My Yard ~ First Butterfly of 2017

Cabbage White on Ground Ivy

Florida Trip Wrap-up

My Florida trip was great.  Weather was just awesome though I must say they need rain very badly. My bird life list has another 10 species on it including the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  I saw a total of 135 species on my trip.  My butterfly life list has another 9 species on it.  Two or three days I saw 20+ species of butterflies. My favorite of those had to be photographing the endangered Atala Butterfly.  I was able to find eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis and the butterfly itself.  My Florida list of butterflies is at 50 species with 3 not yet Id'd.  I saw tons of alligators and turtles, some snakes, lizards, a snink and an otter.

FL ~ Springtime Babies

Great Blue heron with chicks

Sandhill Cranes and their colts

Fl Rookery ~ Roseate Spoonbills and more

Egrets flying into roost at sunset

Wood Stork

Fellsmere, FL ~ St Sebastain River Preserve State Park ~ Red-cockaded Woodpecker ~ Life Bird #428

I was looking for a place to spend some time as my accommodations wouldn't be ready until 4PM the other day. My original plan was to visit West Regional WTF Wetlands but when I arrived there the gates were locked with a sign up that they are closed until April 6th.  This was a bummer because this also happened in Delray Beach where the wetlands are closed until March 18th.  I did some quick research at the local library and found that this state park is known for the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  I decided I'd hike here and see if I could find them.  I wasn't successful the first time I hiked there but today I was successful in finding one of the woodpeckers though first, I did find 2 Downy Woodpeckers.  Because they are endangered and the woodpecker makes nests in the hardwood Long-needle Pines, the naturalists are "helping" them by putting nest boxes into the pine trees.  The woodpeckers, then work on the trees making the sap drain down and cover the front of the boxes so the snakes can't get in and eat the eggs or baby woodpeckers.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Natural nest made by the woodpecker

Nest help from the Naturalists with the sap starting to cover it.

Fellsmere, FL ~ St Sebastain River Preserve State Park

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler

Melbourne, FL ~ Viera Wetlands

Early Morning meeting of the minds

Wilson's Snipe

American Bittern

Male Anhinga

"Cousins" ~ Tri-colored Heron and Green Heron

Female Anhinga feeding

Female Anhinga ` And down it goes

Boat-tailed Grackle

Scenes near Lakeland, FL

Lake Hunter, FL

Lake Hunter

Limpkin

Great Blue Heron with dinner

Lesser Scaup

Polk County, FL ~ Circle B Bar Ranch Reserve

Another great time at Circle B Bar Ranch Preserve.  I think tis is one of my favorite places to bird in all in FL as it has birds, butterflies, wild boars, alligators and more. Lots of hiking every day so it's also good for my health.

Wild Sow

Young Great Blue Heron

Mama Great Blue Heron

Palm Warbler going into alternate plummage

Red-shouldered Hawk on nest

American Alligators ~ Brotherly Love

Polk County, FL ~ Circle B Bar Ranch Preserve

Northern Parula

Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Black-crowned Night-heron

Common Gallinule and chick

Green Heron

Roseate Spoonbill

Polk County, Fl Butterflies

Southern Skipperling ~ Life Skipper

Three-spotted Skipper