Birding on Florida's Wildlife Management Areas

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Aucilla Wildlife Management Area

Issue #2


Birding on Florida's WMAs

By Peter Kleinhenz

It’s 7:20 A.M. and I’ve been staring at a tree for forty-five minutes. The tree, not surprisingly, hasn’t changed much. Sure, the purple sky seeping through the morning fog looks beautiful. But the South Florida slash pine looks like every other tree out here with the exception of one small hole.

The supposed inhabitant of this hole is what brought me to Fred C. Babcock/Cecil M. Webb Wildlife Management Area so early in the morning. I was part of a free field trip offered as part of the year-long 75th anniversary celebration of Florida’s Wildlife Management Area system. Andy Wraithmell and Whitney Gray, both birding experts of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), led a group of perhaps twenty birders to this spot. Kellie Phillips, a biologist with FWC, was on hand to answer questions as well.

B-W sunrise

  Fred C. Babcock/Cecil M. Webb Wildlife Management Area, Andy Wraithmell

I stood admiring the many perspectives with which this slash pine could be photographed when it happened. Andy simply stated, “Here it comes.” All binoculars and cameras were raised and pointed at the unassuming hole. Within seconds, the black beak of a red-cockaded woodpecker came into view. 

You would have thought that King Kong had just been unveiled to New York City. Cameras clicked constantly and ooh’s and aah’s filled the air as the red patch on its head (its “cockade”) became visible. The red-cockaded woodpecker is a big deal, after all. A federally-endangered species, the RCW as it is commonly known, once stood on the precipice of extinction.

birders at RCW cavity B-W

Birders capturing RCW emergence from nest cavity, Andy Wraithmell

RCW

Mature pine forests, after decades of intense logging, nearly vanished from Florida. With them went a large proportion of the red-cockaded woodpecker population. Their dependence on older pines, internally-softened by heart rot fungus, for nesting made recovery tough since pines take decades to mature. Fortunately, creativity and active management provided a shortcut on the road to recovery.

See a video of red-cockaded woodpeckers emerging from artificial nest cavity.

Red-cockaded woodpecker, FWC

It took me a few minutes to realize that the hole I was staring at in the slash pine was manmade. Biologists like Kellie had found promising trees, excavated a rectangular section and inserted a hollow wooden “bird box.” Clearly, the woodpeckers were taking to it just fine.

“In the past couple years the number of active [nesting] clusters has been increasing by 1-3 a year,” Kellie told me. “They haven’t made any new clusters themselves, but they have been finding artificial recruitment clusters.” In other words, what she and others are doing works and works well.  

artificial RCW nest box

Biologist installing artificial RCW nest box. FWC

Red-cockaded woodpeckers are not the only species that benefit from management practices conducted on FWC’s Wildlife Management Areas. Prescribed fire, which maintains habitat diversity and prevents hardwoods from encroaching into open habitats, has helped boost populations of Northern bobwhite and Bachman’s sparrow. Limpkins and wood storks both respond positively when hydrologic restoration takes place through the plugging of ditches and the installation of low-water crossings. And the list goes on.

The benefits provided to birds through wildlife management areas were apparent during the remainder of the field trip. A white-eyed vireo sang from deep within a tangle of oak branches. A flock of white ibis took flight from a grassy marsh. Birds, including three more red-cockaded woodpeckers, were out in full force. So were the smiles on all of our faces.