An early June walk at Lettuce Lake Park.

Posted on August 4, 2016 by dinajohnston

I think this is a very young red-eyed vireo.

A prothonotary warbler. They nest here in the summer.

I heard whistling and saw the black bellied whistling ducks on the top of the observation tower, only because there weren’t any people on the tower yet.

I snuck up the first flight of stairs and saw them looking down at me. I didn’t want to scare them off so I went back down and headed away from the tower. After a few minutes someone came down the boardwalk and headed up the tower so they flew off.

Some of the little critters at the lake.

Some young limpkins hiding under a tree near the boardwalk.

SkyWatch Friday

A late February walk at Circle B Bar Reserve

Posted on April 11, 2016 by dinajohnston

Great blue herons were all over the park. Including several sitting on nests.

A green heron was stalking something.

A sparrow hiding in the bushes.

The only black bellied whistling ducks I saw. The park use to be full of them. You could hear their whistling all over the park. I’m not sure why there are only a few now.

The robins were scrounging on the ground for bugs.

A lost royal tern. He should be at the beach.

A wood stork showing off. He was actually moving his foot around on the ground to stir up the bugs, frogs or snakes to eat.

A limpkin taking a break.

I caught a blue gray gnatcatcher being still for just a second.

A red shoulder hawk up high.

A marsh rabbit on Marsh Rabbit Run trail.

A few things I saw on my walk at Circle B Bar Reserve.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

The lazy hike at Lake Apopka

Posted on January 25, 2016 by dinajohnston

Pied grebes were floating everywhere.

There were a handful of glossy ibis.

The lake was full of coots down from the north for the winter.

This guy was right over my car. I took this hanging out the window.

“Stop lady, don’t drive into the lake” said the great blue heron.

The black bellied whistlers near the end of the drive stayed far out in the marsh.

This lady anhinga had a big gulp.

These big guys were all along the drive. I stopped the car and got out to take these but they were actually across the water.

There’s a lake north of Orlando that has a driving trail along the north shore. I decided to take my sister up there when she was here over the holidays. It was a good way to get out with doing a lot of walking. She had foot surgery recently so she wasn’t up for a long walk. We drove an hour and a half on the Saturday after Christmas to get there early that morning. At first there wasn’t too many cars there but the closer to lunch it got, the more cars were on the drive. I did see a few more birds than the ones above but only got distant blurry shots of a northern harrier, several bald eagles, a merlin and lots of tiny birds far out in the marsh.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

A turtle invasion

Posted on October 28, 2015 by dinajohnston

I was out running errands on a recent Saturday and decided to swing by a pond that occasionally had interesting things floating around in it. I got lucky this time with a family of black bellied whistling ducks. I had my camera in the car so I parked and walked over to take a peek. They were all settling down for an afternoon nap. I sat down on the sidewalk for a few minutes when they all popped their heads up and looked surprised. It was because the below had invaded their napping spot.

The soft shell turtle came up and wanted to hang out with the ducks but they wanted no part of him. They all jumped up and looked and him and the poor turtle took a dive back under the water and left.

Duck convention at the “Bar”

Posted on February 21, 2015 by dinajohnston

I walked into a black bellied whistling duck convention at Circle B Bar Reserve in late January. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a lot of them there and even now there’s not as many as the past years. They don’t hang out in the trees anymore. At least not on Saturday mornings. The trees use to be dripping with them as you walk down the trail.

Fun things at Circle B Bar Reserve

Posted on December 14, 2014 by dinajohnston

Fly on a sign. Notice the hair on his bottom.

Berries waiting to be eaten.

This blue-gray gnatcatcher was posing for me.

They don’t have any bright colors but their personality makes up for it.

The number of limpkins at the reserve seem lower than in the past. I only saw a few on this visit.

Yummy breakfast.

I’ve been seeing a lot of pileated woodpeckers lately.

Anhinga posing in front of the yellow flowers.

A great blue heron prancing down the trail.

The black bellied whistlers didn’t seem to mind the glossy ibis getting so close.

In a huddle.

Hiding in the yellow flowers.

The usual alligator close to the trail.

The first week in December was perfect. Cool sunny days. I had to get out for yet another long walk at Circle B Bar Reserve.

LorikArt Shine the Divine

Murphy’s Law – it’s going to rain on your day off – Skywatch Friday

Posted on November 27, 2014 by dinajohnston

Not a perfect morning or was it? I had a rare Friday off and hit the trails at Circle B Bar Reserve. Top animal on my list was the bobcat. No luck on seeing one again. There was zero chance of rain according to the weather people but the closer I go to the reserve, the darker the clouds got. I checked the radar on my phone and it didn’t show any rain. As I started down the trail, it started to drizzle. It drizzled the first two hours I was there. I kept walking. The light was bad. Not many birds out. No snakes, raccoons, otters or bobcat. But hey, even a rainy, hardly any animals day is better than a day in the office. The highlight was seeing white pelicans flying high up in the sky. I didn’t see any in the lake or marshes but the sky was full of them.

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Dina's Wildlife Adventures

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