During the winter months a couple of dozen White Ibis, a listed bird species, take refuge on the little island in the middle of the duck pond in Riverside Park. They are a beautiful white wading bird with a down-curved bill and neat black wingtips. It is always a thrill to see them fly to the park in their V formations and make spectacular acrobatics when they land.
Evidently because of our prolonged cold weather, there are now over ONE THOUSAND White Ibis completely covering the island. They are so closely crowded together that many of them have to stand in the water. They begin coming in about 5:00PM and by 6:00PM the island and its' trees are completely covered.
This amazing sight won't last after the weather warms up so come to see it now!
There has also been a small falcon, probably a Merlin, making passes over the pond trying to scare up dinner. He looks like a small jet airplane making strafing runs.
(http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd256/dellwooddaisy/misc023.jpg)
Awesome! I saw them on the island when there were fewer, but that crowd looks amazing.
I wonder how the ducks feel about sharing their hood.
Outnumbered! LOL! Most of the ducks seem to be intimidated into staying out in the water. The other wading birds have taken to the trees. As usual, NOBODY, pushes the geese around and they stay where they want and always have a space around them.
Looks like gentrification... next there will be a post that SPAR is behind it.
White Ibis are elegant looking, but they are wild birds of the marshes and swamps. Not gentrification, but a refugee camp! That pond water must be warmer than where they came from.
References to SPAR or Springfield are hereby prohibited on this thread! ;)
The downside, those palm trees will be covered in droppings even more than they are typically.
Reed, I want to build an artificial nesting roost on that island. Trees don't have a chance when they are used by so many birds, but the birds need a place. The island is also too small to support enough trees.
I am sure that enough money could be raised by me and some of the conservation groups that we could build something and not cost the City any funds beyond their normal provisions for maintainence.
The Jacksonville Zoo could probably design something proper since they have the experience of building a nesting colony for the Woodstorks that has been very successful.
Any other wading species hanging around or is it almost exclusively white ibis? Just curious if there might be the occasional glossy ibis in the mix. I would also guess there might be some night herons (black & yellow crowned) in the group as well. The artificial roost tree is a great idea, but if we can't even get the City to clean up that foul trash-strewn water, good luck getting them to do anything else.
There are always a lot of different waders on the island. Haven't seen any night herons yet, but Little Blue Herons, Tri-Color Herons, Common Egrets, Snowy Egrets are common. I saw some dark Ibis the mix last night, but it was too dark to tell if they were immature White Ibis or Glossies. We even saw a Rosiette Spoonbill there this summer!
There has even been a small flock of Cattle Egrets working the yards and rights-of-way in Riverside for the past few days.
There have been a few rumors that the Parks Dept is going to clean out the pond, rebuild the island, and put in a skimmer system of some sort. I will believe it when I see it! The pond is a continuing disgrace and needs to be maintained far more aggressively than it is. Just another example of the City not maintaining what it has, but rushing around to build new stuff. Just think what the money wasted on the equestrian center could have done for fixing stuff up.
The only reason the homeless do not inhabit the island is the fence. Perhaps the next mayor can work to clean up the parks system since the one before Peyton worked so hard to build a world class park system and Peyton just let it fall apart.
Here are some picture that were taken at the Park last night.
http://jaxoutloud.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29737&page=2
If the homeless every got into that water we would have some interesting new diseases to report!
Wayne Wood, the founder of RAP, the Riverside Arts Market and eye doctor extraordinaire, also turns out to be a fantastic videographer. Take a look at this one that he shot yesterday evening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcqerqXXWNo
http://www.youtube.com/v/jcqerqXXWNo&hl=en_US&fs=1&hd=1
Thanks, Lunican. I don't know how to do that. Ain't it awesome?
I'll be there saturday beer in hand to watch!!
Capt, Make that beer in cup or water bottle. No beverages containing C6H12O6 are allowed in the park without a special event permit, but JSO isn't going to sample your beverage if it's not obvious and you are not flashing the birds.
In any case, don't put off seeing this too long because as soon as the open water warms up a bit they will not come is such numbers.