Reed Bingham State Park, Georgia - traveling in style!

 

We visited several State Parks in the month of December. 

And as much as we love camping in Florida, it's fun to 'spread our wings' a little and visit some of the state parks in neighboring states.

And it's much easier to travel now in this Coachmen Nova 20d Van camper. 

Our dealer, Sunshine State RVs in Gainesville, FL was the best ever! The link to Sunshine is HERE. And I'll put a link HERE if you want to look at the specs and floor plan. 

In these photos, the side door is open (screen closed) and the back is fully open with a screen pulled down.

We had the prettiest tree in the park at our campsite!

And this is the view of the lake from the window (and door)  facing the lake.

We loved our little travel trailer and Chevy truck but we thought this van would be easier for us to manage. Thanks so much to those who talked to us about the vans and answered our questions, especially my blog friend HERE! 

We spent a week at Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, Georgia last month and had a wonderful experience. A link to the website is HERE.

I keep a camping journal and I had so much good to write about this campground and not a single negative.

Even in December the trees had a lot of 'Fall' color! 

The Cypress trees were spectacular!

Snowy Egret

And I don't think I've ever seen such a variety of birds in a lake. 

Great White Egret

I went different times of the day so I got to see quite a lot!

It sure has been a wonderful experience to travel to so many state parks.

Great Blue Heron

Canada Goose

Mosaic of a few more! (not sure what the bird in the center is)

I may need at least one more post featuring Reed Bingham State Park. 

(We did go in search of the monster of the lake and found it...stay tuned!)

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !

Beautiful Birds of Florida

 

We always check the tide chart before we drive out to the Gulf of Mexico and on this particular day, the lowest tide was at noon. 

Perfect! All of these sandbars will be covered with water when the tide comes in.

But for now....

a glimpse at how many birds are out there!

The Pelicans seem to be having a conversation.

Or is it an argument? lol

We drive along the canal on a dirt road for 4 miles before we reach the Gulf.

Great White Egret, Snowy Egret and Tri-colored Heron

And we had never seen so many birds along the banks of the canal and in the water.

I think this is a Bonaparte's Gull.

Hubby was driving and some of these were taken from inside the truck!

Snowy Egret and Tri-colored Heron

And then some of my favs!

A Stork fishing for his dinner!

He looked a bit comical with all his twists and turns!

Just one more before we have to walk away!

We saw a wonderful variety of shorebirds! 

And now to share my favorite photo of the day!

Great Blue Heron

It was hard to pick a favorite!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

"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’.