A typical morning in central Florida.

Posted on April 25, 2016 by dinajohnston

I still haven’t seen any news on this great blue heron nest. A while ago there was a great blue heron always sitting on the nest for weeks. Then it was abandoned. Weeks later when I was there, I saw this great blue heron looking around. So are they trying again? They’ve had babies in this nest for several years now.

I found the limpkin family again on this trip but they were further away from the trail. The babies were growing up so fast. They now look like the parent, only smaller.

Northern Parulas were all along the trail but they stayed high up in the trees.

A green heron prowling around in the muck.

A glossy ibis doing the same thing.

The dragonflies were out.

A few crawling critters were out on the trail.

Just a few things I saw on my walk in mid-March at Circle B Bar Reserve.

Another episode of “Don’t play with your food”

Posted on March 26, 2016 by dinajohnston

Underneath the great blue heron’s nest was another great blue heron trying to eat lunch. I stood there for 10 minutes watching him fight this snake. It looks like he was trying to make a salad. He kept dropping the snake and when he picked it back up, he would have a beak full of weeds as well. I never did see him swallow it. I got tired of standing there and kept on moving down the trail.

On a sad note, this nest is a bust. The great blue heron sat on this nest right on the trail for a month and then she was gone. I haven’t heard if anyone knows what happened. Did she leave because the eggs didn’t hatch? Did the eggs get damaged? The other active nests are farther behind this one. This one was such a good spot and had produced babies for several years now.

Linking to Saturday’s Critters

More great blue heron hanky panky

Posted on March 24, 2016 by dinajohnston

This great blue heron flew over my head and landed high up in a tree. It took me a minute to figure out what he was doing up there. He was breaking off a branch to take back to the nest.

He flew over to a nest across the marsh and gave it to his mate.

It was over in a few seconds. Hopefully this tree will have babies in it soon.

The barred owl that’s been sleeping in the big tree near the parking lot at Circle B Bar Reserve was sleeping the morning I was there in early February. He did wake up and preen his feathers for a few minutes before going back to sleep.

Looking high up – Skywatch Friday

Posted on January 8, 2015 by dinajohnston

The great blue heron couple are already on the nest. She must be on eggs since there is now always one of them sitting on the nest. This was early December so we should be able to see any babies by mid-January. Last year they had two babies but only one survived.

After a while, she stood up to stretch.

She’s either turning over the eggs or fixing that stick that was poking her.

I found an eagle preening himself high up in the tree.

Through the moss, he stayed there for a while and then flew off.

While I was watching the great blue heron nest, the eagle flew back with something in his talons.

He was heading for a nest with some padding.

Later I saw this bird flying high up. It’s not a red shoulder hawk or a cooper’s hawk. It looks like a northern harrier from my Stokes Birding guide. If so, it’s a first for me. Or he could be a merlin. Please correct me if I’m wrong.