Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park has 2 entrances. The back entrance which puts you at the main park was closed due to flooding and damage to the main entrance building from the hurricanes so when I went to visit in January I stopped at the tourist entrance on the main road. From there you have to take a ride on a tram or a boat to get to the park area. I decided to take the boat since I hadn’t done that it many years. It’s a 12 minute ride through a typical Florida river. The guide talked about the different wildlife and plants you see along the way. This river runs through the park.
There are wood duck nesting boxes along the river and although it was too early for nesting we did see some of the wood ducks hanging out on the boxes.
After my initial fun of seeing the wild manatees I started looking around the park for any birds. I found some pileated woodpeckers right along the boardwalk where the manatees hang out in the winter. The top one was eating those berries. The two on the bottom were eating bugs around the bottom of the trees.
As I was taking pictures of the woodpeckers I could hear wheezing above me. I realized there were cedar waxwings eating the small dark berries in the tree over my head. At first they were high up in the trees but a few came down closer.
They are beautiful birds that look very distinguished with that black mask and yellow tipped tails. They only pass through here in the late winter into spring.
The resident injured white morph great blue heron was close to the boardwalk. It’s rare to see the white morph version of this gray and blue bird. I’ve only seen one in the wild at Fort Desoto many years ago.
A typical Florida sight, a great blue heron sitting on a sideways growing palm tree.
As I walked along the boardwalk that runs along the river I could see many of the trees were uprooted during the hurricanes.
The water was calm and clear on this chilly morning.
