A Good year for Hiking!

 It was such a difficult year for us all...

all over the world!

But we were fortunate to have good hiking trails to hike and unusually good weather this year. I feel blessed to have the good health to get outside and enjoy nature.

I wanted to choose a bird or critter from each month to highlight but I didn't realize how hard that would be. We see so many amazing sights here in Florida. 

Join me for hiking through the months of 2020!

January - River Otter at Blue Run Park

February - Bobcat at Blue Run Park

March - Eastern Coral Snake, Florida Trails

April - Fox Squirrel, Florida Trails West

May - Blue Grosbeak at Pruitt Trailhead (Halpata Tastanaki Preserve)

June - Bobolink flock, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve

July - Gopher Tortoise, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve

August - Bobwhite Pruitt trailhead, Florida Trails

September - American Redstart, Blue Run Park

October - Barred Owl, Florida Trails West

November - Barred Owl, Florida Trails West

December - Great Horned Owl, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve

How privileged we were to see so many owls this year! We even saw one early in the year too. 

We've ended the year with 157 hikes. 

Now let's keep going!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

Bobolinks AND a Blue Grosbeak!

A flock of Bobolinks and a lone Blue Grosbeak....all in one week! We hiked one of our favorite trails, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve and saw 'rare' birds on 2 different hikes! And on both hikes there were a grand total of 0 people there! NO ONE!!! I know other Florida trails have opened but I'm still amazed that no one is hiking HTP this week!

We were hiking along the grassy trail and a flock of Bobolinks flew out of the grass into some bushes.

It was hard to get the camera to focus on the birds but the photos were good enough for a positive ID.

Bobolinks! The first time we've ever seen them!

In this photo, you can see the black breast of the male in breeding colors on the left, the back of a male on the right and in between females.

We didn't know what we were seeing when they flew!

Black birds with yellow on their nape? We couldn't figure that out.

These were taken in another tree. 

Not sure if they are juveniles or females.

How lucky we were to see them in breeding colors or they would have been even harder to ID!

Just one more!

And the Blue Grosbeak!

He was in the dark woods when we were almost back to our car on the same trail (2 days later).

It was hard to get good photos but we were thrilled!

Florida is a great place to see birds that are migrating. Have you seen any neat birds this week?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.