Echolocation is second nature to animals such as bats and dolphins. Can humans also find their way using sound as a tool?

The Solitary Sandpiper is solitary in multiple ways. It does not usually mix in with other sandpipers on our beaches. It is often found by itself or with one or two other Solitary Sandpipers in muddy ditches, or fallow agricultural fields with shallow pools of water. It also is solitary in its choice of a nest site: it adopts an old nest of a songbird high in a tree in boreal forests.

Under cover of darkness on a rainy night an abundance of wild things come out in search of food, a mate, or sometimes just to cross a road from a ditch on one side to a ditch on the other. Frogs, toads, and salamanders, crayfish, earthworms, and flatworms are the most prominent of the creatures who can’t come out in the dry, hot, sunlight. Movements of these creatures that hide by day often go unnoticed except by the predators of the night –- Barred Owls, Eastern Screech-Owls, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and a diversity of snakes that take advantage of the emergence of rainy night creatures. Many make the trip back and forth across our roads on a regular basis. Many are killed by passing cars. Even the flattened ones become food for scavengers that risk human traffic both at night and early the next day.

Hurricanes often have tremendous impacts on human lives – they destroy or severely damage homes, destroy crops, destroy or greatly alter the landscape we live in, and even injure or kill us. The impacts of hurricanes on other living creatures can be equally dramatic and harsh. Hurricane winds can take birds such as Black Skimmers and Magnificent Frigatebirds well inland and away from their natural habitats. They can also carry small creatures such as the tiny fly known as the “baldcypress twig gall midge”, seeds, and disease-causing microorganisms to new areas where they might become established in a very different ecosystem. While such displaced creatures sometimes seriously harm local creatures. It is likely that most of the time the creature in a new environment doesn’t survive. But sometimes they do – and relationships among creatures in the new environment adjust to a new equilibrium.

South Florida is home to at least three native Poinsettias – Painted-leaf, Fiddler-leaf, and Pineland Poinsettia. All are close relatives of our favored winter holiday Poinsettia, which is native to Mexico and parts of Central America. While originally known by both the scientific and common name “Poinsettia” -- to honor the man who sent them back to the U.S. from Mexico, these plants are now known by very different names. Among the things they share are tiny flowers that are clustered together and that have no petals. Leaves that surround those flower clusters typically turn red as the flowers mature, helping to attract insects to pollinate the flowers just as petals do on other plants. It’s those red leaves that attract our (and insect) attention. Florida’s Pineland Poinsettia is an endangered species found only in Miami-Dade- and Monroe-county rocky pinelands. The other two are common through much of Florida and, while admired for their beauty and sometimes deliberately planted, are also invasive exotics -- weeds that reduce production of some crops. All of Poinsettia’s relatives produce milky sap containing latex – and that sap can cause rashes, or if the plant is eaten, can cause a serious reaction or rarely death.

Common Gallinules are resident birds found in ponds and marshes across Florida – especially where tall reeds, rushes, or cattails line the edges in shallow water. More northern populations are migratory. Adult Common Gallinules are somewhat chicken-like in appearance, but have blue-gray feathers, a bit of brown on the back, and white feathers that form a horizontal line along each side. Adults have a yellow-tipped bright red bill that extends to form a shield over its forehead. Young chicks are covered with black down – except for the top of the head which is nearly bald. Their tiny wings are bare, looking like pink toothpicks sticking out from their side. Downy chicks also have a red bill with a yellow tip – but no shield over the forehead. As the chicks grow and change plumage, they become dull gray birds with a dull, somewhat mottled yellow-brown bill. Older chicks stay with the pair and help feed the younger chick – a behavior known as “aunting”. As the bill of an older chick takes on the bright red color of an adult, the male chases it away.

Coyotes are native-American relatives of wolves and pet dogs. Like our dogs, they are omnivorous – eating both plants and animals, taking advantage of both living creatures and dead ones. Most of their diet consists of small creatures – insects, mice, rats, birds (when they can catch them), lizards, fruit, nuts, and mushrooms. They are mostly creatures of open grasslands – even mowed areas such as golf courses and parks. Humans attract them unintentionally by making garbage available or putting food outside for family pets. Coyotes are largely scavengers and must cover a lot of ground to meet their daily needs – sometimes as much as 5 square miles in a day. In seasonally cold climates – as with other animals – coyotes grow a thicker coat and then molt it when the weather turns warm – often giving coyotes a rather scruffy appearance as they molt. Coyote pairs sometimes hunt together – often 50 feet or so apart – increasing the odds of catching a rabbit or other small animal that is flushed as they move. Most of the time, however, they are rather solitary in their movements.

Florida has two species of squirrels that are native and widespread. The most common is the Gray Squirrel – that varies from mostly gray to mostly brown with long white and black hairs mixed in, giving it a bushy tail. Gray Squirrels always have a white breast. These are the common backyard squirrels that dominate bird feeders and are seen on a daily basis. Gray Squirrels typically weigh a pound to a pound and a half and sometimes delight us as they leap from branch to branch and race along on utility wires. Gray Squirrels are very social and have a very small home range.

Doves and pigeons are among the most recognizable of birds – in part because of their close association with humans. Although they are regular patrons at bird feeders, doves and pigeons generally feed on spilled seeds that accumulate beneath feeders.

Eyes are essential in the lives of most animals for living their everyday lives. But their roles extend far beyond the possessor of those eyes and beyond their obvious use for seeing. In this week’s “Wild Things” we’ll explore some animal adaptations that relate to visual interactions between individuals and species, ways in which eyes are sometimes modified to enhance vision in bright light, and ways in which development of false eyes can influence potential predators and even members of the opposite sex.