Winter birds and the moon

I could still see the moon when I was at Chesnut Park in late October early in the morning. Only the front part of the park was open due to the hurricanes we recently had.

It was quiet but I managed to find a few interesting birds (although nothing new). Catbirds are very common in the winter but the white eyed vireo and the male common yellowthroat are a little bit harder to find.

The grackle was singing in the sun, showing off his beautiful feathers.

The park is full of squirrels sometimes being cute.

Two weeks later the rest of the park opened and I was happy to be walking on the back boardwalk again. The trees looked a little barer and apart from the tons of fallen logs in the swamp the park looked the same. The water levels in the park were still high but it stays high coming off the rainy summer anyway.

I could still see the partial moon high over the lake.

The views around the lake were a lot clearer with the storms moving out a lot of the bushes and reeds that had grown up high along the edges.

SkyWatch Friday

A walk through the swamp

The sun was just coming up over the trees at Chesnut Park in late October. I was out for a walk with just my phone and the weather was perfect. It was all blue sky out on Lake Tarpon.

The rest of the walk was through the swamp (although I was on a boardwalk for most of it). The back boardwalk area was flooding after all of the rain we got from Hurricane Nicole coming through.

There were also some dry areas along the trail as well. The sun was making weird shadows through the trees and my phone picked up some alien looking light forms in one of the shots. Was it just tricks with the lens or was I not alone???

It was a beautiful morning to be out.

You can always find alligators along the ponds and lakes here. This morning I only found this tiny one.

SkyWatch Friday

Fun in the drizzle

I found this park close to were I now live. It’s mostly a ball field but it does have some trails and boardwalks and it sits along the Lake Tarpon canal. I found this cool painting on the sidewalk as you walk into the park.

It was a cold drizzly morning so I had the place almost all to myself. I don’t mind mornings like this once in a while, especially if I don’t have anything special to do that was planned outdoors. It was nice to bundle up and get out and I was breaking in my new hiking boots before our trip to Utah.

The boardwalk winds forever through the mangroves and then there’s a paved trail along the canal. The sun was trying to peak out on my way back.

Part of the trail was lined with these trees that had these big black seed pods on them and all over the ground. After searching the web, I still can’t figure out what these are.

This is a brazilian pepper bush. They were all over the park (and all over central Florida) and are an invasive bush. You would think they would be good food for migrating birds but I’ve only seen mockingbird and blue jays eating them.

My Corner of the World