Two lifers in one day, oh my!

This past weekend we had the good fortune of coming across two birds we had not seen in our state so we were pretty hyped up about it.

Our day started south of Marco Island on Tamiami Trail....come along and see....

We found the location where a Golden Plover was reported, another birder was already there and she had her scope zoomed in on the bird, in the meantime we were being entertained by this Limpkin

Within binocular distance we were able to watch a nice group of White Pelicans, Wood Storks, Great Egrets and Roseate Spoonbills.

A Greater Yellowlegs was near shore as opposed

to the Golden Plover which could only be identified with the scope - even with my long zoom on my SX50 I couldn't tell for sure what I was taking a photo of, that's how far it was.

A Kestrel waved us on to our next destination....

Hidden Cypress Preserves in Bonita Springs.

And I figured out why it is aptly named....the birds simply like to hide in the Cypress.

The remnants of Hurricane Irma were still visible.

More some not so hidden birds....A wood stork and an Ibis.

After several hours we decided to call it a day only to arrive at home and to find out that another lifer had landed in Fort Myers on N. River Road....

A Greater White-fronted Goose! And as you can tell from the photo it was at quite a distance away but close enough to be identified with binoculars and great views with a scope. After a bit we left and celebrated over pizza and bubbly....why not. This made for a great day - stay tuned for the next one.