Mar. 7, 2010 - St. Mark's NWR
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During one of my visits to St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, I came across this Armadillo right alongside the road. The full common name for this animal is the Nine-banded Armadillo. They are protected by their leathery armored shell. In fact, the word “armadillo” is Spanish for “little armored one”. They have long, strong claws which they use to dig for food and to dig burrows. When they do this in someone’s yard, it makes them very unpopular with the homeowner.
Here’s a close-up of the Armadillo. Contrary to popular belief, the nine-banded Armadillo cannot roll itself up into a ball. It’s most common defense is to run away. It also has a tendency to jump straight up in the air when startled. Unfortunately, that puts it right about bumper height and often results in it becoming road kill. One interesting fact about Armadillos is they give birth to four identical young, all developing from the same egg.
St. Mark’s has large pools of shallow water that are managed for waterfowl and shorebirds. This Pied-billed Grebe was in one of those pools. Pied-billed grebes are found year round over all of the southern United States. During summer, lots of them move to small ponds and marshes over the entire U.S. and most of Canada. This photo shows the winter plumage. Breeding plumage is not much flashier. Overall they get somewhat darker with a black throat and a black ring around the bill.
These are Boat-tailed Grackles. The male is on the left and the female on the right. Diana and I took our first trip to Florida many years ago. I still remember how confused we were when we saw a mixed flock of these birds. We actually thought they must be different species. Even though we were novice birders then, we did know that males and females of the same species often have different looking plumages. But not only did these grackles look different, they were also different in size. Males are 16 ½ “ and females are only 13”. Plus, the male has yellow eyes and the female has brown eyes. After asking some park rangers about these birds, we did finally get it straightened out. Boat-tailed Grackles are found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and all across Florida.
This pair of Redhead ducks (male in front, female in back) was also in one of the ponds at St. Mark’s. Redheads migrate to the southern United States for the winter; especially large concentrations are found in the coastal lagoons in Texas. Many female ducks lay eggs in the nests of other ducks, usually of the same species. This is apparently very common with Redheads. They have even been known to lay eggs in the nests of 10 other duck species.
Glen
on March 8, 2010Another little known fact about your leathery little friend in the first couple pictures......These little guys can carry the bacterial desease leprosy. The occurance in the armadillo is small and the immune system of the human is somewhat resistant to the desease so the odds of a human contracting it from an armadillo is small. It's best to not handle them with bare hands if at all.....
Glen