I can't believe that it's been a whole week since I posted on my blog - time just flew by while I was away playing with my precious grandson. Well, I'm back and ready to share about my outing....so, come along.
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| Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were real close to the path and gave us good looks - at some point they flew and could be heard whistling. |
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| The adult has the red bill while the juvenile sports a gray bill. These gorgeous ducks are often found perched on trees or shrubs. They are long-legged, broad-winged, and long-necked ducks. |
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| We spotted the Belted Kingfisher and lucky for us, it stayed put for quite a while - giving us ample time to get a good view. In this specie the female is more colorful than the male with blue and rufous breast bands as opposed to the single bluish breast band for the male. It also has a shaggy crest. |
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| The Belted Kingfisher is the most widespread and abundant kingfisher in North America. These birds need clear, still water for fishing, with elevated perches from which to hunt. |
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| Always keep your eyes open and to the sky because you just never know what might appear.....such as Peregrine Falcon and |
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| Short-tailed Hawk - white morph. Thankgoodness for the leaders of our groups who are able to identify these as I would be at a loss with identification as I am still on the learning stages as far as hawks and buteos are concerned. |
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| A male Anhinga feeding its chick and .... |
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| the female nearby getting ready to go fish. |
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| "Yes, the ladies can fish". |
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| A Great Blue Heron chilling by the pond. |
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| Ibis - a Glossy and a White - the white ones, I am told, are often called a Florida Chicken. |
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| Mexican Sunflowers providing pollen for the bees. |
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| Pretty Butterfly |
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| One big family of White Ibis - the young ones are mostly dark brown, the immature gets more white with the brown and the adult are all white. |
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| An American Coot - an adult with whitish bill with subterminal band and red eyes. |
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| Heading back for lunch where we exchange our collective sightings and vote on the bird of the day - the Short-tailed Hawk won. After getting our belly full, my birding buddy Elaine and I headed to Bonita with the hopes of finding a Franklin Gull which has been sighted for the past few days. |
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| We were provided with excellent direction and found the location with no problem - find the gull was another story. |
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| We scanned the area several times and checked every gulls we saw, neither one of us had ever seen one before so it is possible that it eluded us. |
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| The little peeps were there too - a Dunlin was taking a good bath. |
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| A Ring-billed Gull - 1st winter |
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| Sanderlings |
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| We gave it a good try and decided to leave since the weather was turning and warnings of tornados had been heard. |
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| As we headed back to the vehicle, we spotted a pair of Magnificent Frigatebirds |
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| A juvenile and an adult male Frigatebird - Magnificent! |
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