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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A weekend in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

Night heron sitting on our dock. It was just starting to sprinkle, even though the sun was out on the other side of the house. He sat in the rain for a while.

This lizard had a pretty green glow. He was sitting inside our screened porch.

I looked out the side window when I heard thunder and saw this guy in our yard.

New oranges after the rain. They won't be ready until December.

After the storm the sun was trying to come out right before it went down.

Wow, it's September 1st. Where did the summer go? School is back in so traffic is awful again. I pass near 3 schools to get to work so I have to now get up 15 minutes earlier to get to work on time. Of course, I still have at least 2 more months of summer heat. The sun is shifting and by the end of October it will be too dark for me to go out after work and take pictures. I need to use the daylight time wisely now but I work in retail and we are getting ready for the holidays so I'm cranking in the overtime. Everyone says it's fall migration season so I'm going to try and get out this weekend to find some tiny little birds. Wish me luck.

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Pretty flowers and a cute little snake

Where did all the birds go????  I headed out to the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo for a long walk on a recent hot Saturday morning. The rain was coming later in the day. The only birds I saw there were mockingbirds and moorhens. Did all the birds fly north for the summer?  Don't they know it's hotter up there than it is down here?  There were some beautiful flowers there so I was glad I brought my small lens along. I changed lens for the morning since I didn't need my 500mm. I wished I had also brought my close up filters to use. It was really to hot to focus on getting some macro shots though. I had to keep moving. If I stopped for more than 30 seconds I felt like I was going to pass out. My last stop was the car before stepping over the little black snake on the trail back.

Birds and other things at Circle B Bar Reserve

My first bittern. Yea, I scratched this one off my list. But really, these pictures aren't too great. It was too close to the trail and didn't move for a half hour.

The bittern finally started creeping around under the brush.

This woodpecker was screaming to have his picture taken.

Lazy limpkins hanging around the booms in the lake.

Some type of water snake that had just crawled out of the lake.

There was a raccoon family high up in a tree. My thanks to Philip (one of the semi-regulars to the park) for spotting these guys. He sees everything.

These blue winged teals were too cute. They would bob under the water at the same time.

My New Year's Eve trip to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland was pretty productive. I finally saw my first bittern. It almost looks like a green heron but without the pretty colors that the green heron has. They blend in well with the dead reeds in the marsh. I might have just walked right by him if a group hadn't already been standing there watching him. It's amazing the amount of limpkins there. They were everywhere.

I am disappointed about Bubba though. One of the park's largest alligators, who lived in the main pond at the big intersection of trails, was relocated. I'm not sure if it was out of the park or a different section of the park. She was very visible in her spot and would lay right on the edge of the trail. The section was roped off and there were big warning signs not to bother the alligators but apparently some kids were seen throwing rocks at her so the park moved her. She was a little too close but I liked to see her laying there on my visits.

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Baby snake on our front porch.

Brett & I got back from a long weekend trip this week and found the above in our screened-in front porch. He was very tiny. I figured it was a baby but wasn't sure what kind. We had a black racer living under our shed for about 2 years but he's been missing for over a year now. I tried to look up snakes but this one didn't look like anything I could find. I posted the picture on flickr and was told it was a baby black racer. I guess snakes are like some birds, they look nothing like their parents when they are little. With the red and grey markings, I thought it would have been a poisonous snake. Glad it's not. If he sticks around we'll have to name him. The black racers don't turn black until later and lose the pretty color they have as babies.

Circle B Bar Part 4 - other animals

There were turtles everywhere.


Black racer on the trail.

Smaller alligator on the trail.

The big one in the bird pod.

The big one up close.

There are lots of other animals at Circle B besides birds and ducks. Sunday I saw at least 10 alligators. Turtles were everywhere in the water. Several people reported raccoons there on Sunday. I've also heard about many other animals that are there but I haven't seen yet: otters, raccoons, foxes and wild pigs. The wild pigs come out on the trail when it gets dark. A group of 10 wild pigs were sited recently by someone taking sunset pictures there.

Kapok Park - no birds

I stopped by Kapok Park on my way home from work tonight. It looked like it was going to rain during the afternoon but the sun came out right as I was leaving work. Not much there in the way of birds. They must have all gotten the memo "It's hot, go north" Even the limpkins which have always been there were not around.

Lots of other animals though. Baby snake and dragonflies. The lake is always full of turtles though I did not see the large snapping turtle that is usually hanging around the boardwalk. There were strange fish skimming the top of the plants in the water. Not sure what they are but Brett thinks they may be carp. Any id would be great.