Orlando Wetlands

Park Newsletter

A Publication of the Friends of the Orlando Wetlands and The Orlando Wetlands Park

Inside this issue

Around the Park ............. 2

Believe It or Not! ............ 4

Volunteer Spotlight ........ 6

Wildflower Corner ......... 7

Butterfly Spotlight .......... 8

Happenings .................... 9

Park Information ............ 10

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)

routinely places colored leg bands on duck species of interest. Since

2004, mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) and wood ducks (Aix sponsa)

have been captured and tagged. In 2015, black-bellied whistling

ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) were added to the leg banding

study. Staff analyze band recovery data to estimate annual survival

rates and the

proportion of the

population that is

harvested each year,

as well as use the

data to monitor

movements.

(Continued on page 2)

October—November 2015 Volume 3, Issue 5

Editor: Rachel Kessler

Orlando Wetlands Park 25155 Wheeler Road Christmas, Florida 32709-1375 Phone 407.568.1706 Fax 407.568.1725 cityoforlando.net

Photo by Mark Pollitt

Waterfowl Biologist Bands Ducks at the OWP

Photo: Rachel Kessler

FWC Waterfowl

Biologist

Mark McBride

captures and

tags a mottled

duck.

THE PARK WILL BE CLOSED NOV.

15—JAN. 31

Around the Park

2

Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) have returned to the Wetlands Park. They can be seen soaring high the sky. The “cry” of an eagle is actually a high-pitched twittering or squeaking sound. Eagles mate for life and return to the same nest year after year. Their nests are built high in the trees and can measure as much as 8 feet across.

(Continued from page 1)

On August 17, Waterfowl Biologist

Mark McBride from the FWC

captured ducks at the Orlando

Wetlands Park as part of on-going

research. A female black bellied

whistling duck along with a brood of

11 chicks were captured and fitted

with an orange leg band. 2 mottled

ducks were also captured, tagged

and released.

-Mark Sees

Photo: Mary Keim

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

If you see a duck with a color leg band, please

report it at the following website:

https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/bblretrv/

3

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) throughout the park are covered in bright purple berries. The berries of this Florida native plant are an essential food source for birds and other wildlife. Deer will also eat the leaves of beautyberry. Historically, pioneers placed beautyberry leaves under their saddles to ward off mosquitoes.

Cattails (Typha sp.) have gone to seed. The brown flower portions that look like a hot dog on a stick, have popped open to expose tiny white fluffy seeds that will then disperse through the air. Cattails also reproduce via their roots, or rhizomes. Historically, cattail fluff has been used as stuffing for pillows, mattresses, and even life vests during WWII.

Photo: Rachel Kessler

Photo: Rachel Kessler

A mother doe and her two fawns have been spotted darting through the Wetlands Park. When White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) sense danger, their tails become upright, exposing the white underside. This “flagging” alerts other deer to potential danger. The young fawns are camouflaged with brown and white speckled fur. The wetlands provide an important and healthy White-tailed deer habitat with fresh water, brush for coverage, and plenty of nutrient rich foraging plants.

Photo: Jutta Geisler

Believe It or Not!

4

In June and July, FOW’s Green Venture, whose mission is to expand wildlife mini-corridor corners in

yards throughout our community by selling native plants to homeowners, sold twenty native plants.

Six new habitats developed. A total of 30 square feet expanded as new mini-wildlife corridor corners

in Central Florida yards. Migrating and year round birds, butterflies, bees and pollinators benefit from

every habitat developed. Six Central Florida families are enjoying their morning orange juice or sunset

lemonade with more wildlife, more reproducing birds, heartier nestlings, stronger migrating birds.

Pause and reflect in the midst of your busy life.

Sit down with morning orange juice or sunset

lemonade. Observe the wildlife in your yard.

What do you hear? A squirrel scratching up a

pine? The wind rustling sabal fronds? What

plants or trees are the birds, bees, and

butterflies most attracted to in your yard?

What time of day do you observe the most

wildlife? What season is it? What is the play of

sunlight and shade across your yard? What’s

visiting your birdbath(s)? Finally, how does

sitting with nature make you feel? Hopefully,

you’ll enjoy the experiment. Photo: Doug Tallamy

Photo: Kerry Paddock

But why native plants? All plants occupy

space. They use resources: light, water

and soil nutrients.1 The key is which

plant, harvesting sunlight, best moves

that energy up the food chain. Yes, to

insects, caterpillars, birds, and larger

mammals. In Central Florida, plants and

animals co-evolved over a very long

period of time. Plants do not like to be

eaten. They produced chemicals that

make a plant bitter and disagreeable to

insects, birds, butterflies, and people.

Through evolution, wildlife adapted to

eat a particular plant. Not all people

adapted to eat broccoli or onions.

To explain it in human appreciation terms: What if a meat eater’s favorite local steak house closed

up, and the only restaurants left, served hummus or 3 bean chili? This is what it is like when the

poster butterfly, the Monarch, searches for a milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, to lay its eggs on; or

when an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail cannot find a tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, or a sweetbay,

Magnolia virginiana, for its eggs; or when chickadees can’t find enough caterpillars for its babies? A

plant can only function as a true “native” while it is interacting with the community that historically

helped shape it.4 Species that are not native to Central Florida ecosystems typically do not support

the wide variety of wildlife that our native species support.

Next time you’re at the Orlando

Wetlands Park, buy 3 native plants for

$10. Begin expanding your native plants

for wildlife. Potted plants are on the

Educational Center’s front porch. More

nursery pots are at the western side of

the Wildlife Garden, Hawks Way, by the

shed. Wednesdays (9 to 11); Fridays and

Saturdays (9 to 4). Closed November 14

through February 1. Please leave your

email with the volunteer if you have

questions. Thank you for creating a mini-

wildlife corridor corner in your yard!

-Sandy Bauerschmidt

5

A clutch of Chickadees needs 390-570 caterpillars per day for survival, or 6240 to 10260 caterpillars until they fledge.2 A Red-bellied Woodpecker weighs 8 times more than a chickadee. How much more insect biomass is required to sustain its babies to adulthood? Whenever insect biomass improves, bird reproduction improves. “Fledgling numbers or weight or both increase.” 3

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)

Photo: Mary Keim

1Bringing Nature Home, Doug Tallamy 2007, p 66. 2The Living Landscape, Doug Tallamy and Rick Darke, 2014, p. 96. 3The Living Landscape, p.101. 4Bringing Nature Home, Doug Tallamy, p 66.

Friends of the Orlando Wetlands

The Friends of the Orlando Wetlands

(FOW) is a citizen support

organization for the City of Orlando's

Orlando Wetlands Park. Its mission is

to assist the City of Orlando

employees in providing educational

opportunities to increase community

awareness, support and appreciation

of the park and its wildlife.

Volunteer Spotlight: Jim Hulbert

Jim became involved at the Wetlands Park 22 years ago when he was assigned by DEP to work on

permit details and requirements for the Wetlands. Jim got involved in volunteering when he met Bob

Rope, who at the time was starting the Friends of the Orlando Wetlands volunteer group. Jim was

inspired by Bob’s dedication to the Park and encouragement to “just have fun... and it won’t then

seem like work.” Over the years, Jim has brought many field trip groups to the Park, including

biologists, engineers, and students from Rollins College where Jim teaches in the Biology department.

He’s grateful that over the years his students have also been able to do reviews and projects at OWP.

What Jim likes best about the Park is that it’s multi-use: a place to treat wastewater, but also a place

to relax, enjoy nature, bird watch, bike and hike, view alligators and maybe some snakes, and “in my

field, those lowly organisms that tell us so much about their

environments.” Jim is a member of FAB (Florida Association of

Benthologists). He also enjoys travelling to numerous states and

countries, some with his friend Bob Rope, to explore waterfalls from

top to bottom. He has visited over 400 waterfalls! Thank you Jim for

all that you do!

The Orlando Wetlands Park welcomes the newest Friends of the

Orlando Wetlands Volunteers.

6

Welcome New Volunteers!

Arancha Lattanzio

“The part I enjoy most is giving tours; it’s great to see the reactions of first time visitors to the OWP, especially the school kids as well as college students. “ -Jim Hulbert

Jamael Gray

7

Wildflower Corner – Frostweed

A fall bloomer in Orlando Wetlands Park is Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) in the Aster Family

(Asteraceae). Also called White Crownbeard, this wildflower grows to about 6 feet in height and has

clusters of white flowers at the top.

Frostweed attracts pollinators including many species of the park’s butterflies. If you enjoy watching

pollinators, this is a great plant!

Look for this tall, Florida native wildflower at the swamp and hammock edges in the park.

-Text and photos by Randy Snyder and Mary Keim

Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) Monk on Frostweed

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on Frostweed Carpenter-mimic Leafcutter Bee on Frostweed

Three related and somewhat similar species are the Barred Yellow (Eurema daira), Little Yellow

(Pyrisitia lisa) and Dainty Sulphur (Nathalis iole). All are members of the Whites and Sulphurs group

(Family Pieridae; Subfamily Coliadinae). All occur in seasonal forms, i.e., darker in winter and lighter

yellow or white in summer. All have a wingspan of an inch or less. Barred Yellow and Little Yellow can

be seen throughout the year while Dainty Sulphur is typically seen from March through December.

Little Yellow can be distinguished from the Barred Yellow by the spot at the outer margin of its hind

wing. Dainty Sulphur is smaller than the others, with an orange band along the leading edge of the

forewing and black spots in the submargin. The dorsal wing surfaces are rarely shown.

Caterpillar host plants for Barred Yellow and Little Yellow are herbs in the Pea Family (Fabaceae), while

Dainty Sulphur caterpillars feed on Spanish Needles (Bidens alba).

Look for these three small sulphurs along the berms where they nectar on a wide variety of

wildflowers.

–Text and photos by Randy Snyder

8

Butterfly Spotlight – The Small Sulphurs

SUMMER FORMS

WINTER FORMS

Barred Yellow

Barred Yellow

Little Yellow

Little Yellow

Dainty Sulphur

Dainty Sulphur

Happenings

9

Viva Florida Wildflower Grant We are proud to announce that the Orlando Wetlands Park and

Friends of the Orlando Wetlands Park are recipients of the Viva Florida

Wildflower Grant through the Florida Wildflower Foundation! Work is

underway to prepare and plant wildflower seeds over six miles of

berm slopes in various locations around the park. We look forward to

the beautiful wildflowers and the wildlife they will attract.

Free Children’s Sensory Hike! Come discover the fun of hiking at Orlando Wetlands Park!

November 7, 2015, from 9 am to 10 am

Children must be accompanied by adults. Ages 5 and up.

Clothing: closed toe shoes, long pants, hat, sunglasses

Bring: water, sunscreen, bug spray, snack, camera

Where: meet at Orlando Wetlands park Educational Building

The children’s sensory hike will discover the sights, sounds

and smells of the Orlando Wetlands park. Come find out what

scents are along the trail. What can you see? What do a

sweetgum seed, beauty berry leaf and bark from a

musclewood tree feel like? This introductory walk will find the

Florida state tree and consider what wildlife enjoys it.

Orange Audubon Butterfly Identification Class Sunday, October 25, 2015 from 8:30 am—5:00 pm

Cost: $25 (members)

$40 (non-members)

$10 (12 & under with registered adult)

Location: Orlando Wetlands Park & Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

Instructors: Randy Snyder & Mary Keim (rssmhk@gmail.com)

Registration: Teresa Williams (407) 644-0796 (mwilliams@cfl.rr.com)

Class limit: 16 participants

(Continued on page 10)

Photo: Mary Keim

Education Center Exhibit: Mammals

The Wetlands Park Education Center will feature a seasonal display during the months of October and November titled: Mammals. Stop in and visit the center. Incredible photographs by our Friends of the Orlando Wetlands will be displayed!

THE PARK WILL BE CLOSED NOV. 15—JAN. 31

Come take a tour of the Wetlands! Friends of the Orlando Wetlands will be available for tram tours each Friday from 9:00am until 3:00pm and Saturday from 9am until 4pm during October through November 14. The Tram Tour seating capacity is 7 people on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservation required. The Tram Tours are free. Donations are welcome.

Friends of the Orlando Wetlands: orlandowetlands.org

Orlando Wetlands Park 25155 Wheeler Road Christmas, Florida 32709-1375 Phone 407.568.1706 Fax 407.568.1725 cityoforlando.net

Free Tram Tours Available

Happenings

Photo: Mary Keim