May – Full of Life

In May at St. Marks NWR it’s lighter now when the refuge gate opens at 6:00 am. On clear mornings the Eastern sky is already edged with color. There is barely enough time to hear Chuck-wills-widows calling and to watch for Common Nighthawks before they settle down and the day begins. Just North of Stony Bayou a thin layer of morning fog often floats above the freshwater marshes out of which a cacophony of noise rises as Red-winged Blackbirds and Boat-tailed Grackles try to drown out the songs of Common Yellowthroats and the warbling gurgles of Marsh Wrens. At first light Great Egrets begin leaving the East River rookery to hunt for food. They will be quickly followed by Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets. 

May is a transitional month. Species that nest in the boreal forests of Canada, Bay-breasted Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler and Cape May Warbler may still moving through as the month starts, but St. Marks’ Summer and permanent residents are already nesting and many, like the Prothonotary Warblers, have hatched young. Migrant songbirds will be increasingly scarce as the month progresses. 

At Headquarters Pond, the large white umbels of Elderberry blossoms are attracting bees. Along Lighthouse Road, Silver Bay’s three-inch wide flowers attract beetles and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are visiting Swamp Mallows along the outer levees. Dwarf Blueberry and Low Bush Blackberry, the first wild fruits to mature, provide food for Eastern Towhees and Raccoons. You can hear the throaty rumbles of bull gators calling across the marshes.

 May is a month full of life. The morning woods ring with birdsong. Out in the flatwoods, you can hear the eponymous call of Northern Bobwhite and the songs of Pine Warblers from the tree tops.  Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Eastern Wood Pewees are already sitting on eggs. At the Double Bridges, vireos are singing from the depths of the surrounding hammock, Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Acadian Flycatchers are calling and both of the Prothonotary Warbler boxes are occupied. By late month the refuge’s Summer birds will all have young out and their singing will diminish as they concentrate on feeding their broods.

On Stony Bayou I, migrating shorebirds are busily feeding, adding fat to support their upcoming flights. Most of them have completed their molt into breeding plumage and it is easy to pick out the non-migratory first year birds of species that over-summer at the refuge. They will retain their drab winter plumage until the following Spring. Wilson’s Plovers and Least Terns are beginning to nest on mudflats. The plovers will have young by the end of the month.

In the freshwater marshes, Sawgrass spikelets are developing just above their sharp-edged leaves and fuzzy black Common Gallinule chicks will soon be swimming after their parents between the pads and flowers of White Waterlily. Out in the salt marsh, Seaside Sparrows are singing from the tops of the Needlerush, marking their diminutive domains and female Clapper Rail are calling to attract males. 

Flocks of Bobolinks, flashily-patterned males and muted buff-yellow females, fly up off the levees and out of the marshes. By mid-month these late migrants will be gone, off to breed in fields and marshes in the Northern tier of states.

Out near the Lighthouse you can find transiting Whimbrels and Black-bellied Plovers feeding on the salt flats. At high tide, Forster’s and Royal Terns rest, along with Black Skimmers and a few Ruddy Turnstones. Look closely and you may find Sandwich Terns.

This is the time of year that Otter kits are born in bank dens under snarls of cypress roots and Eastern Screech Owlets begin peering out of their cavities to get a look at their new world. Dragonflies are now out in full force and it’s easy to find Four-spotted Pennants, Eastern Pondhawks and Seaside Dragonlets. Everywhere you look there are signs of burgeoning life.

There are still a few cool May mornings before June and the heat of Summer. Come down to St. Marks. There’s a lot going on.