Winter Warmth in Florida

 We have a few cold days but we are warmer than most states in the winter. Today it is supposed to be 80 degrees and we are headed to the Pruitt Trailhead to hike the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve trails.

I know many of you feel like you've been there before but there's always something interesting to see.

Someone asked me what my most favorite trail was and this was it.

Of course there are so many directions you can take. 

And it changes from month to month....

sometimes from week to week.

Flycatcher

So these are some neat sightings from HTP in January.

Stork (not a good photo but I wanted to include him) 

We saw hundreds of Tree Swallows.

They are hard to photograph too!

Yellow-rumped Warbler aka butter-butt

We like to drive over there at least once a week and we spend 2 hours there at least when we go. 

So Vee....how about hiking HTP with me today? (She was concerned that I took all my photos from the Jeep! lol) 

I probably won't be doing this any time soon! 

Hang glider

Or go for a ride in this!

Canard

There's a small airport nearby!

American Kestrel

I'm still celebrating my birthday weekend and eating birthday brownies. 

I'll save you one to eat when we finish our hike! 

Come on down! Sunshine and brownies....and HTP! 

It's always fun to get outside and enjoy nature!

I'm joining Mosaic Monday HERE 

and I like Thursdays 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’.