Florida: Day #2 and #3, Rock Springs Run State Reserve and Hal Scott Regional Forrest

After Apopka, we headed even farther North to the Rock Springs Run State Reserve. The aim of this trip had originally been White-eyed Vireo and Yellow-throated Warbler, but due to my morning success, that was unnecessary and I could turn my focus to some other targets. I felt I had a pretty good shot at Carolina Chickadee, given the habitat was supposedly quite good in the area. My other two targets were Brown-headed Nuthatch and Bachman's Sparrow. The first walk was fruitless, and only turned up 5 species, that I'd already had on the trip several times. Our next stop was a horseback riding place within the reserve, so I was still optimistic. Half way through our ride, I heard something that sounded pretty Chickadee-like but I couldn't be sure, as I'd heard Titmouse the day before making very similar sounds to a Chickadee. But then less than 10 minutes later, I heard a Carolina Chickadee's very distinct song! So much different than our Black-capped Chickadee's! The Carolina Chickadees song is a four very simple whistled notes. You can listen to it here. For the rest of the ride we didn't see or hear much, but just before we finished, I heard an Eastern Bluebird give a few calls, and several Eastern Meadowlarks got flushed up. Back at the stables, I was treated to a tame "Florida" Red-shouldered Hawk, and a flock of trip bird Chipping Sparrow!

On the way back to the resort I saw a Gopher Tortoise just outside of the reserve, but it flashed by the window to quick for a picture.

The next day, we woke up semi-early to head off to the east coast. But before we made it there, I had a little detour planned. My remaining few targets were Bachman's Sparrow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and Florida Scrub-jay. The first three of which prefer semi-open, longleaf pine forrest- which is a pretty uncommon habitat. The nuthatches are a lot more variable in habitat, but the other two strictly prefer this. And the Hal Scott Regional Forrest, which happened to be right on our way, was an excellent example of this rare habitat. So we arrived there around 10 am, which was already too late for Bachman's Sparrow, which are only visible when singing, which is only in the very, very early morning. But I still had hopes of flushing or pishing them out. After about a half hour of walking, and very few birds to prove it, I heard the little toot of what sounded like a tin horn. A Brown-headed Nuthatch! A few more flew in, and the tooted their cute little calls, before moving on.

Another half hour later, and we'd seen and heard several more nuthatches, but nothing else. We found some trees with white paint markers on them- which indicates that a Red-cockaded Woodpecker has nested in this tree, but there was no woodpeckers around to show it. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is the rarest woodpecker in North America, if not the world, so I guess it wasn't too surprising that we missed it. 

I've got some catching up to do blog-posting-wise, after just coming back from a birding/family trip to Mexico!