Every year I can’t wait to visit Sweetfield Farms in mid-May (although I missed 2020 for obvious reasons). Besides the sunflower fields, the farm has a lot of animals and activities going on during their festival.
They have rows of zinnias in all of the colors. You can pick them for $1 and I brought home a handful of them.
The one thing I noticed was there was a lot less butterflies here than last year. Maybe it was timing. Or lack of rain or too many pesticides? I was 2 weeks earlier than I went last year.
I’m not sure what these are but they were growing in the vegetable garden.
I know these yellow flowers are zucchinis. You could pick these as well and I took home a big one to saute in my spaghetti sauce.
I was watching the horses at the farm next door run around.
It’s always fun to feed the goats.
Just a boy and his turkey! He brought out some of the turkeys for people to pet. They were friendly although they don’t look like it.
But the main reason to come here is the sunflowers. I took a ton of pictures so more on those later.
I found some new friends at Horsepower for Kids Sanctuary in late November. The toucan is a fairly new resident and was very friendly (he was surrendered by his owner).
You don’t often see white turkeys.
The ducks were being their usual cute selves in the big pond.
Roosters have a run of the sanctuary. Some are skittish and stay in the bushes and some will walk right up to you.
Right before everything closed I stopped by Horsepower for Kids, the non-profit rescue farm to walk around and just be outside. The weather was still cool. They strictly rely on donations and admission fees to feed the animals and now that they are closed they are hurting for funds.
The turtles in the pond were coming up on the bank to sun themselves.
Funny faces staring back at me.
A capybara taking a dip. These guys are from South American and this one was a pet that someone realized they didn’t want after all and gave up to the farm.
I was watching some of the volunteer kids chasing after a crazy rooster that had gotten free and was driving all of the other animals crazy. That rooster was pretty slick and kept them running for a while. It’s always entertaining there.
A pileated woodpecker high up in the tree. I heard they nested close by here this summer. I totally missed the boat on it this year. Next year I’m going to try to get down here to see baby pileateds. To see some amazing baby woodpeckers screaming at mom, see Jim Gray’s shots here . He has the patience of a saint and will sit there all day waiting for those babies to wake up.
The preserve was full of these grasshoppers. They were on ground all over the trails and would hop up in front of me to get out the way. At one point, one hopped on my shoulder. They have a pretty dotted pattern on their back wings, almost like a leopard print. When they hop away, they look yellow.
A skipper on the blade of grass.
A nearby goat farm. They all looked so cute grazing.
Or do they?
This one looked cute. He was standing close to the fence.
Across the street from the goat farm was a horse pasture with a few horses grazing. I’m not sure what that is on his face. I’ve never seen that before. I’m guessing something to keep the bugs out of his eyes? I bet Theresa from Run A Round Ranch knows why that cover is on his face.
I had heard of Felts Preserve (in between St. Petersburg and Sarasota) but had not made it there. I had heard it was a big painted and indigo bunting stop-over during migration and still had not gone. Someone told me it was near the outlet mall. Oh! I usually get to the outlet mall about twice a year. It’s almost an hour south of my house. It’s a beautiful drive down (over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge) and tons of great stores but life (or birding) usually gets in the way of shopping. After two hours of shopping, I found the preserve. It’s a small preserve, only 27 acres and is in the middle of cow, goat and horse farms. The land was donated to the Audubon Society when Otis Felts died in 2002. I was crazy to go in July. It was hot and I had to put on two coats of bug spray. The only bird I saw was the pileated woodpecker. The air was filled with grasshoppers, gnats and mosquitos. But, I can’t wait to get back there in the fall. I think it has potential when migration starts (and it’s always nice to be able to pick up a few bargains at the outlet mall before hand).
