I found my first bird using the internet, a Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis).  This bird of the far north was behind the dunes at Canaveral National Seashore, Florida.  In the 1990s news about rare birds was usually given on telephone hotlines.  Then people began putting transcripts of the recorded rare bird alerts out as emails.  I got the email that said a single Snow Bunting was hanging around parking area Number 2 at Playalinda Beach. Diane and I stopped there with our two young children in tow and immediately saw the bunting.  

Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto), Palm Beach County, Florida.

Number 500 was an Andean Gull (Chroicocephalus serranus) high on the slopes of Volcano Cotapaxi in Ecuador.  This trip in May 1998 was my second to the tropics and included a cruise in the Galapagos Islands.  There I saw many of the birds that inspired Charles Darwin in his development of the Theory of Natural Selection. 

May 2000 found me in the Monteverde Cloud Forest of Costa Rica where a Tufted Flycatcher (Mitrephanes phaeocercus) clocked in as bird 600.  We have since seen this tiny flycatcher in Arizona and Mexico. 

Tufted Flycatcher (Mitrephanes phaeocercus).
Carr Canyon, Cochise County, Arizona

Bird number 700 came on my first European trip in March 2003.  Several beautiful European Robins (Erithacus rubecula) were on Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland.  European Robins bear a superficial resemblance to American Robins (Turdus migratorius), both have red breasts, but American Robins are thrushes while European Robins are flycatchers.

In 2008 I started to use eBird, a service of the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.  This fantastic website has many features that allow birders to enter their lists, submit photos and audio recordings, get information on birds and find rarities.  I have used eBird extensively in my quest for 1000 birds. 

The Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) was bird 800.  This beauty was in the village of Llanystumdwy, Wales in March 2014.  That same day we saw the exceedingly rare Red Kite (Milvus milvus) along the Welsh coast south of Aberystwyth.    

Rufous-browed Peppershrike (Cyclarhis gujanensis). 
Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Diane and I found bird number 900 in Costa Rica at Monteverde.  A striking Rufous-browed Peppershrike (Cyclarhis gujanensis) sat on a low limb and gave us a good view in June 2018. 

A screenshot from eBird showing my 1000th bird.

And finally, bird number 1000 was the Bridled Terns on the Dry Tortugas in April 2021.  What is the next goal after 1000 birds?  Why 2000 birds, of course. 

 

                  Bridled Terns.  Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida.