A quiet cold walk in January

Posted on February 22, 2021 by dinajohnston

The cattails and the spider webs were showing up in the early morning sun at Possum Branch Preserve.

Bright pops of red in early January. It was finally starting to look like fall (only in central Florida does it look like fall right before spring).

Birds were scarce this Saturday morning. Other than the usual birds, I only saw a house wren and a thrasher.

Pelican fly by along the canal.

Two coots have taken up residents for the winter in the main pond.

This guy didn’t look that big (taken with my zoom lens).

When I got around the other side of the pond and saw him spread out, he looked much bigger.

Morning walk at Possum Branch Preserve.

Posted on July 14, 2020 by dinajohnston

The fields along the trail was starting to get over-grown in late May at Possum Branch Preserve. Once the grass gets knee high it’s a little creepy to veer off the trail and get close to the marsh.

Baby bluebirds hanging out in a dead tree. Looks like they were just learning to fly.

The usual.

This guy (male lesser scaup) should have already flown north by mid-May. Not sure why he was still hanging around but he wasn’t there the last time I was at the preserve.

The view from the edge of one of the ponds.

I stopped by the local eagles nest on the way home that’s in a utility tower. I was checking to see if I could see any juvenile eagles hanging around but only the adult was sitting on the tower. Any babies could have been gone by then.

Parks close to home

Posted on June 22, 2020 by dinajohnston

A quick early walk at Chesnut Park in early May. The park started to get crowded pretty quickly so I left and headed out to another park close by.

Possum Branch Preserve was void of people but not many birds there either. At least it was a nice walk outside.

A few birds there included a juvenile night heron and a red bellied woodpecker.

I caught this common snapping turtle cruising down the back trail. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snapper out in the wild. This one was pretty small.

A very quiet early September

Posted on October 14, 2019 by dinajohnston

Little titmouse looking for snacks. I get there at 8am and someone has already been there and left birdseed on the boardwalk. These guys are not shy.

I’ve never seen a prothonotary warbler at Chesnut park. Both were very skittish.

Other usual birds were parulas and cardinals. The cardinal was a juvenile that was just getting his red feathers. He looked rough.

It was very quiet at Chesnut Park so I left and stopped by Possum Branch Preserve before heading home. It was even more quiet at the preserve. I couldn’t even find a gator in all that muck.

Quiet walk in early August

Posted on October 1, 2018 by dinajohnston

Plants and critters at Chesnut Park and Possum Brand Preserve.

Not many birds around in early August. It was so hot I wasn’t getting out much for a few weeks. A 2 hour walk early on Saturday mornings was all I could handle in the heat and humidity before heading home for a nap.

Saturday morning walk at Chesnut Park

Posted on July 5, 2017 by dinajohnston

The water was almost gone in May due to the drought we were having. Most of the little ponds were dried up and the deer were grazing in the pond.

Most of the plants were looking parched.

Little critters.

I took the shot of the small alligator from the boardwalk. It wasn’t until I got home and cropped up the picture that I noticed he had a hook sticking out of the side of his mouth. I hope it dislodged when he ate his next meal.

The small river that heads out to Lake Tarpon.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World

End of summer, beginning of fall

Posted on December 14, 2016 by dinajohnston

All taken at Circle B Bar Reserve in mid-November. The cattails were exploding and so were the yellow bur marigolds.

Morning walk at Chesnut Park

Posted on September 8, 2016 by dinajohnston

A limpkin hiding in the bushes over the lake.

Pretty flowers fill the pond.

This is what cattails look like in the middle of summer.

Great egrets at the park.

The moon was still showing in the morning at Chesnut Park.

No birds at Chesnut Park in June

Posted on August 7, 2016 by dinajohnston

Most of the birds must have gone north for the summer. The park was very quiet on a Saturday morning in June. So I started looking for little critters. Someone had been on the boardwalk before me and left peanuts for the blue jays, cardinals and titmouse. They were nowhere to be found so the squirrels ate their snack.