Kapok Park

Stork in the water.

"Where'd he go?"

Black and white warbler. I think this is only my 2nd sighting of one.

Pied grebe all wet. These ducks are everywhere now.

Just a few shots from a recent walk around Kapok Park.

Birds at Homosassa Springs

A volunteer was feeding the pelicans.

The above pelican had that "Don't come near my nest." look on it's face.

There are 3 permanently injured eagles that live at the park.

Lot's of wild storks come in to get a free handout.

We found a lot of wood ducks swimming around the river near the manatees.

Sandhill crane taking a nap. A volunteer told me that years ago they had a sandhill crane that had been hurt brought to the park for rehabilitation. The crane ended up staying and attracking a wild mate. They had babies and there is now 3 generations of sandhills that live at the park. They could leave anytime they want but they still hang around all year.

How often do you see a red shouldered hawk (left) and red tailed hawk (right) sitting together on a branch? The red tailed was missing a wing.

Besides manatees, the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park has lots of birds. Both wild and rehabilitating permanent residents. You can get really close up to some of them. There's a lagoon in the middle that has flamingos, both white and brown pelicans, storks, swans and sandhill cranes that all hang out together. The brown pelicans were working on their nests while we were there so soon there will be babies to view up close. On a visit last spring I saw a handful of baby swans. There are a lot of volunteers at the park that can answer any questions and told me all kinds of good stories about the birds there. You can also find a lot of wild birds in the park. We saw pileated woodpeckers and warblers as well. I think I'm going to head back in early spring to see any babies that are at the park.

Wild birds at the zoo

Ibis flying into the fish pond.

Ibis flying into the fish pond.


Snowy egret eating lunch.

Stork has a big fish.

Sparrow taking a bath in the sand.

Saturday it looked like it was going to rain so I headed to the zoo. You can always find wild birds at the zoo looking for an easy bite. The fish pond at the cheetah exhibit had a large group of birds eating the fish. There were storks, egrets, ibis and a great blue heron. The cheetahs didn't seem to mind. They slept through lunch. I got lucky with the weather, the rain did not come until later in the day.

Circle B Bar Part 2 - Bird variety

Spoonbills, ibis and storks taking a morning nap.


Glossy ibis


Sandhill crane from far away.


Eagle soaring overhead. He was really high up.

Red tailed hawk hiding in the moss.

Great blue heron having breakfast.

More Sunday morning pictures from the Circle B Bar flickr meet-up above. It amazes me how many different types of birds you can see there just walking around. I'm sure there are others I didn't see. There is so much activity in the morning. The bird marsh had it's usual spoonbills, storks and ibis hanging around in it. There were osprey, hawks and eagles constantly flying overhead.

Here's a list of birds that I saw there: spoonbills, whistling ducks, storks, great egrets, great blue heron, warbler, white pelicans, blue winged teal ducks, hawk, eagles, sandhill cranes, grackle, red winged blackbirds, moorhens, cormorants, vultures, caspian terns, ring billed gulls, sparrows, glossy ibis, white ibis, osprey, kingfisher, woodpeckers and grebes.

Circle B Bar Part 1 - Fog

Spiderwebs in the fog.

Fog at Circle B Bar Reserve. You could still see all of the amazing yellow flowers everywhere.

Black bellied whistling ducks stomping around in the mud during the fog. This was one parent (orange beak) with 2 immature ones. They don't get their orange beak until later.

Great egret scratching in the fog.

Hiding in the fog - spoonbill, stork and black bellied whistling duck.

Spoonbill flying overhead in the fog.

This Sunday morning I went to a flickr meet-up at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. There were about 22 other photographers there. When I got there it was very foggy. At first I was bummed that it was so foggy but when I started walking out to the trail I noticed how everything was covered with spiderwebs. You could really see them because the moisture from the fog was on them. It almost looked like there was snow everywhere (except for the 80 degrees). I met up with everyone out at the bird pond. Most of the birds were sleeping (which is what we should have been doing). It was a challenge for me to get any shots of anything. I was able to get some of the above which shows wildlife a little differently.

There were so many different types of birds there. It's such an amazing place. The fog eventually lifted and I took so many pictures that morning. I'm breaking up this visit into several parts. Keep an eye out for Part 2.

A magical place

Pond full of storks.

Marsh full of egrets. The trees in the back were also full of birds.


Stork tree. A natural decorated Christmas tree. (Sorry, already thinking about the holidays.)

Big alligator sleeping in the same pond as the storks.

Big spiders were everywhere.

I recently discovered a new place for wildlife thanks to my flickr contacts. The Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. It was so easy to get to from Tampa, just off the Polk Parkway. It's an old cattle ranch with a big lake. Lots of walking trails, ponds, nice nature center and lots of animals. It felt like what Florida would feel like 50 years ago. I got there around 9am Saturday morning and there weren't a lot of people there. I think as the weather cools off it will get more crowded. The ponds or marshes were full of little fish which meant there were tons of birds eating right in front of me. There were so many different types of birds all together. (More bird pictures later). The alligators were huge. I saw at least 7. I can't wait to get back there in next couple of weeks, especially to see the eagles. I heard there were 3 nests on the property although I didn't see any eagles while I was there.

Lunch birds

Spoonbills and storks - "Who's the crazy lady in the car with the camera?"

"Should we leave?"



"Storks - "I'm not leaving, the food's too good here."

Back to eating.

I had a very productive lunch today. I ran out to get some lunch and came across this group of birds on the side of road eating out of a ditch. We haven't had rain in a couple of days but there was a little water in the bottom. They were very busy and didn't notice all of the heavy lunch traffic going by. I just had to pull off to the side road and take a few snaps.