Ochclockonee Bay Birding, Florida

Howdee all,
After walking around Ochlochonee River State Park and sweating from the heat.
We headed to the coast.
We went to a spot we had been to before, the end of the road on route 372.
It was much cooler and we hit it at the start of low tide. Lots of birdies heading to the sand spits.

Oh Just look at them all.

We started our ID.
Check out the size difference of these Herring gulls compared to Laughing Gull in the foreground, Little Forster's Terns and Bonaparte's Gulls ..the ones with the dark ear spots.

Oh looky who do we have with all these Willets..

A Marbled Godwit

This was birdie preening time...All the birdies were splashing in the water and fluffy and picking at their feathers. Some were napping.

And who do we have here amongst these Forster Terns. A nice flock of Black Skimmers.

This one was sipping and fluffing.
a sip
a fluff
I am beautiful now!

We also saw Black-bellied Plover, Semi-palmated Plover, Least Sandpiper, Sanderlings,Dunlins,
Short-billed Dowitchers, Lesser Yellowlegs.


And now its time to rest.
Goodnight Laughing Gull..I love your white eye slashes.

Goodbye Panhandle of Florida..
Its been fun!

Ochlochonee River State Park, Florida

Howdee all,

Today we went to the last place on the Great FloridaBirding Trail in this part of the panhandle that we havent seen yet.
Ochlockonee River State park
Ochlockonee, which means "yellow waters," is a mix of brackish, tidal surge, and fresh water. Pristine and deep, the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Below is a fishing station. We didn't fish..but there are both freshwater and saltwater fish here.
Tammy...Joe would have had his fishing pole out for sure!

I took this photo for you sista Dell ...this area is much like where you live in North Carolina...sans alligator. Lots of sand no rocks. This rock retaining wall was built out of cement bags.
Humm...how much are cement bags...I want to build something when I get there in April.


Jeff and I hiked on just about every trail in the park. Mostly Pine woods and Oak thickets.
This park is also popular with the birders because of the resident Red-Cockaded woodpecker...
We saw the nests but didn't look very hard for the bird because we have seen lots when we visit my sister in NC.

Some pretty little flowers on the trail.


There were some really beautiful grassy areas. We arrived early afternoon..the temps were in the low 80s, so the birdies weren't very active.
Saw allot of Brown thrashers, cardinals, white-eyed vireos, chickadees, brown-headed nuthatches, yellow throated warblers, and a pair of Eagles flew over our heads talking to each other...or maybe they were talking to us....I like to think so.....very Cool.

I loved these curly grasses.

Beautiful curly Qs


I saw many of these sand mounds on the trails. How the heck did the critter make these little balls? Any Ideas? and yes Beachgrl this would be your fifth prize if you come up with the correct answer. Oh you could make the curly grasses your sixth prize...You go sista.. Of course I am also cheering on my other sisters.


Look at this cute little white squirrel. There are several at the park. These squirrels are not albinos. They are a gene mutation of the gray squirrel and are white as snow.


This park also has campsites for those who want to stay longer and wake up to the sounds of the birdies.
Jeff and I went to the coast later in the day..
Birdie coastal photos to come!
I had some digiscoping fun.

We are leaving Florida tomorrow.....It has been a wonderful three months...but its time to head norther...getting too warm here...tee hee
Come birdies...follow me to the north!
First stop Georgia.

Paddleing the Wacissa River.....Eagles eating GBH? and The Big White Birds have landed.

Howdee all,

Yesterday we paddled down the Wacissa River with Dennis aka...Gator bait and his daughter Rhonda whom met the day before at Wakula Springs.
Dennis has paddled this river before........so we were in good hands.....besides....its always good to travel Gator country with bait..

The Wacissa is a clear spring fed stream ..12 springs according to this website.

Jeff and I haven't paddled in ...humm..... a long time. Thank goodness this was nice flat water.
No rapids..just a little wind to contend with.
We did hit one tree...it survived.

The scenery was beautiful and we saw great birds...Have you ever tried looking thru binos while on a canoe? Not easy...so looking at warblers was out of the question..


We saw at least 7 Bald Eagle,Red shouldered Hawks, Lots of Herons, Egrets, Ibis, Coots, Morehens, and the usual suspects. Heard a Limpkin.
But the real treat for us was The Swallow tail Kite a life bird for us.
No birdie photos. We just enjoyed the viewing with our eyes.

What you don't see here is Jeff and I bickering with each other for the first half hour...each blaming the other for not paddling correctly....finally Jeff admitted he didnt know why his steering wasn't working...and we happily paddled away ...I had to work xtra hard to help steer when we got off course!

We did see Alligators...several crossing the water before us...YIKES ....Luckily Gator Bait was in the lead!


It was a splendid day.
But the 10 miles had my arms
aching ..not muscle ache...just a dull all over ache.....I had to apply copious amounts of Ben gay type lotion, heating pad, and two Excedrin...went to sleep and woke up with no pain.
Thanks Dennis and Rhonda...for a great Day!


Today we had a late start.....We've done just about every trail at St. Marks wildlife refugee...So we decided to do a five miler that we hadn't done...It wasn't that interesting..but we did get some exercise. We later went to our favorite birdie viewing area location 130....
Where I spotted this Bald Eagle chowing down.... and Turkey Vultures waiting for the leftovers...
I was curious to see what it was eating...The eagle left and what i could see looked to me to be the carcass of a Great Blue Heron. Does anyone know if Eagle kill Great Blue Heron?



After checking out the Eagle we walked a bit further and scoped the area for birds.
Whats this flying in????


Oh..Cool...we have been here two weeks and this is the first time we have seen the White Pelicans at St. Marks.. there must be at least 100 here.....



I am wondering if they are starting to Migrate norther..

We are headed north in a week....Migrating with the Birdies...

Wakula Springs State Park, Florida

Howdee all,

Today Jeff and I went to Wakula Springs State Park.

Home of one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world...beautifully crystal clear today...
Yeah that's us down there saying hi to you all....that is how clear the water is...our shadows did not get wet while taking the photo.


There is a lodge that was built in 1937 by financier Edward Ball. Nice place to stay if you want to visit this part of the Pan handle of Florida.

We grabbed a cup of Coffee at the Lodge before taking a hour boat ride.

We actually took two boat rides today.......The water was clear today so we also went on the half hour glass bottom boat tour.

The scenery is quite beautiful ...Spanish moss...clear water...lots of Birdies.
Click on the video to get a flavor of the area!



Coots, Blue wing teal, Morehen, White Ibis,Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons
Osprey, Bald Eagle, Turkey Vultures and many more.


many alligators...
Wood ducks and Hooded Merganser...yeah I was wishing I had a big camera today...
could have been a really cool close up of these birdies.Great Egrets were plentiful.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

We didn't see Tarzan..but one of his movies was filmed here.

After the boat tours we had lunch at the Lodge and then took a three mile walk in the park.
I love warblers and was happy to spot some...... Yellow throated warblers, Black and white warblers and Northern Parulas.
I am hoping we catch some of the Warbler migration ...
calling all warblers ...
here pretty warblers....come to see us on your way North....

Tomorrow we go canoeing...We met a father, daughter today on one of the boat rides,
They are camping and canoeing in the area...actually they happen to be camping in the same campground as us. The only problem I have with this trip is that the Fathers nickname is Gator bait....yep...you read it right...Gator Bait... long story...made short...he was canoeing....alligator lifted the canoe bit the side of the boat because it couldn't get to him...and then left....if the boat tipped or if the alligator got hold of him...he probably wouldn't be alive to tell his story. The big ole alligator would have taken him under the water until he drowned.....and then had lunch. YIKES....
Wish us luck!

Leon Sinks Geological Area, near Tallahasee, Florida

Howdee all.

Today we went to a very cool geological area... An area of karsts
I took this information from the Leon Sinks website..
You can click on the link above to read more about the area and look at the trail map.

Leon Sinks Geological Area
Welcome to the fascinating world of karst. The term is applied to terrain that rain and groundwater have changed by dissolving underlying limestone bedrock. The porous limestone bedrock was formed long ago from ancient coral reefs and shell deposits. Rain and groundwater have dissolved the limestone to form sinkholes, swales and underground caverns. The Woodville Karst Plain runs from Tallahassee southward to the Gulf of Mexico. A wet sinkhole is an opening to the Floridan aquifer, which supplies our drinking water.
Many of these sinks are connected caves underwater....they have been explored by divers. If you are interested you can check out the video at Utube by clicking this link.


Jeff and I decided to do the full round trip, about five miles plus. We passed several dry sink holes.. and then came across this one..

Beautiful blue green water, very clear.

We hung out and watched a few birds come in to drink.
another sink ..
We passed many sinks..and this one below being the largest and deepest.
Big Dismal Sink offers a breathtaking view of more than 75 different plants cascading down the sink's steep walls.


besides the sinks we passes several small cypress swamps.


Oh whats this I see ..
Pink on a tree

Pink spots
and one PINK Heart...



How Cool is that!

I googled pink Lichen but couldn't find any info on it...any ideas?
(oh...smart sister found out what this is...)
Christmas Lichen
and this other link actually has photos of the lichen from the same area that we hiked today
More Christmas Lichen
Thanks smart sista...

and what the heck?????? How does this tree stay up?


with a little help from its friend...
its leaning into that spot up top.....

We saw some nice birdies today...alas no pictures...if i were one of you with those super cool cameras with real fast shutter speeds and zoom lenses you would have seen photos of...

White eyed vireo, Golden crowned kinglets, Hermit thrush, Yellow bellied sapsucker,
Red bellied woodpecker, Chickadees, Titmouse, Cardinals, Ruby crowned kinglet, Robins and Pine warbler and Orange crowned warbler.
But I dont have one of those cameras...so you will just have to take my word for it...tee hee...