Wildlife and Birding in Lakes Park, August 2020

LEAST BITTERN

07/25/2020 – JANET KIRK writes: “You will never know how much effort went into getting this Least Bittern this morning! Ha, ha! “. Read on for more from Janet on this elusive bird in Lakes Park.

Janet writes: ” Here’s the back story on this one. We decided to walk a little of Lakes Park this morning and arrived around 7:30 AM. There were two LEBIs (least bitterns) in the reeds—one Aaron caught a glimpse of and I did the same a few feet away. We couldn’t get a photo though. Suddenly Aaron said, “Did you see that?” I did not, but he said that one flew under the boardwalk and headed toward the large marsh area.

We started scanning with our bins and thought we saw him, so we hurried down the path. We found him, but as soon as we would get our cameras up, he would take flight for a different marshy area. OK. Game on, Bittern!

This went on for a very long time and we were all over that entire marsh area many times, until finally, he perched for a few seconds and voila! Success. It was a good feeling. We then walked through the Fragrance garden and as we were leaving, I looked up and saw 3 STKIs (swallow-tailed kites) soaring above the boardwalk. We walked back again to get a better look at them and I’ll be darn! The Bittern flew right below us and underneath the boardwalk again—returning to the reeds! We had never seen one do that before. We were exhausted, but delighted we saw a different behavior. This one made us work, which actually makes it more fun! Enjoy! ”

Want to learn more about the least bittern? Visit the All About Birds guide at Cornell University: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Least_Bittern/overview

ARMY CUTWORM

What's this? Caterpillar found while gardening in Lakes Park — “What is it?”

It’s hard to google with gardening gloves, so sometimes a critter photo will be texted from the Botanic Garden to our Executive Director for identification. She knew it was a moth caterpillar, but could not find one with this pattern on any of the usual sites.

Army cutworm in the Botanic Garden at Lakes Park — “Well, I guess he’s not welcome here!” – Kathy Busick on the presence of an army cutworm in the Botanic Garden

Facebook to the rescue! An expert on one of the Florida butterfly ID groups said “army cutworm” – a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of gardeners. Cutworms can do a lot of damage if left unchecked. You can bet that our volunteer “A Team” will be on the lookout for these little guys!

LEARN MORE about the different types of cutworms from IFAS: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_family_noctuidae

GOPHER TORTOISE HABITAT UPDATE

Conservation 20/20 Land Stewardship Coordinator Felicia Nudo submitted a series of photos depicting the results of some habitat improvement activities that commenced in the park along Summerlin Road in the winter of 2019. Mowing can be important in reducing the amount of fuel available to feed a wildfire, and it also helps the mobility of the tortoises, allowing them to roam, feed, and burrow without hindrance. Here’s what Felicia has to say about the activities and their positive impact in the park –

February 2019 – facing north along Summerlin Road – mowing improves the habitat for gopher tortoises and other wildlife that call the park “home”.

In February of 2019, heavy equipment mowed this area of Lakes Regional Park to increase habitat quality for gopher tortoises and other species of wildlife within the park. Before the mowing took place, dense palmetto covered this area, providing little room for forage plants to grow. Historically, the palmetto would have been reduced through wildfires caused by lightning strikes. Since the park is sandwiched between development on all boundaries, prescribed burning is not an option for this area. Heavy equipment staff exercised extreme caution while mowing around the burrows and Conservation 20/20 staff marked the burrows before the mowing occurred. Although the mowing looked quite destructive immediately after, the following months provided opportunities for other plants to grow. Notice the regrowth in the photo from July of this year.

Gopher tortoise habitat regrowth begins, May 2019

Why does this matter?

This reduction of overgrown vegetation reduces the amount of fuel in the area. This in turn lessens the severity and intensity of a wildfire. Should a wildfire occur in that area, it will be much easier for emergency personal to access and control. Dense patches of palmetto shade out the herbaceous plants that gopher tortoises eat. Now that the palmetto has been reduced, the area has been opened up to allow for these plant species to grow. In addition, the tortoises now have room to expand and dig new burrows.

January 2020 view of regrowth in the mowed wildlife habitat

Measured impacts from the mowing:

In 2019 a gopher tortoise burrow survey was conducted in the project area and 29 burrows were recorded. After the mowing occurred, 38 burrows were recorded. This indicates that the new burrows were a result of the vegetation reduction. Additionally, forage plants such as shiny blueberry, netted pawpaw, persimmon, winged sumac, beauty berry, and a variety of wildflowers are now growing in the area where it used to be a solid wall of palmetto.

July 2020, 17 months after mowing

However, the increased opportunity comes an increase in non-native, invasive plants as well. The opened area not only allowed many great native plant species to flourish, but it also opened up the opportunity for invasive plants such as cesarweed, earleaf acacia, guinea grass, and Brazilian pepper to sprout up. The good news is that Conservation 20/20 staff can spot these plants quickly now that the area has been opened up and treat them before they become a real problem.