February at the Refuge

Photo credit: Janet Myers

The mornings down at St. Marks NWR have been foggy lately. They often are in February, as warm winds coming off the Gulf meet cooler land. This time of the year is both late winter and earliest spring. At first glance, the trees at the Double Bridges are bare, but a closer look shows leaf buds and tiny flowers growing on the branches of maples and elms. We still have most of our winter species, but last week I saw a small flock of Purple Martins high above the refuge headed north. They are usually the first wintering bird to return from South America.

Our wintering ducks are beginning to leave. Mallards and pintails are usually the first two species to completely disappear, but overall duck numbers have already begun to drop. Some of our resident cardinals, Red-shouldered Hawks and Carolina Wrens are beginning to set up territories and by the end of the month, all of our resident breeding birds will be singing.

This is the month to watch for returning Swallow-tailed Kites, Barn Swallows and Northern Parula warblers. For otters, foxes, and raccoons, it is mating time. Green Darners will emerge and begin patrolling the levee edges. Before the month is out, spiderwort, lyre-leaved sage and rain lilies will begin blooming and white water lilies will start to open on the refuge’s pools and ponds. Seasonal change is visible everywhere, even if you must sometimes view it through February fog.

The flamingo that showed up in December is still here two months later. For the last week it has been in Mounds Pool 3, a long walk, but worth it. This pond also has most of the remaining ducks. The flamingo alternately sleeps and feeds and, when the local eagles swoop in setting off a big duck flight, the flamingo takes off and flies around the pond. It is a spectacular sight with its neck stretched out and its long legs trailing behind. Its black-edged wings measure almost six-feet from tip to tip.

Mounds Pool 3 is also where a group of American Avocets has been through most of the winter. Avocets are large elegant black-and-white shorebirds with long, slightly upturned bills. They breed in shallow wetlands in the interior West. The refuge lies at the northern edge of their wintering habitat. They are becoming more common as a wintering bird at the refuge and may be extending their winter range northward as the climate changes.

It’s February at St. Marks and winter is winding down quickly. Come to the refuge to see it off.