"I Spy" something different!

 I remember when one of my grandson's loved the "I Spy" books and I enjoyed looking through them with him. 

It's fun to see a variety of things and find what is different among the ordinary.

We go to a lot of the same trails, preserves, state parks and forests but we are always amazed at how different our sightings can be from week to week. And we usually see something we've never seen before at that location. So I'll hit some of the highlights from our hikes this week.

The Snowy Egrets were the first 'I spy' sighting. We may have seen them before here in Florida but this was the first time we could positively identify them. I was excited...to say the least!

The Withlacoochee Bay Trail has so many beautiful birds and this past week we spotted these for the first time at this location.

Willet

Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern 

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron juvenile

Great Blue Heron in the Gulf of Mexico

On one hike we started walking on the 49th Ave trailhead heading East and turned onto beauty berry lane and saw this...

 Sherman's Fox Squirrel

And then driving back into our development we looked down into a low grassy area where we see wild turkeys frequently but instead, there were 4 deer! 

First time we've seen deer this close to our house.

All Bucks!

Amazing!

And last but not least we saw this beautiful little Warbler at Felburn Park near Phil's Pond.

A rare Warbler that we've never seen before?

No, a Yellow-rumped Warbler...quite common but still oh so pretty!

Have you seen anything 'out of the ordinary' this week? Want to play 'I Spy'?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

Withlacoochee River Weather

 Withlacoochee River Weather

Say that ten times in a row real fast! heehee!

June is in full swing here in Florida and you see lots of vehicles pulling boats on trailers, even more with kayaks and canoes on top of their cars and trucks. 

We love walking the trail along the river at Blue Run Park. 

This Black crowned night heron was easy to see through the vegetation

but hard to get good photos.

And when we got to the river bridge there were boats zipping by....

leaving ripples in the water.

And a beautiful Limpkin on a limb down in the water.

Can you see him right in the center of the photo?

It's not a bird we see very often. And it has a crazy call. You feel like you are in the jungle when you hear him.

I hope you have a chance to get outside and enjoy nature this weekend! 

It's nice to have a choice of river walk or forest hike no matter what the weather. 

Florida's a nice place to live year round and the ocean is calling my name too! SOON! 😎

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

Herons and Caterpillars and Alligators oh my!

 

We've had some fun hikes this past week! The weather has been just right some days to a 'bit hot' other days. We will be planning a few early morning hikes in the near future if this keeps up.

But the trail at Blue Run Park is always shady and we see more birds there than anywhere else.

He's been fishin'! 

This week the herons have returned!

Black-crowned Night-Herons.

And Green Herons. We saw 2 of each!

And isn't this juvenile Little Blue Heron eye catching? 

He's still wearing 'white' but streaks of blue are showing up and his bill is bright blue!

But whatever you do, don't stand under these trees for very long!

I think it's a Tussock Moth caterpillar. When I searched online I came across a post done by a blog buddy a few years ago HERE. Another website said that if you touch one, you'll feel like you've handled fiberglass!

And isn't this Alligator kind of neat framed in vegetation....and a long ways away? heehee! I zooooomed!!!

Some sights in the parking lot at Blue Run Park.

 Enjoy your weekend!

Get outside with your camera and see what you can find!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

The American Redstart at Blue Run Park

We finally got to hike at Blue Run Park in Dunnellon for the first time in 3 months. It was closed for awhile and then when it did open, it was too hot to hike there. I've mentioned before that you walk with a swamp on one side and a river on the other so it's a great breeding ground for mosquitoes and bugs. But on the first day of Fall, the weather was perfect! Warm but lower humidity and a breeze! 

And what a thrill when we got to see a bird we had never seen before.

The American Redstart!

We could see it really well but it 'flitted' so it was difficult to get good photos.

It was easy to identify when we got home though.

It's considered "the butterfly of the bird world".

And how about this? What's black and white and red, yellow and orange all over?

Setophaga Ruticella, of course!

It was quite a day of bird sightings, starting in the parking lot.

A Great White Egret.

Limpkin

Green Heron 

(Duck weed is the beautiful tiny plant that looks like moss or scum in the swamp)

Black crowned Night Heron

He was busy fishin'!

And doesn't this alligator look like it is smiling?

We were high on the bridge looking down when we saw it so no danger there. And no people at Blue Run either. We saw a total of about 8 people in the 2 hours we were there. Incredible!

We spotted another alligator in the swamp, draped over an old log. How funny!

And the log this turtle is on looks like a 'gator! lol

I'm pretty sure this is a Black and white Warbler! 

Let's stand on our heads for a better look! lol

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

Amazing Sights at Blue Run!

We took a trip over to Blue Run Park for an afternoon hike and saw so many amazing things in a 2 hour hike!

This Green Heron stood out with it's bright colors in the dullness of the swamp.

You had to look at the right spot to see him!

Later I turned to ask my hubby something and saw this Black-Crowned Night Heron.

He was hard to spot.

He hides among the low branches on the river side of the trail.

Later we were lucky to see another River Otter.

He was the blackest color and some of the photos came out dark blue. (there appears to be a leaf on the back of his head)

We saw him dive into the shallow water and come up with something in his mouth.

But it's hard to tell what he had caught. It didn't really look like a fish but seemed too big for a crayfish or frog. 

And it looked white! He gobbled it down before we had a chance to take more photos. 

What a day we had! LOTS of neat sightings! Many of them 'out of the ordinary' which makes it even better!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.