December 17 2014. Turner River Florida. I’m told and willingly accept that a Short-tailed Hawk seen circling low overhead should be my Bird of the Day; it has to be. Well, I’d never seen one before in my life and until moments ago I didn’t know they were rare; actually really quite rare.
With friends we had been canoeing down a river on the edge of the Everglades in Florida. This was a canoe trip like no other that I’ve ever done (and I’ve done a few). Under the patient direction of a park employee, we paddled at least half of our journey along a faintly defined watercourse through a mangrove swamp. Mangroves are those tropical waters-edge trees that put down arching roots to create a three-dimensional low-level waterlogged prison.
I said that I’ve done a few canoe trips and that’s neither an overly modest nor an exaggerated assessment. I’m no expert paddler but I do get the mechanics of paddling, steering and progressing along an intended course. This is infinitely more than can be said for one of the other canoeing couples in our little flotilla. I think you’ll readily appreciate that it makes no sense whatsoever for both paddlers (assuming one in front and one behind) to paddle on the same side of the vessel when the intention is go straight ahead. Similarly, should you wish to avoid an obstacle it is never a good plan to point the front of the canoe at the obstacle and paddle hard. Someone should have told Ken and Irene about this; they made me feel like an expert.
How or why anyone found our route to begin with is beyond me, much of our progress was achieved by grasping overhead branches and pulling our canoes along, we spent a lot of time bent double avoiding a skull-raking or neck-snapping obstruction. Mangrove swamps are essentially impenetrable to humans; somehow we paddled one of the few that is not, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t close in behind us after we’d gone through.
Going through the mangrove tunnel was not a birding experience, but once clear of it we found ourselves in the middle of an expanse of Florida’s wild land; and there were some interesting birds. An American Bittern standing on the river’s edge was a gasp-making sighting for most of our party, and so it should be. I’ve had the good fortune to see perhaps five or six bitterns this year, a goodly number; and I would have counted it as my Bird of he Day had I not seen a Short-tailed Hawk shortly afterwards.
Our companion Eric had earlier mentioned to always check soaring kettles of Turkey or Black Vultures lest a Short-tailed Hawk or some other oddity had somehow found its way to join them. So at lunch, standing wet-footed where the canoes had been pulled ashore, I dutifully scanned a rather low group of wheeling Turkey Vultures for just that eventuality; and there, sure enough, was a hawk that I didn’t recognise but knew by elimination had to be a Short-tailed. I nudged Eric, gestured skyward with my cheese sandwich and casually noted the Short-tailed Hawk as expected. It wasn’t a wow moment for me but it sure was for Eric; grabbing for his binoculars he almost lost his sandwich and fell back over a canoe he was so thunderstruck. This, he assured me, was a very fine bird indeed, a real rarity. And here’s the thing, I just took it as yet another new-to-me-in-this-lifetime bird; there had been several over the past 48 hours and while they were all eye-brow raising events none had yet made me choke with excitement. Perhaps the Short-tailed Hawk will grow on me; for now it’s Bird of the Day thanks to Eric.
You can view many more of my photos of shorebirds, herons and the like in Florida by clicking on this link.
