Natural Notes: Birds and Habitats of the Florida Panhandle

Introduction
This spring I decided to take a break from Chicago's icy and cold weather and venture down to the Florida Panhandle (figure 1).  It was perfect timing for seeing migratory birds (and resident birds) making their way back up north. Florida in general is well known for its bird life, as its warm and swampy landscape provides a haven for birds and other wildlife.  Most people are accustomed to thinking of Florida as a landscape of high rise condominiums, tacky beach-themed restaurants, and swaying coconut trees.  The panhandle of Florida, however, looks much different overall than the southern part of the state.  For one thing, it is over 300 miles further north than the near-tropical regions of Miami and the Keys.  Secondly, outwash from the Appalachian Mountains and accumulated marine deposits allow for the presence of hills and even cliffs in this region of the Sunshine State.  And you won't find any coconut trees (Cocus nucifera) here, as wintertime temperatures can sometimes drop below freezing with an even colder windchill.  The Florida Panhandle is truly more of a subtropical environment.  
Figure 1:  Location of the Florida Panhandle (circled in black).  Image Source:  Wikimedia Commons

 That being said, the pandhandle of Florida does have a lot of similar vegetation communities, and this diversity makes the entire region a 'bird heaven'! During my trip my friends and I explored several different habitats in the numerous protected areas across the Florida Panhandle.  Please note that this blog post does not provide an official list of all of the plant communities found or described in this region.  

 Some Common Habitats in the Florida Panhandle
Being along the gulf coast, one of the most common habitats we explored was the coastal salt marsh community (figure 1).  These shoreline wetlands are often dominated by Saltmarsh Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) as well as various species of rushes (Juncus spp.).  
Figure 1:  Coastal marsh on an inlet off of the Gulf of Mexico.  St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge.  March 2015.
The vegetation in this community is highly tolerant of salty water, as ocean water mixes with fresh water to form a salt-fresh mix known as brackish water.  Many species of crabs and mollusks inhabit these areas, making it a prime destination to see a diverse array of birds that feed on the plant and animal material found in saltmarshes.  

 One of my favorite areas we explored, although not as diverse as far as birds are concerned, were the palm hammocks (see figure 2).  Saw palmetto (Serona repens), a low-growing shrub palm, is the dominant understory plant, 20-60 foot tall sabal palms (Sabal palmetto) grow at mid-level in the canopy, and slash pines (Pinus elliotti) tower above the palms in the overstory.  
Figure 2:  Palm hammock community.  St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge.  March 2015.  The fan-shaped fronds near the bottom of the photo are saw palmettos.  The  trunking palms are the sabal palms, and the tall trees that extend above the view on this image are slash pines.  

Viewing the palm hammocks almost feels like looking into the past at the Jurassic period when the last major group of dinosaurs ruled the earth and monocots (primitive flowering plants) like palms and sedges dominated the vegetation communities.  

 Of course, the beach and sand dune environments make the Gulf Coast a famous vacation destination (see figures 3 and 4).  Ghost crabs tunnel through the sand hiding from beach-goers and then come out at night in vast numbers to feed.  Sanderlings (Caladris alba) run up and down the swash zone of the beach (where the waves level out onto the sand) probing for tasty mollusks and crustaceans (see figure 5).  Dunes composed of bright-white quartz-based sand have sparse vegetation with sea oats (Uniolia paniculata) and occasionally even a prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.) (figure 6).  . 
Figure 3:  Coastal sand dune community.  St Joseph Peninsula State Park, Florida.  March 2015

Figure 4:  The bright white sand of a Gulf Coast beach.  St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, Florida.  March 2015
Figure 5:  Sanderlings (small birds in the middle of the photo) probing the sand for food.  
Figure 6:  Prickly pear cactus.  
The dune areas were also covered with ample amounts of lichen, a mix of algae and fungi that thrives on nutrients from the air.  Lichens are visible in figure 6 as a crusty material growing around the cactus.  

 In between the saltmarshes and beach areas, and out of direct wind and salt spray, are the maritime forests.  Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana), which is also found in a stunted form along some of the sand dunes, are often fond here as are Lobolly pines (Pinus taeda) and sometimes longleaf pine (P. paulstris).  Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneiodes), which is actually a bromeliad in the same family as pineapple, hangs from live oaks and other trees as an epiphyte, using nutrients and moisture from the air to photosynthesize (see figure 7).  
Figure 7:  Spanish moss hanging from a live oak tree in the maritime forest.  

 Further inland, the landscape consists of southern hardwood forest and longleaf pine barrens, but we did not explore these areas in depth.  

 Something I noticed with all of the plant communities we went through was the active use of prescribed burns by land management agencies.  A prolonged drought in an area with lots of pine trees shedding needles makes the Panhandle very vulnerable to wildfires.  Small, controlled burns allow excess leaf litter (otherwise great fuel for a wildfire) to be burned up while maintaining a diverse native plant community.  

 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my colleagues and friends Jessica Orlando and Kathleen Mahoney for chauffeuring me around the Florida Panhandle and rekindling my naturalist spirit.  I would also like to thank my aunt in-law Diana Brooks for taking me to one of my Grandmother's favorite spots:  the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.  

~

List of confirmed bird species in various places in the Florida Panhandle.  March 27-29, 2015.  Alex Palmer, Jessica Orlando, and Kathleen Mahoney

  1. Black-necked stilt
  2. Willet
  3. Carolina chickadee
  4. Brown-headed nuthatch
  5. Blue Jay
  6. Common Grackle
  7. Boat-tailed Grackle
  8. Fish Crow
  9. Blue-winged teal
  10. Great Blue Heron
  11. Tri-colored Heron
  12. Tree swallow
  13. Barn swallow
  14. Parula warbler
  15. Palm warbler
  16. Yellow-rumped warbler
  17. Bald eagle
  18. Osprey
  19. Red-shouldered hawk
  20. Turkey vulture
  21. Black vulture
  22. Little blue heron
  23. Great egret
  24. Snowy egret
  25. Stilt sandpiper
  26. Sanderling
  27. Ring-billed gull
  28. Herring gull
  29. Laughing gull
  30. Brown pelican
  31. American coot
  32. Red-breasted merganser
  33. Common moorhen
  34. Barred owl
  35. Red-bellied woodpecker
  36. Downy woodpecker
  37. Northern flicker
  38. Northern mockingbird
  39. Gray catbird
  40. Northern cardinal
  41. Tufted titmouse
  42. Common tern
  43. Glossy Ibis
  44. Greater Scaup



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