The Sunday's addrenaline

I love that title and what it stands for - as it is how it felt to be heading out to my planned out locations with the purposes of finding, seeing and hearing a few species that I had on my list - I gave it my best shot and I had a ball doing it.

Our first stop was in North Cape Coral - near Del Prado and Pine Island Road intersection - a small pond nicknamed the Wigeon Pond.

Right away I saw that the intended target - a Eurasian Wigeon and a Mallard were present but also a whole brood of American Pekin Duck - which, it turns out, is meant for egg laying and general consumption....Pekin Duck anyone?

Since our day light wasn't quite conducive for picture taking - we moved on to the next spot, which happens to be right around the corner from Charlotte Harbor Buffer. I was there to get a visual on a Bobwhite - I heard them all over the place and had a real hard time locating them, my patience paid off. What a beautiful bird this is and what a pretty song it has!

Soon, the male Bobwhite was joined by a molting Starling and then

a Downy Woodpecker - my guess is that they were attracted to his lovely song

Soon after, we returned to the Wigeon Pond - the light was better and we were able to enjoy their plumage in the sunlight.

The Eurasian Wigeon - a very handsome fellow.

Shortly after we drove to North Fort Myers to the Powell Creek Preserve with the hopes of finding a Wood duck that has been seen lately.

The area is lovely, a one mile loop that is surrounded by ponds and trees - some of them were abuzz with Blue-grey Gnatcatchers and White-eyed Vireos, some Hairy Woodpeckers were heard as well.

Several Herons and Egrets were seen as well as Anhingas and Red-winged Blackbirds.....oh, a gator or two too.

From a distance I saw the silhouette of a duck landing - I had high hopes that my wood duck had landed only to find a Mottled Duck - it's okay because as long as there is life, then it's all good.