At the beginning of November I went to the Roosevelt Wetlands to look for the northern harriers that had showed up for the winter. The last time I was at the wetlands was in early October and the muhly grass had not turned pink yet. Muhly is a Florida native plant and turns pink in the late fall. We had it growing across the back of our house in Tampa since we had full sun there but we don’t really have a good place to plant it at our townhome. It’s more shade than sun. I miss seeing the pink.

The sun was just peeking out as I walked out on the trail. The muhly grass looked pretty through the sunrise.

Farther down the trail I saw a usual winter visitor, a spotted sandpiper (his belly has spots when he’s breeding in the summer). We don’t usually see them here with their spots on.

Other usual birds included a blue gray gnatcatcher and a loggerhead shrike.

A red-winged blackbird was sitting still for me.

The goldenrod was still blooming.

The sun was up when I made my way back to my car.

Looking through the pink.

I didn’t see the harriers on this trip but I eventually made it back and found the male, more on him later.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.