New Faces

This has been an interesting winter on the lake in My Florida Backyard. Perhaps because of a lot of new vegetative growth in the lake itself (we believe most of it is the very invasive hydrilla, but it's not something we have any control over as the lake belongs to the HOA), we have seen winter visitors we've never noticed before. Our wintering water fowl have always included Lesser Scaup and Ring-Necked Ducks, but in recent months we've also noticed Blue Winged Teal and American Coots. And this past weekend, we documented another Florida winter bird that was new to us - the Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata).

We first noticed this pair while watching the more usual mallards on the lake, but quickly noticed something different. The bills of these birds are simply massive, and have a very obvious shovel shape. A quick web search for "duck shovel bill" gave us our answer, and the information that this bird is extremely common in the US. It winters here in the South, migrating north to its breeding grounds in the Northwest US and Canada.

The glossy green head of the male and obvious large bill make it easy to identify this bird. Interestingly, several of our birding guides note that this bird is more of a forager and is less likely to upend itself, instead feeding by swimming along with its head underwater. Our experience has been quite different, as these birds spend at least half their time with their hind ends up in the air looking for food (placing themselves squarely in the category we here in My Florida Backyard call "butt ducks"). This does give you a nice chance to notice the blue and green feathers that hide underneath their wings.

The guides also note that this species is monogamous, so the pair that's been in our pond all weekend are probably a mated pair getting ready to head north for the summer. We're not sure exactly why more species of migrating waterfowl are choosing the lake in My Florida Backyard this winter, but one thing's for sure - we're not complaining!

Simple Gifts

There's something so wonderful about an afternoon to yourself at the end of a very busy week. And it's even nicer when that afternoon is warm and sunny (while the weather reports are full of the winter storm up north!), and you have a few new plants needing homes, like the kalanchoe and sedum you found that are just perfect for the rock planters, and the marigolds you rescued from the clearance rack for half price.

Nothing fancy, nothing crazy... just some simple garden tasks in the backyard that you've finally taken back from the weeds of last summer. Remember this nightmare from last fall?

You can't help but pleased to know you're finally in charge again, and your favorite bench is available for basking in the winter sun once more.

Once you're done getting your hands in the dirt, you can wander around and see what's new in the garden. Winter is a wonderful time for native Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and in a few weeks the hummingbirds will pass through on migration and stop to enjoy it. This afternoon, the pleasure was all mine.

I've not been alone all afternoon, of course. The tufted titmice and cardinals are visiting the feeder, and a Great Egret is stalking its dinner in the pond nearby. Even more interesting, a pair of Blue-Winged Teal are floating past, the first time we've documented this species in My Florida Backyard.

And now, as the song goes, "the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart..." as well as across My Florida Backyard. 

It's not as calm and peaceful as the pictures might suggest - our neighbors are racing a dirt bike around the block, children are playing a noisy game across the lake, and it's our time of night to be in the flight path for Tampa International Airport. But the frogs are singing too, and a mockingbird in a nearby tree is trying out every tune in his repertoire. A limpkin calls in the distance, and the flapping of wings on the ponds suggests not all the ducks have settled down for the night. Nature fights for dominance in the suburbs, and rarely wins. But we do our best to focus on the simple gifts of My Florida Backyard, and let the rest slide by - at least today.

Early Years

It's been another warm winter here in My Florida Backyard, and coupled with last year's complete lack of a hard freeze, some of our plants are getting a very early start. We were astonished this year to find our hippeastrum already pushing up shoots in mid-January, at least 3 weeks earlier even than last year, and more than six weeks ahead of the extremely cold winter of 2010. There's no doubt that, even in Florida, changes in average temperatures can have a real impact on plants and animals.

In the mid-1800s, Henry David Thoreau began keeping a very detailed journal documenting the first flowering dates of plants in New England. Scientists recently compared Thoreau's flowering dates to those from recent years, and discovered that, on average, plants are blooming about 11 days earlier than they did 150 years ago. In that same time, average temperatures have climbed, and scientist have worked out that flowers are blooming "up to 4.1 days earlier for every 1 degree Celsius rise in average spring temperatures, which translates to 2.3 days for every 1 degree Fahrenheit" (via National Geographic).

This doesn't come as a surprise to gardeners, or to scientists for that matter. Just last year, the USDA released a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map, reflecting a shift to warmer average temperatures since the last map issued in 1990. (My Florida Backyard shifted from 9A to 9B, although our urban environment means reflected heat that really puts us in zone 10A.) This winter seems to be keeping line with those changes, with no hard freezes in the area so far, and none in the forecast despite some chilly mornings in the 40s.  Other plants and trees are blooming early, with redbuds and toadflax already putting on a good show in many areas, and willow trees leafing out even in cooler inland areas.

Regardless of your belief in the impact humans are having on our climate, there's no doubt that it's changing, and at a very fast rate. Gardeners in all climates will have many changes to adjust to, and many surprises in store, in the years to come. What's blooming early by you this year? I'd love to hear some other examples of how frost-free winters are affecting Central Florida gardeners.

Force of Nature

Much as we absolutely love living in Florida, there's some small part of us that misses the traditional signs of spring from up north. Starting with crocus and forsythia, through daffodils and tulips, to the ultimate fireworks of hundreds of flowering trees, spring up north seems desperate to display as much color and brilliance as quickly as possible once the grip of winter finally loosens. Here in Florida, there's no need for desperate displays, of course,  but we can't help but miss some of those traditional spring flowers. So, this year, we decided to force some spring bulbs, including tulips.

Tulips and other traditional spring bulbs require a dormant season in low soil temperatures, much lower than our ground temperature ever reaches here in Central Florida. In order to force them to bloom, it's necessary to mimic those conditions.

Back around Thanksgiving, we potted up six tulip bulbs and some grape hyacinth bulbs that we ordered from American Meadows, a popular bulb company. Per the instructions we found on the internet, we used soil-less potting mix and packed the pots full of bulbs; then we popped them into the crisper drawer in the fridge.

We left them in the fridge for a couple of months, until we noticed that a bit of fungus was growing on top of the soil. At this point, we thought perhaps we'd messed up the process, and just put the pots out on the porch and decided we'd see what happened. Within a week or so, green shoots started to appear, and within a month, we had tulip blooms!

We only planted half a dozen bulbs (this was really just a bit of an experiment this time around), and so far we've had pink (forgot to get pictures of that one), yellow, and red, with a few more buds starting to appear. When the bulbs are done flowering, there won't be any point in saving them for next year - the bulbs used up all their stored nutrients in the forcing process, and can't be forced again next year.

The grape hyacinths are starting poke up some bloom stalks now, so it seems our forcing experiment was more or less a success. It's nice to have a bit of northern spring here in My Florida Backyard while still enjoying the warm weather of February in the south!

Share My World

Introducing a new monthly feature here at My Florida Backyard: Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! This monthly event was started by a blogger named Carol at her blog, May Dreams Gardens, and now over 100 bloggers participate, sharing all of the blooms in their own gardens on the 15th of each month. Starting this month, we do too!

Blooms in My Florida Backyard seem to be about three weeks ahead of normal this year, thanks to the very warm January. The mild freeze this past weekend scared us a bit, but there was no real damage. Below is a collage - click here to view a complete slideshow.

There's a lot going on here - in the coming days, look for posts on our mailbox landscaping and forcing tulips. The Hippeastrum out front is about to burst into bloom too, so expect to see that post soon. In the meantime, if you have your own garden blog, why not join in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day? If you do, drop a link to your post in the comments below - we'd love to check it out!

The Pelican Brief

Every winter around this time, we get a very strange visitor to the lake in My Florida Backyard. It's unusual and yet expected, so even though we're no longer surprised, we're still always pleased to see him. It's a Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), which are common as dragonflies along the coastal waters but somewhat unexpected on a shallow inland lake more than five miles from the coast.

This brown pelican is an adult in non-breeding plumage - pelicans in breeding plumage have dark brown necks and white heads tinged with yellow. We've never known for sure if it's the same pelican that comes back each year (it's certainly possible - pelicans have been known to live 30 years or more), but it's definitely only a single pelican at a time. Sometimes he's part of the massive groups of water birds that congregate on the lake in the winter (see this previous post for an example) and sometimes he's on his own.

Some days we only see the pelican in flight overhead, soaring up and down the string of stormwater lakes that dot our neighborhood. Brown pelicans are unique among pelicans in that they look for food from the sky, diving in headfirst like a sleek arrow. Other pelican species hunt more like dabbling ducks, swimming on the surface and bobbing their heads under to catch fish. When the brown pelican bobs along on the water, he's just taking a rest between diving missions.

He looks large next to this flock of Double Crested Cormorants, but brown pelicans are actually the smallest of the eight species of pelicans found worldwide. The White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), found in some areas of Florida during the winter, can be more than twice its size. Still, the brown pelican is a commanding presence on our small inland lake, and we enjoy having one around every winter!