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

Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte Trip with the Caloosa Bird Club

Yesterday, I met up with my group at 8:00a.m. - the usual time for the Monday trip. We combined people in cars and had a caravan of sorts travelling to Zemel Road Landfill site, Zemel Road pond, Punta Gorda, Ponce de Leon Park and finished up with Ollie's Pond in Port Charlotte - a very sweet well kept secret of a place.

 Overall, we saw about 72 species - a nice variety for sure. The trip bird was the Common Goldeneye at Ollie's Pond - sorry no photo of that duck - however, my own personal highlight was the Great Blue Heron family from the Ponce De Leon Park.

An Anhinga at the landfill - seems like he had something stucked on his beak - glued paper....maybe a love note.

Everyone mentioned how quiet it was for a landfill - either way, it was an interesting sight. If you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would be standing by a landfill looking for birds, I would have told you that you were crazy.....LOL.....look at me now!

Once we left the area, we drove down Zemel Road for a couple of miles and then observed some warblers, Wood Storks, waders and more.

Seems like there is a shooting range in that area and gun shots could be heard - rather eerie feeling, if you ask me.

The Common Yellow-throat....I vote for a name change because this little guy is not that common looking to me....he's like a sunrise with the promise of a new day.

We drove some more - headed to Punta Gorda and parked close to the Colony Point - where many ducks, killdeers and seagulls could be observed.

The Hooded Mergansers being my favorite.

From there we went to Ponce de Leon Park where we saw the Great Blue Heron and its family.

More Mergansers

A Spotted Sandpiper was on the edge of the Peace River.

Aren't they precious!

This was my first experience to be in the presence of a Great Blue Heron family and it felt really special...can you tell?

A snake, not too far from our walking path....he was oozing out of the muck from the edges of Ollie's pond....look at the tail, it is still coming out from below - so I'm not quite sure how long it is.

Many ducks species - small groups and bigger groups. The leader brought us here to see the Common Goldeneye - and we saw it....though, it kept diving and I couldn't get a photo to show you.

A beautiful Glossy Ibis

More ducks

A Boat Tail Grackle having a drink at the watering hole with his buddies.

All in all, another great birding trip was had - 72 species were recorded. My E-bird list.