A Sunday in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

A hawk was sitting on my neighbor's sailboat in the morning.

Blue jay screaming at the hawk.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher sitting in the grapefruit tree. It's the first time I've seen a blue-gray in our backyard. I think he was watching the blue jay at the top of the tree.

Later, as the clouds moved in I noticed the downy woodpecker on the same (almost dead) grapefruit tree.

Another downy picture.

The resident osprey showed up later with a fish.

Creepy clouds moving in right before the sun went down.

Our grapefruit tree is going to have to go soon. It's about 75% dead. It covers around 25% of our backyard and has been there since the house was build back in the 60's. It's been great for shading part of the house and I'm going to miss it (except for picking up rotten grapefruit for half the year). I don't know what I want to replace it with. Something that's already half grown so we can get some shade fairly soon. We don't want another fruit tree since it's just too much work to pick up the fruit. Our soil is sandy and the tree would sit in between our house and the seawall. It would get lots of sun. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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My first King Rail and other birds too.

My first king rail. This one has been in the same spot for a couple of weeks at the park, just look for the big group of photographers hanging around the corner of Heron Hideout and Marsh Rabbit Run.

Red bellied woodpecker looking at something interesting.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher looking up at the sky. Probably checking out a hawk.

One of the sandhill crane couples had laid an egg in a small nest in the middle of the marsh.  Hopefully, in the next week or two there will be a fuzzy brown baby running around.

Great egret flying along Lake Hancock.

This is why helium balloons should be outlawed. Some poor animal is going to choke on that. I would have grabbed it but I wasn't in the mood to step over the alligators.

One of the smaller ones at the park.

Another gorgeous weekend and another trip to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. These were taken a couple of weekends ago during one of the first nice warm weekends we had. People were disappointed that the white pelicans had left but there are still so many things to see there. I never did see the sora rail or virginia rail. Or the orange crowned warbler. The list goes on. You will always see lots of alligators there. I'm going back soon to check on the status of the sandhill crane egg.

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Amazing Circle B Bar Reserve - Skywatch Friday

These blue-gray gnatcatchers are so cute. He was like "Look up in the sky."

Ring billed gull eating a fish on the trail.

Limpkin walking around the trail with a snail.

My first decent American bittern picture. This is only the 2nd time I've seen this type of bird. The first was probably the same bird. It has been hanging around near the intersection of Heron Hideout and Marsh Rabbit Run trail at Circle B Bar Reserve for a while now. They are really hard to spot because they blend in so well and don't move for hours but if you're there on the weekends just look for the group of photographers taking pictures at that intersection.

Circle B has several bald eagle nests but they are very far away.

This one was a pretty decent size.

I took this looking north across the marsh on Wading Bird Trail. Usually, this area is full of coots but for some reason it was nice and quiet that afternoon.

I had never been to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland in the afternoon. Only in the morning and I'm usually on my way home by noon. One Sunday recently it was just too nice to sit inside and watch my husband watch golf on tv. I decided to head out for a long walk at Circle B. I thought the trip might be a bust since everything would be hiding and napping in the afternoon. It was late enough that all the animals were up and moving around. I saw a few things there that I had not seen before including northern shovelers. I'll be posting more on those later and also have an otter video to post later. Next time I go I think I might have to pack a lunch and spend the whole day there.

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Visit to Circle B Bar Reserve - Skywatch Friday

Great blue heron with a small snake. He eventually gulped it down.

Black bellied whistling ducks flying by.

One of the resident glossy ibis.

Another blue-gray gnatcatcher. These guys are everywhere this fall.

Cattle egret on the trail. He seems lost. He should be hanging out in the cow pastures that are close by.

Not sure what this little bird is.  It looks like it's got some yellow under the tail.

The infamous "Bubba" that lives at Circle B.

The first Saturday in December turned out to be nice and warm, high of 70 degrees by 10am. I started out with a sweatshirt on but soon had just the tshirt on. I hadn't been in a while. The white pelicans hadn't arrived yet so that was a disappointment. I've heard they are there now so I'll have to head back there in the next week or so. Last December it was amazing to see the large flocks of white pelicans flying back and forth between the marsh ponds and the big lake.

I spent most of the morning walking the trails with Klaus (http://virtua-gallery.com/wp/) who has this amazing ability to see every tiny animal that is hiding. He spotted the otters but we weren't able to get a good picture from where they were hiding. We did not find the bittern he was looking for but he showed me where it had been before so I'll keep my eye out for it on the next trip.

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Chesnut Park November visit.

Two anhingas were fighting over something. I took this picture into the sun. They eventually took off following each other.

The usual blue-gray gnatcatcher. One of the tinies birds around.

I have no idea what this is. Looks like a type of warbler but the yellow on the sides is throwing me off. I couldn't find anything with yellow there.

I think this is a yellow palm warbler in non-breeding colors. Seen testing out the crumbs on the road.

No post about a Florida park would be complete without an alligator in it. There are tons at Chesnut Park. This one seemed to look up and smile at me. And yes, I took this with my zoom lens.