Pelicans, Brown and White

A Brown Pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis) soaring
over the bay at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

In 1910, Dixon Lanier Merritt, American educator, journalist, poet and ornithologist published the beloved limerick:

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Enough food for a week

But I'm damned if I see how the helican!

Mr. Merritt got to the heart of pelican uniqueness, that extravagant beak.  Pelicans plunge dive or scoop up a volume of water from the surface that contains fish or other small animals.  They force the water out of the pouch and swallow their food.  But there are other fascinating aspects of pelican life to consider.  There are eight species of pelicans in the world and they range from the tropics to temperate areas.  Pelicans are found along seacoasts and the interior of all continents except South America and Antarctica.  The name pelican is derived from the Greek word for axe and that axe is the beak.  The pelican was an important symbol in medieval Christianity.  Female pelicans were thought to pierce their own breasts and feed their young of the blood.  The bleeding pelican is an iconic image found in cathedrals throughout Europe. 

Brown Pelicans and White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) on a sandbar. 
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas 

In North America, we are blessed with two species of pelicans, the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) and the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).  The scientific name of the Brown Pelican means “western pelican” since its distribution is limited to the New World.  The scientific name of the White Pelican means “red-nosed pelican”.  While the American White Pelican’s beak is not exactly red, it is bright yellow. 

Brown Pelican at Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina.
This is an immature bird with a brown head and neck. 

Brown Pelicans are found along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of North America, the American tropics and the Galapagos Islands.  They are not a strongly migratory species but they will wander after nesting.   Brown Pelicans are large with a wingspan of over six feet.  Their overall color is brown, with a white head and neck.  The top of the head turns yellow in the breeding season.  Brown Pelicans are gregarious and are often seen flying in vee-formations along the shoreline.  They also nest is groups, sometimes on small islands.  One such nest island is in the Indian River on the Atlantic coast of Central Florida.  Named Pelican Island, this tiny dot of sand and mangrove and has an outsized role in the history conservation.  Pelican Island was designated first National Wildlife Refuge in the country at the opening of the 20^th century.  At that time, plume hunters provided feathers for ladies’ hats and were destroying bird rookeries throughout southern Florida.  Pelican Island and several Audubon Society refuges in Florida marked the beginning of modern bird protection.  As populations of Brown Pelicans recovered from hunting, another threat arose.  The insecticide DDT came into widespread use in the latter half of the 20^th century.  This toxin washed into waterways, found its way into the food chain and reached dangerous levels in top predators like the Brown Pelican.  One of the most pernicious effects of DDT was it interfered with eggshell production.  Pelicans still mated and laid eggs but the shells of these eggs were so thin the parents broke the eggs while incubating.  Brown Pelican numbers crashed because of DDT and the bird was placed on the Federal Endangered Species list.  With the banning of DDT in the 1970's, Brown Pelican populations have rebounded and it is now listed as a species of least concern. 

An American White Pelican at High Rock Dam in Rowan County, North Carolina.
This pelican has the horn on the upper beak indicating
the onset of the breeding season.

American White Pelicans, with their 9-foot wingspans, are even larger than Brown Pelicans and second only in size to California Condors in North America.  American White Pelicans are white with black flight feathers.  Their legs are orange and the large beak is yellow.  During the breeding season, American White Pelicans develop a horn on the top of their beak.  Male and female pelicans both grow the horn and it falls off after the female lays her eggs.  The distribution of American White Pelicans reflects their highly migratory nature.  American White Pelicans breed on inland lakes and rivers in Central and Western US states and north into Canada.  These pelicans winter from Florida to California to Mexico and Central America.   

Two American White Pelicans landing in the Yadkin River below
High Rock Dam, Rowan County, North Carolina

A flock of American White Pelicans along with Double-crested Cormorants
in the Yadkin River at High Rock Dam, Rowan County, North Carolina

Visits to the southern coast allow us to see Brown Pelicans in any season and American White Pelicans during the winter.  Here on the Piedmont of North Carolina we are lucky enough to be in the migratory pattern of American White Pelicans.  A few miles from our house is a hydroelectric dam across the Yadkin River that forms High Rock Lake.  Each February, dozens of American White Pelicans stop below the dam and catch fish in the raceway.  The pelicans are already showing small horns on their beaks in February and so they are getting ready to breed.  These gigantic white birds, bobbing in the river, fascinate the fishermen who are amazed they don’t have to go to the beach to see pelicans.  This is a brief stop on American White Pelican’s long flight to the breeding grounds,  but I am always pleased to see them.    

American White Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants at High Rock Dam,
Rowan County, North Carolina

The Winter of Monarchs

Monarchs (Danaus plexipus) are iconic butterflies.  They are the most charismatic of lepidopterans and they have captured the imagination of North Americans.  First, they are brilliantly colored and patterned; orange with black stripes and white spots.  Second, their caterpillars eat and thrive on toxic milkweed plants (Asclepius sp.).  Finally, they undertake the most epic of insect migrations.  Each year several generations of Monarch Butterflies do a serial migration from Central Mexico to the Northern United States and Southern Canada and back. 

A Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexipus) resting on the trunk of an Oyamel (Abies religiosa) tree
at the El Rosario Sanctuary in Michoacan, Mexico

We have seen all the stages of the Monarch life cycle from egg to caterpillar to adult, throughout the US.  We have also seen small parts of their migration.  In September Monarchs pass south through North Carolina.  The migration is more dramatic at gaps along the Blue Ridge Parkway with dozens of butterflies steaming through a mountain gap in an hour. 

In the mid-1970s, after decades of searching, researchers announced that millions of Monarch Butterflies spend the winter high in the fir forests of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt west of Mexico City.  This winter, Diane and I went with another naturalist couple to Mexico see this final piece if the Monarch story.  To close the circle on the Monarch life cycle.

After spending a day enjoying the cultural splendors of Mexico City we piled into a 15-passenger van with our driver and guide for the three hour drive to the mountain town of Angangueo in the state of Michoacán.  This former mining boom town is now ground zero for Monarch viewing.  Our first stop was the Sierra Chincua Monarch Sanctuary north of Angangueo.  After paying our fees, we mounted horses and rode them about halfway to the butterfly colony.  A guide accompanies every group that ascends the mountain.  This arrangement keeps visitors on the trails and provides income for people living in the area.  

Oyamel trees in the Sierra Chincua Sanctcuary, Michocan, Mexico

As we gained altitude, we entered the fog that shrouded the mountaintops and the temperature dropped. Leaving the horses, we continued to climb on foot through a moist montane forest.  Large trees including pines and broad-leafed species gave way to Oyamel, the Sacred Fir (Abies religiosa).  The understory of the forest had a variety of sage species in flower, a yellow composite and abundant mosses and lichens.  Finally, at over 10,000 we reached the butterflies.  They coated the Oyamel trunks and hung in pendulous bunches from limbs.  The temperature was in the low 50s and the humidity was 100%.  These conditions allow the Monarchs to live for months during the winter rather than the weeks typical of the butterflies in the breeding season.  We saw many butterflies through the mist and they were all resting and conserving their energy.

We visited another Monarch Sanctuary near Angangueo called El Rosario.  El Rosario was the most developed of the sanctuaries.  Shops, food stands, souvenir vendors and an impressive gate with a butterfly theme welcomed us.  Even the restrooms had butterflies enameled in the sink.  

El Rosario Sanctuary gate, Michoacan, Mexico

Butterfly sink at El Rosario Sanctuary.

Rather than ride the horses up the mountain we decided to hike.  Our guide, Pepe, was knowledgeable and very enthusiastic.  He learned we were also interested in birds and pointed out many along the trail including the impressive Red Warbler (Cardellina ruber).  This tiny bird is bright red with silver cheek patches and is abundant in the forests where the Monarchs winter.  There were also many hummingbirds including the Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus).  

Red Warbler (Cardellina ruber).  El Rosario Sanctuary, Michoacan, Mexico.

Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus).  

As we reached the tall Oyamels we could see the large bunches of Monarchs hanging from limbs and dead butterflies littered the ground.  Some had probably died of natural causes but some were missing their abdomen.  This is a sign the butterflies were eaten by birds.  Avian predators usually avoid Monarchs because the milkweed toxins ingested by the caterpillars are retained in the adults after metamorphosis.  But, two species of birds in these mountains, Black-backed Orioles (Icterus abeillei) and Black-headed Grosbeaks (Pheucticus melanocephalus) eat monarchs.   

Monarch Butterflies on Oyamel trunks and limbs.
El Rosario Sanctuary, Michoacan, Mexico.

Dead Monarchs, El Rosario Sanctuary, Michocan, Mexico.

Not all is rosy for the Monarchs or the people who work to offer them sanctuary.  The number of Monarchs wintering in these mountains has been in a long-term decline.  The usual suspects are to blame; habitat loss, pesticides, climate change.  People that defend monarchs are also at risk.  The director of the El Rosario Sanctuary was murdered days before we arrived.  A former guide at the Sanctuary was killed while we were in Mexico.  The poverty and economic interests to convert forest to agricultural land are pressuring the wintering grounds of the Monarchs.  There is some good news, wintering Monarch numbers have increased in the last few years, perhaps because of milkweed plantings in the US and Canada.

Monarchs resting on Oyamel trunks and flying. 
Pierda Herrada Sanctuary, Mexico, Mexico.

While it was impressive to see hundreds of thousands of Monarch Butterflies resting on tree trunks and branches, we had hoped to see them flying.  The weather had not cooperated so far. However, we had one more sanctuary to visit.  In Mexico State, Piedra Herrada Sanctuary is in the mountains above Valle de Bravo.  We hiked to the butterfly roosts at this sanctuary and it turned out to be the longest and steepest walk.  After two hours on the trail and numerous stops to enjoy the plants, birds and to breathe, we made it to the Monarchs.  The day was warm and sunny.  The forest in this sanctuary was more open and diverse than the first two we visited and the butterflies were flying.  

Monarchs feeding on a yellow composite.  Piedra Herrada, Mexico, Mexico.

Monarchs were flying high and low, landing on people, sipping nectar from the abundant flowers and putting on a fantastic show.  However, this was not a show for our benefit.  When their internal body temperature get high enough the butterflies must feed on nectar to replenish their energy supplies.  They need the energy because in late February the Monarchs begin to reproduce and begin their migration north.  The Monarchs leave their winter mountain refuges, lay eggs on milkweed plants in Northern Mexico and the Southern US and die.   Their offspring continue the migration and complete the circle. 

Monarchs on Oyamel branches, Piedra Herrada Sanctuary, Mexico, Mexico.

Cranes and Crabs

Whooping Crane at Aransas National
Wildlife Refuge, Texas

The Whooping Crane (Grus americana) is a comeback species. These cranes once ranged across North America. They were contemporaries of the great ice age animals like Giant Sloths, Mammoths and Dire Wolves. Whooping Crane fossils have been unearthed from California to Idaho to Florida. European settlers found these large birds numerous and delicious. Market hunting as well as habitat loss drove the Whooping Crane to near extinction. In the 1940s the Whooping Crane population in the wild was twenty-one birds. Now it exceeds 800.

Two adult Whooping Cranes in a marsh at Aransas

The last natural population of Whooping Cranes breeds in Northern Canada then migrates to Texas to winter in coastal marshes. Conservationists have established a new migratory population that breeds in Wisconsin and winters in Central Florida. Two new non-migratory Whooping Crane populations have also been established in Florida and Louisiana.

In November, Diane and I saw Whooping Cranes on their wintering grounds in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Rockport, Texas. The day started by boarding Captain Tommy Moore’s boat the Skimmer. Upon leaving the boat harbor we entered Aransas Bay. The bay is brackish and shielded from the Gulf of Mexico by low barrier islands. Salt water from the Gulf enters the bay through Aransas Pass and Cedar Bayou.  The gulf water and mixes with freshwater that flows into the bay from the Aransas and Mission Rivers. Captain Tommy piloted the Skimmer past natural gas wells and oyster bars covered with pelicans. We soon reached a large marsh and Whooping Cranes were scattered about, feeding in small pools. Whooping Cranes are large birds, standing 5 feet tall and weighing up to 16 pounds. Adult cranes are white with black wingtips, a red crown and a dark, dagger-like beak.

Whooping Crane with freshly caught Blue Crab

Another crane another crab

In the Texas marshes, the cranes eat whatever they can catch, including frogs, fish, and mollusks. But, their favorite food seems to be Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidis). The cranes stalk through shallow ponds in the marsh, probing with their beaks and stabbing their crab dinner. They then throw the crab up on the bank and eat it in pieces.

Someone asked me once what the rarest bird I had ever seen was. I did not have an answer because I do not think about birds in those terms. Now I have an answer. Whooping Cranes, those relics of the ice age, numbering in their hundreds, living on the edge of extinction and on the edge of the continent, are the rarest birds I have seen.

Florida Interlude

Our visits to Florida always turn up interesting revelations in natural history. A brief stay in late December presented Diane and me with three small wonders.

Puss caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis).  Its long hair gives it a
cat-like appearance. 

While hiking at the Wakodahatcheee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida we saw a longhaired caterpillar crawling along a handrail of the boardwalk. It was a Puss Caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) the larval form of Southern Flannel Moth. Puss Caterpillars got their name because they look like miniature versions of long-furred cats. The name for the genus, Megalopyge, translated big rump, comes from the long hairs of the caterpillar combining to form a tail. This caterpillar is quite dangerous because those long hairs conceal stinging spines. If you make contact with these spines, they release a venom that immediately raises red welts on the skin then cause severe pain, nausea, fever, rapid heart rate or even convulsions. These fascinating and dangerous caterpillars metamorphose into a very hairy moth that we did not get to see. The Southern Flannel Moth ranges throughout the Southeastern US and west into Texas.

Psychotria nervosa (what a marvelous name) or Wild Coffee, is a plant native to Florida, Central America, the West Indies and South America. We found Wild Coffee growing in abundance in the coastal hammock at Lantana Beach Nature Preserve. Wild Coffee bears shiny green leaves and produces white flowers. These flowers develop into red fruits, each of which contains two hemispherical seeds that resemble the “beans” of its relative, true coffee (Coffea arabica). Birds eat the bright fruits and disperse the seeds in their droppings. The small seeds of Wild Coffee is not a good substitute for regular coffee because the seeds do not contain caffeine and drinks brewed from them taste bad and cause headaches.

Wild Coffee (Psychotria nervosa) plant with fruits.

Wild Coffee fruit cut in half showing its two seeds.

Wild coffee seeds.  They look very much like
regular coffee beans but much smaller.

In the late afternoon of a short winter day, we found a spectacular butterfly, the Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus). Ruddy Daggerwings are found from Brazil, through Central America, the West Indies and into south Florida. A few even make it to south Texas and Arizona. When we first saw this butterfly flying fast and low in a park in Palm Beach County, we thought it was a Monarch or Julia. As we approached, it was clearly something different. The Ruddy Daggerwing is bright orange with dark brown lines of the upper side of the wings. Each hindwing has a long tail, the dagger in its name. The underside of the wings are brown and resemble dead leaves. Ruddy Daggerwings lay their eggs on the fig (Ficus) trees that are abundant in South Florida.

Ruddy Daggerwing feeding on the nectar of Spanish Needles (Bidens pilosa) 

People from around the country and around the world go to Florida in winter. Florida is warm, green and bright when many places are cold, brown and dim. However, beyond the weather and landscaped housing developments, Florida offers a peek at the tropics, a whiff of rain forests from the south.

Birds and the Border

Diane and I have visited the border between the US and Mexico a number of times in the last few years.  One reason we go to these areas is because a lot of interesting birds reach the northern end of their range in the borderlands and are hard to find in other parts of North America.

Plain Chachalaca (Ortalis vetula) is a tropical bird that reaches
the northern end of its range in South Texas.  Photographed
at Estero Llano Grande State Park.

South of San Diego, California is the busiest port of entry in the US.  This border crossing connects suburban San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.  Millions of vehicles and many more millions of people cross there every year.  The border wall is very prominent in this area.  Metal slats, in some areas topped with razor wire, restrict the flow of people.  The barrier even runs into the Pacific Ocean.  Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) white and green-striped trucks are common in the area and agents ride jet skis a half mile into the ocean to look for swimmers trying to go around the wall.  While birding along the Tijuana Slough just north of the border in California, we saw our first White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) and Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus). 

Border wall between the US and Mexico extending
into the Pacific Ocean. Viewed from Tijuana, Mexico.

Some of the nation’s premier birding spots are in the mountains of southeastern Arizona.  These sky islands rise from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and host many bird species that are at the northern edge of their range.  Painted Restart (Myioborus pictus), Mexican Jay (Aphelocoma wollweberi) and Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) are all species that just reach the US in these mountains.  

Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) in Cave Creek Canyon, Arizona.

Painted Redstart (Myioborus pictus) in Maderia Canyon, Arizona.

The Huachuca Mountains lie just a few miles from Mexico and border security is ever-present.  The canyons of these mountains are renowned for their bird life.  One of these canyons also hosts Fort Huachuca, established in the 1870s as a cavalry outpost in the Indian Wars.  In addition to the ubiquitous CPB vehicles, this area has another interesting border security device. On most days, an aerostat, a blimp-shaped balloon, flies over the fort on a tether.  We met a couple of soldiers from the base while hiking and they told us the aerostat has radar and other sensors to watch the border.  

The Fort Huachuca aerostat, visible as a white dot
to the left of the pine. This blimp-like ship has sensors
to monitor the US-Mexico border. 
Carr Canyon, Arizona.

Closer view of the aerostat. 
Carr Canyon, Arizona. 

Mexican Jay (Apheolocoma wollweberi) in Ash Canyon, Arizona.

The Rio Grande valley in Texas is another area where rare birds abound at the border.  This fall we went with a group that birded from near the mouth of the river to the fabled cowboy town of Laredo.  The lower end of the Rio Grande valley is subtropical.  Native palms are abundant in the few remaining natural areas and the region is a major citrus producer.  The birds here also have a tropical flavor about them.  Of the 181 species of birds our group saw, I had previously seen 15 of them in the American tropics.  Some of these tropical birds were; Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus), Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulfuratus), Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus), Plain Chachalaca (Ortalis vetula) and Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata).  The tropical affinity of the region extends to its insect life.  South Texas has its own leafcutter ants (Atta texana).  These ants march from their nests, cut sections of leaves from live plants and carry the leaf parts back to the nest.  At the nest, the ants chew up the leaves, inoculate the macerated plant tissue with a fungus and then eat the fungus.  These ants are farmers.  

Texas Leafcutter Ants (Atta texana) at Frontera Audubon, Texas.

Another Lower Rio Grande Valley location we visited was Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville, Texas.  The Sanctuary was actually located on the other side of the border wall.  Sabal Palm is in Texas so we did not need our passports and did not enter Mexico.  We drove over a dike and through a gap in the rusty slat wall to the Sanctuary.  At Sabal Palm, we got our first looks at the Altamira Oriole (Icterus gultaris) and Olive Sparrow (Arremonops rufivirgatus).  If the border wall at Sabal Palm became as impervious as the wall near San Diego, the Sabal Palm Sanctuary, homes, farms and cemeteries would be lost in a no man’s land between the border and the wall.  

Border wall, Sabal Palm Sanctuary, Texas.

For much of the length of the Rio Grande in Texas there is no wall.  A few hundred feet of water is all that separates Mexico from the United States.  Much of the border is rural with farms or scrub forest on either side of the river.  These areas still have a CBP presence.  Cleared riverbanks, dikes with roads on their tops, towers with floodlights and cameras are scattered along the US side of river.  

Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis) at Salineno Preserve, Texas.

Altamira Orioles on Customs and Border Patrol
floodlights, San Ygnacio Sanctuary, Texas.

The Juarez-Lincoln Bridge links Laredo, Texas, USA to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. As traffic waited on the bridge to enter the US, our birding group saw two Ringed Kingfishers, the largest kingfisher in the country in Laredo.  One of these birds flew across the river and it was no longer an American kingfisher but a Mexican one.  Birders are particular about where they see a bird.  Some go so far as keep lists for counties, states, countries and the world.  We could not count birds on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande for our Texas bird list.  

Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) at Zacate Creek, Laredo, Texas.

We saw dozens of birds cross the river between the two countries.  Green Jays (Cyanocorax yncas), White-tipped Doves (Leptotila verrauxi), Great Kiskadees and Gray Hawks (Buteo plagiatus).  All made the crossing at Laredo in seconds while drivers on the bridge waited an hour to cross.  

Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) at Quinta Mazatlan, McAllen, Texas.

Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas)
 at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Texas.

The southern border, like all international frontiers, is a political boundary imposed on an ecological landscape.  What a sharp contrast between the ease with which birds cross the border and the complications to people crossing.    

Iron and Water

Sometimes in a swamp or marsh, you can see a metallic sheen on the surface of the water.  It may look like an oil spill but it is usually a molecular scale layer of iron floating on the water’s surface.  You can tell oil on water from iron on water by touching the surface.  If the film breaks up into plates, it is metallic.  

Iridescent layer of iron produced by bacteria floating in a marsh in Clayton County, Georgia.

If the layer swirls and reforms, it is oil.  The basis for the sheen with both oil and iron is thin film iridescence.  This type of iridescence is found not only with oil on water and iron on water but also in soap bubbles.  The thickness of the film determines which colors are reflected, so oil spilled on a wet road or soap bubbles may show all the colors of the rainbow. 

Plates of iron bacterial film broken up by water movement. 

Oil on pavement showing thin film iridescence.

This iridescent layer is the signature of a bacterial ecosystem that runs on different ionic forms of iron.  The sheen appears in still water when there has been no rain for several days.  Rain or water current will break up the layer into plates and they will wash away.  In these swampy places, decomposition of plant material by bacteria and fungi deplete the oxygen in the water.  This anaerobic environment is where a several bacteria use iron in their metabolism.  Animals, plants and most fungi are aerobes and carry out their energy metabolism by removing electrons from organic molecules like sugars.  These electrons go through a bewilderingly complex set of chemical reactions to make cellular energy.  In the last step of this process, the electrons end up on oxygen.  Bacteria involved in making the iron sheen have a similar type of energy metabolism but rather than dumping their electrons on oxygen, they put their electrons on the oxidized form of iron.  This oxidized iron is abundant in the red clay soils of the southeastern Piedmont.  The iron that has gained those electrons is said to be reduced, an odd term since the atoms have actually gained something (electrons). 

Bacterial iron film.

Reduced iron is an energy source used by another group of bacteria, the iron oxidizers.  These bacteria remove the electrons from the reduced iron and regenerate the oxidized form while producing their energy.  Iron oxidizing bacteria live at the top few millimeters of the anaerobic swamp water where a small amount of oxygen is dissolved.  The bacteria deposit the iron produced by their metabolism as iron oxide, also known as rust, at the surface of the water and make the shining layer.  These two groups of bacteria depend on the metabolism of each other to fuel their survival.

If you run across iridescence in a marsh, it probably does not signal a petroleum release but rather a sign of an iron-based microbial ecosystem. 

The Birds and (wait for it) the Bees

One of our favorite places to visit in South Florida is a tiny park in the beach town of Lantana.  The Lantana Nature Preserve is a 6.5-acre piece of old Florida.  The Preserve is located between Lake Worth and the Atlantic Ocean and is a reconstructed Florida maritime hammock. The Preserve was constructed on the site of the old Lantana town dump.  The dump was cleaned up, fill was added to make an artificial dune and exotic plants were removed.  Red Mangroves (Rhizopora mangle) and Sea Grapes (Coccoloba uvifera} fringe the Preserve while Cabbage Palms (Sabal palmetto), Wild Coffee plants (Psychotria nervosa), Gumbo Limbo trees (Bursera simaruba) and a giant fig (Ficus sp) grow in the interior.  A quarter mile trail winds through the Preserve giving intimate views of the plant life, butterflies, birds and bees.

Giant Ficus in Lantana Nature Preserve

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker at nest in Cabbage Palm

During a visit in May, we found Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) with a nest in a live Cabbage Palm. In most of their range, Red-bellied Woodpeckers nest in dead trees or at least in dead branches. Where Cabbage Palms are available, these woodpeckers will make nests in the soft, fibrous trunks of the live palm.  Red-bellied Woodpeckers drill a round hole about two inches in diameter in the tree trunk, then burrow down about a foot to make the next cavity.   We watched the nest as the adult birds would regularly visit bringing food to the nearly fledged young peeking out of the hole. Red-bellied Woodpeckers usually lay about four eggs.  We could see two young woodpeckers peeking from the hole waiting to be fed.  Woodpeckers typically use a nest hole only once. 

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker bringing food to young woodpecker

Immature Red-bellied Woodpecker looking out of the nest

In September, we returned to the Preserve and found the nest again.  To our surprise, the nest no longer hosted woodpeckers but instead hosted Honey Bees (Apis mellifera).  After the woodpeckers left the nest, bees must have come from an already established hive whose population had grown too large. Large hives produce new queen bees that will fly off with about half the hive’s population of worker bees in a process called swarming.  The swarm will stay in a compact group and send out scouts to look for a new hive location.  When the scouts agree on a new nest site, they lead the swarm to it and the new hive is established.  The bees will then make hexagonal cells of wax to grow the next generation of bees.  The bees will fill other waxy cells with honey they made from nectar.  Honey is the food to fuel the members of the hive. 

Honey Bees using the old Red-bellied Woodpecker nest

This cabbage palm tree in Florida hosted two different species of vastly different size, behavior and ecological needs in the same year.  A scarce resource like a good nest tree can have many different users, even birds and bees.