With the Wild Things

The Northern Flicker is a commonly seen bird across North America – and it is a woodpecker – although one more often seen on bare or mowed ground where it feeds extensively on insects and other ground- or rotted-wood-dwelling insects. Flickers in the East have yellow-tinged wing and tail feathers – those in the west have red-tinged feathers. The two color-morphs meet at the edge of the Great Plains and often interbreed – hence they are considered a single species. This is a woodpecker that is often seen in mowed and bare areas of our towns and cities as well as in the countryside. It is a poor cavity excavator, requiring nest sites with well-rotted wood – or such modern materials as Styrofoam used in trim on our homes. Occasionally it will even nest in a hole in the ground – where it may find “bed and breakfast”. Males are easily identified by their black “moustache”; females lack it.

Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) is an invasive exotic aquatic plant that has been in Florida for hundreds of years – perhaps merely as a result of being snagged on or carried in bilge water of early sailing ships traveling between the Amazon River in South America and Florida. Once here – and in other countries around the world, it quickly reproduced and was spread down rivers and streams and even into isolated lakes by boats and individuals who admired its beauty. To this day it has negative impacts on native wildlife, shading swamp waters, thus cooling them and reducing sunlight needed by native plant species, often making it difficult for herons, egrets, Anhingas, and other aquatic animals to find food. If you boat in waters with water lettuce, always check your boat and trailer for plants caught on them. Don’t introduce this plant to waters where it isn’t currently found. In spite of its name.

The Double-crested Cormorant is a resident bird in Florida – especially in south Florida. Its numbers swell each winter with migrants from farther north. Cormorants are well-known as fish-eaters, although they also readily consume other small animals. These cormorants are social birds and can often be seen on open water in flotillas of a dozen or more. They typically swim on the surface with head held up and body showing above the surface – whereas their relatives, the Anhingas, typically show only their head and long neck above the water. Double-crested Cormorants have bare bright orange skin around their face, brilliantly blue eyes, and a stout hooked bill that they use to capture fish.

Movements of plants and animals differ tremendously and involve adaptations that vary from species to species depending on needs ranging from food sources, climate, mate availability, predator presence, basic physical characteristics, and multiple combinations of such factors. Survival of species, however, involves the ability to move and occupy new habitats and changing climatic conditions. In this week’s Wild Things I discuss a wide range of creatures and the way in which they are adapted to move as needed through their world – and ours.

An autumnal holiday tradition — the pumpkin — is a true native of the New World. The gourd was put to many good uses by Native Americans and assimilated into other cultures as they came here. Dr. Jerry Jackson takes a look at our native produce which includes corn and three species of wild rice.

Killdeer are plovers that are prominent among shorebirds because of their broad use of habitats in addition to our shore areas. Any place that is open, with short vegetation and usually with a bit of gravel can provide nesting and feeding areas for Killdeer. This even includes rooftops. Although summer heat can be deadly for them, Killdeer will shade their eggs to keep them at an appropriate incubation temperature and often soak their body feathers in water to drip on eggs or chicks. Chicks from rooftop nests can survive jumping from the roof or sliding down rain gutters. Downy chicks have only one neck band; adults have two.

Hurricanes can be disastrous and Florida sticks out like a sore thumb directly in the path of many hurricanes. It’s the heat of the sun and curvature and spinning of the Earth on its axis that initiate the movement of air over ocean and land. And its summer heat that warms surface water that creates the humid air and water-laden clouds that come with a hurricane. The juxtaposition of Florida’s land mass and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico – the northern end of which is in a subtropical climate – makes us a target for hurricanes – many of which move north through the Gulf of Mexico, feeding on the warm waters there.

Learn about ospreys and the place they hold in Southwest Florida’s ecosystem.

The Pigmy Rattlesnake is four to six inches long at birth and some adults can reach two and a half feet – although most reach only about 20 inches. It is…