Observing Songbirds And Gopher Tortoises

Location, location, location; the importance of habitat.

Today was a slow day for migrating raptors. I did see 28 Osprey, 4 Merlin, and an American Kestrel. It was what else that I observed that excited me more.

Today was a lesson in why habitat is so important to wildlife survival. Wildlife needs three things in order to survive. They need a home. They need a food source. They need safety from humans and other prey.

This morning I discovered immature Red-headed Woodpeckers in an area where I haven’t seen them before. As I pondered why, I realized that the area had everything they needed to make a home. It has lots of dead snags to nest in and store food. It has all of the food a Red-headed Woodpecker would like, insects which they can catch on the fly, dead trees to drill for insects bored within, acorns and fruits. What it doesn’t have is human interference and no prey, except for the danger of larger migrating raptors. My hope is that these Red-headed Woodpeckers make this their home and produce young, helping to turn back the numbers that show a yearly decline of these birds at 4.3%.

Another lesson in habitat happened when I looked down at my feet after a few hours of sitting almost motionless observing the migrating raptors and arriving songbirds and found a Gopher Tortoise within inches of my feet, obliviously munching Dollar Weed leaves. This area has it all for Gopher Tortoise. It has plenty of protein rich, herbaceous foods and Palmetto Palm seeds. It has acres of sandy, well-drained dunes to make burrows in. There are almost no humans that might cause interference. Gopher Tortoises make many burrows that they use and visit through out the year. A male may travel to many burrows requiring 4 or more acres in territory. Gopher Tortoises are sexually mature at 10-15 years and will live as long as 65 years. They are a threatened species in Florida. They are a species in decline, and because almost 350 different animals, birds, snakes and insects use their burrows for homes it is quite possible that if the tortoise becomes endangered we will see many other species who share the Gopher Tortoises’ home-sites become endangered as well.

Habitat for both the Red-headed Woodpecker and the Gopher Tortoise is shrinking at a steady decline. I’m thankful that this area can be home to both species. With careful stewardship we can provide the location, location, location for many generations of these wonderful creatures.