Visiting Corkscrew with the Caloosa Bird Club

I used to hate Mondays because they used to signify that the weekend was over and that it was time to go back to work. Now it's a whole different ball game and Monday has become my favorite day of the week and today was no exception. Our destination today: Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Fl.

We started on the boardwalk - amidst the forest of Pines, Cypress, Palms etc and immediately our ears were filled with bird symphony - this is where "warbler neck" term probably originated because you spend an incredible amount of time looking to the tree top to watch the warblers....once in a while another type will present itself, such as.....

a Barred Owl - collecting some juicy tidbit to take back to its nest - we enjoyed watching it fly in between branches with total silence.

We made our way to the "Lettuce Lake" and enjoyed watching some slower birds....such as this Great Egret and...

many Black-crowned Night Herons - an adult is photographed here.

A Little Blue Heron.

A Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron - one of the sure tell tale is the yellow lower mandible.

A beautiful plume in the "Lettuce Lake" - note the tiny spider on it.

Here was our surprise for the day:

A White-eyed Vireo with its nest.

A young Wood Stork - notice the soft hair on its head still.

A Black-crowned Night Heron sleeping soundly.

A Carolina Wren checking us out.

More spiders.

and another....this one becoming a rainbow within the forest.

A Great Egret being "King" for the moment.

A wild yellow orchid in bloom.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - a male (red throat)...check the bark with the sapsucker's holes.

An Iris growing along the boardwalk.

A lizard taking it easy.

A sunflower with a tiny spider in the middle.

And a Catbird - one of many that we saw and heard today, soon they will leave and return north to mate.

 

 A great day in a great surrounding - much to see and enjoy. My E-Bird list for today with 56 species.