Yellow flowers everywhere - Skywatch Friday

My black Friday after Thanksgiving was actually a bright yellow Friday. I headed out to Circle B Bar Reserve for a walk through the park. For 3 hours I  hiked the trails and the above was the view every step of the way.  I've been told these are bur marigolds. Every year in the fall around mid November they bloom. The park is covered with them. It's a beautiful sight to see when walking the trails. It's still a little early for some of the winter birds to arrive but it's worth going to see the flowers. They should bloom until we get a good freeze sometime in January. I hope they are still there around the holidays because I hope to get out there to look for the white pelicans that migrate in for a short time. Keeping our fingers crossed, they should start arriving by Christmas.

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Birds and ducks at Circle B Bar Reserve

Blue wing teals swimming together.

Coot walking across the water.

I think this is a female blue wing teal coming in for a landing.

Glossy ibis up close. They usually stay pretty far away from the trail but this one was sitting right along the trail. Sometimes I'm so amazed at the colors of a bird. I love the beautiful pale pink perfectly curved beak, the hint of white around the eyes and the deep burgundy in the feathers.

Great egret flyby.

Then he goes for a fish.

Butterflies are still everywhere.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, I headed out to Circle B Bar reserve with my friend Pam and her hubby. We walked the trails for 3 hours and the above was all we found. There were tons of photographers there and everyone was complaining how slow it was in terms of unusual birds or ducks. And of course, still no sign of the bobcat that everyone is taking pictures of. But instead of a black Friday, we had yellow Friday. More on that to follow.

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Sunrise birds at Circle B Bar Reserve

Just before the sun came up, birds were flying everywhere.

Limpkin in the early morning light.

There's plenty of woodpeckers everywhere.

My only eagle sightings of the day were from far away.

This was the most photographed bird of the day. He must have sat in the same spot all morning as all of the photographers walked down the trail. Everyone at the photo walk that morning got the same shots.

Fish crows doing a blast off.

Pretty flowers everywhere.

All of the above where taken on my photo meetup walk at the beginning of November. There wasn't much bird activity out that day. After the exciting sunrise, we walked the trails and saw very little in the way of unusual birds. Everyone got excited seeing the red shouldered hawk and started snapping away. We saw several eagles from far away. At one point, two eagles were chasing each other high in the sky. It was cool to watch but then we were like "Did anybody get any pictures of that?" It happened so quick nobody got a shot. Things are picking up at the reserve. The yellow flowers are out in full force and a few migrating ducks have arrived.  More on those later.

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A Skywatch Friday Tribute to Klaus

This past Saturday I attended a photo memorial walk for Klaus Peter. Klaus was the creator of My World Tuesday and Skywatch Friday. He passed away in August, leaving a big hole in the nature photography world in Florida. A group of his close friends put together a photo meetup at one of his favorite parks, Circle B Bar Reserve, in Lakeland Florida. We met early in the morning in the dark and hiked out to the best part of the lake to get sunrise pictures. This was my first sunrise at the park. I rarely get up that early in the morning but knew I had to do this because Klaus always said sunrise was the best time. I had to stop letting sleep get in the way of photography. After a specatular sunrise, we all headed to the nature center and watched a slide show of Klaus' nature pictures as well as funny pictures of him with his friends. There were several members of his family that came from Germany for the event.

For a beautiful post and more pictures on the event, please visit one of Klaus' close friends, Michael, to see his post.  Michael's post

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Hubby's first trip to Circle B Bar Reserve

Great blue heron posing for us.

Snowy egret blowing in the wind.

Small alligator on the rocks giving me a big smile.

Eastern phoebe. I'm starting to see these everywhere.

Lots of butterflies at the park.

Hubby noticed the snake in the tree.

A couple of Sunday's ago the day started off dreary. Drizzle and wind. By noon it had cleared up and after watching tv all morning I jumped off the couch and said "I'm going to Circle B for an afternoon walk." Hubby said "I think I'll go with you." I said "What, you don't want to stay home and watch football and golf all day?" So off we went. The reserve is about 45 minutes from our house. It was a gorgeous day. Cool, mostly sunny and a little windy. On the way there I talked about all of the things we would see. I think he jinxed me. I talked about all of the big alligators we'd see (we only saw 2 tiny ones). I talked about looking for the baby limpkins (no sign of them). I talked about birds migrating through (almost none in sight). I talked about the eagles rebuilding their nest (no eagles). I said we had to keep a look out for the bobcat that everyone had been seeing (no bobcat). Oh well, at least we had a nice two hour walk. The highlight was the snake. And he was surprised at how many butterflies were there. They were flying everywhere. I think I might leave him home on my next trip.

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Baby Limpkins at Circle B Bar Reserve

"This looks really yummy Mom."

"Hey, wait, that's my bite."

"Let's go get more snails Mom."

"It's break time. Mom's tired of dunking her head under water for snails."

"Look at my cool wings. Soon I'll be flying"

"For now I'll just have to walk."

I had heard there were baby limpkins at Circle B Bar Reserve while I was on my trip to South Dakota. It seems late for babies but better late than never. I couldn't wait to get back and go looking for them. I'm not sure how old they were when I took these, maybe 3 to 4 weeks old. They grow up fast. I walked down to Wading Bird trail and didn't see them at first. Mom was in the water looking for snails and I think the 2 babies were hiding in the nearby bushes. All of sudden out pops mom and the babies on to the trail. She had brought them out to feed them on the side. After a quick bite, they headed back into the bushes along the water. About half an hour later they came back out with another snail. There were originally 4 babies and now it's down to 2. There's lots of alligators in water at the park. Hopefully, the last 2 will make it. 

Nothing new at Circle B Bar Reserve

Black bellied whistling ducks says "Oh no, here come the photographers".

"Get my good side".

Red bellied woodpecker says "I'll stop for 4 seconds so you can take the picture. Then I'm back to banging on this dead tree."

Great blue herons says "I caught one this big."

Red shoulder hawk says "I'd be king of the jungle here if it wasn't for that annoying eagle."

Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland was calling my name. I hadn't been there since mid-May. It was still miserably hot there at the end of September but I had heard there baby limpkins there. There's no better reason than that to drive 50 minutes across central Florida. The reserve was pretty quiet. It's still a little early for many of the fall birds so there wasn't too many photographers out there. I didn't see the eagles flying around. I saw very few small migraters such as warblers. But, I did find the baby limpkins. They were so cute! More on those later.

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