Babcock-Webb with the Caloosa Bird Club

It's Monday! My favorite day of the week - and off I go to meet up with the Caloosa Bird Club, today's destination is Babcock-Webb in Punta Gorda.

This is a large wildlife management area and filled with recreation opportunity. Other than wildlife viewing, you can do hiking, biking, camping, fishing and driving through a large portion of the area. There is a shooting range to the side and hunting is permitted from late October through mid November. Plenty of picnic tables - some with shade....along the Webb Lake that I saw - others available too - the place is so big that it would take me several visits to get familiar with it all.

The sun was peeking through and we hoped that the weatherman had been mistaken about the predicted rain.

Our first sighting - a Red-cockaded woodpecker. We arrived before sunrise in order to catch a glimpse of this little fellow coming out of their 'marked' pine trees.

The vista all around is just breath-taking.

A male Bluebird was spotted in the far distance,

and a Towhee

Beautiful male - surrounded by nature colors at its best.

Here's "The Man" inspecting one of the Bluebird's residence.

This Bluebird resides at 20 Seaboard Grade

Here's the Bluebird's neighbor on 22 Seaboard Grade - note that the boxes are sporting our bird club name.

Our Mascot - the Green Heron

Spring in Florida is beautiful.

We made our way back to the parking lot and talked about the birds we saw and we made a list. A few decided to go to another location, some went home and I stayed behind and drove around a bit.

Along the Webb Lake - I saw this Anhinga in breeding plumage as well as a family of Killdeer.

On my way back - I spotted a family of Sandhill Cranes

I love these guys....can you tell?

The End.

 

 I will return to this big little gem and spend more time to discover its treasures. My E-Bird list for today

  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17580255