Cooper's Hawk

During the week of February 5, a Cooper's Hawk returned to the roof of Cook Hall. The hawk perched at the top of the north chimney at Cook Hall. A Cooper's Hawk was a regular visitor during the winter of 2008, using the same perch, particularly in cold or rainy weather.

Cooper's hawks are medium sized hawks with long tails, alternating bars of brown and white across its tail. It preys on medium sized birds and mammals. Whenever the Cooper's Hawk shows up, the small flock of pigeons that lives on the north tower roof of Cook Hall, vanishes.

For more information on Cooper's Hawks, see : http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Coopers_Hawk_dtl.html#habitat

Osprey rebuild nest east of Cook Hall

During the week of January 26, a pair of osprey began rebuilding a nest in a standing dead pine tree east of Cook Hall. This tree has supported an osprey nest every winter for the past 6 years, with the exception on one year when the nest was taken over by Great Horned Owls. Now three weeks later, the osprey pair are still adding spanish moss and sticks to the nest. The osprey are perched on the tree every day. Sometimes one osprey is sitting on the nest while the other is perched on a nearby branch.

This nest tree stand in a grassy parking area for Cook Hall. Several years ago the college hired an arborist to remove all branches that were likely to fall, in order to prevent damage to cars in the parking area.

Osprey incubate their eggs for 32-43 days. Once the young birds hatch, they spent 48-59 days in the nest and nest tree before they fledge. Female osprey are larger than males and have a necklace of heavier brown marking across their breast. Male breasts are uniformly white. Both parents incubate, but the female does the majority of the incubation while the male primarily provides food.

Mulberries are Blooming

The Mulberry Morus rubra tree northeast of the Four Winds Cafe is blooming.  The immature fruits look almost like fuzzy pussy willows, but will soon turn pink and then into the dark violet fruit students favor for eating and unavoidable body decoration. The best known local mulberry is found on the Ringling Museum grounds roughly Southeast of the Rose Garden.

Squawky Parrots Still Frequent Campus

A flock of fourteen Nanday Conures was seen last weekend perched on wires at the intersection of General Spaatz and Bay Shore Road. These noisy birds are a group of feral parrots that have persisted in the vicinity for years. At one time more than thirty could be seen in the flock. They are cavity nesters and feature black heads, green bodies and red thighs. The other parrots commonly seen around campus are Monk Parakeets, which have pale faces and are colonial nesters that construct large nests of materials like pine needles.

If you want to know more about Nandays, check out Birch Rambo's 1992 thesis: The Behavioral Ecology of the Nanday Conure (Nandayus nenday), an Introduced Parrot Species in Sarasota, Florida. 

Photo below from http://www.parroteducationproject.org/

The Mangos are Blooming! The Mangos are blooming!

Northeast of the Four Winds Cafe is a star-shaped planting of ten mango (Mangifera indica) trees. These trees are special, named varieties of compact mangos planted to honor and remember Kit Reilly, a well-loved, mango-loving NC student who died tragically in the summer of 2003.

A tropical fruit tree, mangos in Florida bloom during the winter, when the chance of a freeze could wipe out the fruit set. In addition, mangos are notoriously shy bearers -- thousands of blossoms on a tree many result in only a handful of fruit. This year all ten mangos are blooming. The exact varieties are shown below.

Grounds Crew Tackles Exotics on Caples Shore

The College Grounds Crew descended on the northern section of the Caples shoreline Monday to remove massive Brazilian Peppers and an exotic fig that was 'strangling' a cabbage palm. The result is a much improved view and more room for native plants such as Sea Grape, and Christmas Berry. 

Unfortunately, we don't have a before picture, but the result (seen above) is a view few campuses can match. The crew should be back on Tuesday. 

Crepuscular Owl Misses Sunset Snapshot

While setting my iPhone on a railing at Caples to take the accompanying sunset snapshot a Great Horned Owl (Bubo viginianus)  flew across the field of view from North to South. Our campus hosts both this, the largest, Florida owl as well as the smallest, the Screech Owl.

For the past two years Great Horned Owls have commandered a former Osprey nest off the southwest corner of the Pritzker Marine Science Building. This year two Great Horned Owls (a pair?) have been seen and heard calling to each other at Caples, but, according to Dr. Heidi Harley Ospreys are carrying nesting materials to the Pritzker nest. 

Although this owl was seen at dusk, Great Horned Owls are apparently atypical in that they hunt throughout the day and night-- they are not solely crepuscular.