Hast Wildlife Adventures: Florida Ecosystems Class Trip - Day 3, Tall Timbers

We rose before the sun and met up with the tall timbers ornithologist to attempt a Red-cockaded woodpecker capture on the Wade tract. The Wade tract is one of the few remaining large areas of long leaf pine / wiregrass ecosystem left in the southern US. In my mind, the Wade tract was the textbook example of a southern quail plantation even thought it was not primarily managed for quail. The Wade tract has a large breeding population of Red-cockaded woodpeckers as well as many Henslow's sparrows.

HDR image of the Wade tract. This photo is a composite of three images, all taken at differing exposures, and merged. This image is less than sharp and illustrates the need for a tripod when shooting images that you plan to merge into an HDR photo.

Our morning began by trying to net and band a female Red-cockaded woodpecker. The tall timbers ornithologist used a long net to guard the nest hole while we tapped the bottom of the tree to coax the bird into the net. This female was educated and flew the coop just after the net had been brought down.

Red-cockaded woodpecker (birders call them RCW's) banding, Wade Tract.

The net guarding the RCW nest hole in a longleaf pine, Wade tract.

After our attempt to band an RCW, we moved on to mist netting for Henslow's sparrow and Backman's warblers. This mist netting experience was much different from previous times I have used this technique. Instead of setting the nets and checking them every hour or so, we would walk in a line and flush out target species. Once flushed, the ornithologist would expertly deploy the mist net in a matter of seconds while the rest of the group headed the bird off and flushed it back into the net. There was always this moment of anticipation as the bird flew towards the net that was no less exciting than watching a dart fly towards a bull elk.