Baby hawks and the usual birds at Circle B.

Limpkin eating a snail on Alligator Alley trail.

This looks like an immature red shouldered hawk.

Immature little blue heron turning blue.

Two of the smaller baby red shouldered hawks.

The older sibling.

My first hawk babies were seen at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. A red shouldered hawk couple had built a nest behind the barred owl's nest. The barred owl babies had flown the coupe when I got there but a nice surprise was behind the nest. I could hear the baby hawks screaming. The birds were very far away across a river so the above pictures are highly cropped. Things are starting to slow down at the reserve. It's getting hot there and all of the migrate birds are almost gone or will be gone soon. All of the babies are growing up fast. I'm going to try and head out there one more time before the summer heat sets in. Then it's more trips to the coast where at least you get a sea breeze.

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Variety of birds at Circle B Bar Reserve

A scene from Circle B Bar reserve. Taken at the dock over the lake on Alligator Alley. There were a few great egrets hanging out in the trees.

Blue jays must think they are tough. This one kept trying to pick on a hawk.

The hawk got annoyed and left.

Opsrey defending it's nest from another osprey. The nest is sitting on top of a dead palm tree.

There are a handful of glossy ibis hanging around the marsh. From far away the glossy almost looks black but when the sun hits them you can see the burgandy and green iridescent color.

People say the birding season at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland is winding down. Especially since the best trail is closed until late fall due to alligator nesting season. But there are still so many different things to see out there. I'm going to try and head back there a few more times before it gets too hot. I still want to see the baby sandhill crane growing up and I just heard there's a red shouldered hawk's nest with babies. I've never seen baby hawks before.

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Audubon Center for Birds of Prey

This barred owl had so much personality. The trainer would talk to him and he would look at her with these amazing expressions.

Injured hawk was recouping outside.

Female american kestrel was a permanent resident.

A male kestrel.

This little screech owl is missing an eye.

Barn owls in their home at the center.

The eagle above has a twisted beak.

After my stop at Gatorland in Orlando, I decided to drive north to visit the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland. It was just outside of downtown Orlando. I had read so many articles about injured eagles and other birds being taken there that I wanted to see the place. There's a handful of large enclosures for permanent residents. In the back you see the even larger flight rehab buildings but you cannot go in those buildings. They don't want the recuperating birds exposed to visiting humans which makes sense. The place sits on a small lake and you can walk on a boardwalk out over the lake to a small covered dock. It was nice sitting out there resting for a while. These guys stay busy helping injured birds. Stop by there if you are ever in Orlando. 

Audubon Center for Birds of Prey

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Birds at Homosassa Springs

A volunteer was feeding the pelicans.

The above pelican had that "Don't come near my nest." look on it's face.

There are 3 permanently injured eagles that live at the park.

Lot's of wild storks come in to get a free handout.

We found a lot of wood ducks swimming around the river near the manatees.

Sandhill crane taking a nap. A volunteer told me that years ago they had a sandhill crane that had been hurt brought to the park for rehabilitation. The crane ended up staying and attracking a wild mate. They had babies and there is now 3 generations of sandhills that live at the park. They could leave anytime they want but they still hang around all year.

How often do you see a red shouldered hawk (left) and red tailed hawk (right) sitting together on a branch? The red tailed was missing a wing.

Besides manatees, the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park has lots of birds. Both wild and rehabilitating permanent residents. You can get really close up to some of them. There's a lagoon in the middle that has flamingos, both white and brown pelicans, storks, swans and sandhill cranes that all hang out together. The brown pelicans were working on their nests while we were there so soon there will be babies to view up close. On a visit last spring I saw a handful of baby swans. There are a lot of volunteers at the park that can answer any questions and told me all kinds of good stories about the birds there. You can also find a lot of wild birds in the park. We saw pileated woodpeckers and warblers as well. I think I'm going to head back in early spring to see any babies that are at the park.

Chesnut Park birds and animals.

I was walking along the boardwalk and heard a scream. I backed up thinking "that's a hawk close by". I look all around and found the above screaming right above my head.

All of a sudden he notices me. He looks at me like "where'd you come from" and took off.

I found this male anhinga posing on a stump. I like the way his white feathers stick out on his head.

I found this green heron poking around in the reeds.

My goal every time I go to Chesnut Park it to get pictures of the wild deer that live there. This is all I got. I saw it right as it was dashing under the boardwalk and ran deep in the woods. My husband said "Why do you keep taking pictures of deer butts?" Cause that's all I keep seeing. One of these days though...

This small alligator seemed to be smiling at me. Alligators are like dolphins in that they seem to both have a permanent smile on their faces.

Backyard birds - hawks and an osprey

Two weekends ago I was driving into my driveway right before dark when I saw the above hawk flying into a tree on the side of my house. I ran into the house and got my camera. I walked right up to the tree and took this picture. This juvenile has really gotten used to people. It just stared at me.

When the juvenile hawk flew off, it past the above red tailed hawk flying by. The red tailed landed on a light post a couple of houses down. It only stayed for a few seconds before taking off. This is the first time I've seen a red tailed hawk in our neighborhood. We have tons of red shouldered hawks around.

The next morning the resident osprey was on our neighbor's sailboat mast eating a fish. It was too nice of a morning not to go out a take a few pictures.

The osprey decided it didn't want me around for breakfast so it took off down the channel.

As I was going back in the house the juvenile hawk flew into our grapefruit tree in the backyard. It hung out there a while before taking off.

The usual backyard visitors - My World Tuesday

The above juvenile red shouldered hawk has been hanging around our backyard for a couple of weeks now. He found a piece of fish that the osprey left on the dock.

Sitting in our neighbor's back yard.

The resident female kingfisher was sitting on a pole sticking out of the water near our seawall.

The resident blue heron that I don't see that often showed up for a couple of hours.

She started coughing up a piece of fish she had eaten earlier. Yuk!

After the rain stopped, the hawk was drying his wings on our neighbor's sailboat mast.

I didn't see her catch the fish but she showed up a couple of docks down with a fish in her mouth.

I woke up a couple of weekends ago to a rainy day. It rained on and off all day so I stayed in and did chores. We got a lot of the usual visitors during the day to our backyard. I kept peeking out the back sliding glass doors every half hour and was able to take the above pictures over the course of the day.

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Celery Field variety of birds - Skywatch Friday

I parked along side of the road at the celery fields in Sarasota and the above was circling overhead.  Having a "turkey" vulture circle around you is almost like celebrating Thanksgiving. I don't think turkey vultures get the credit they deserve for being "cool" birds. They look great when they are flying high up in the sky. They look creepy when there's a group of them hanging out on the side of the road.  I did have a good visit to the celery fields the week of Thanksgiving and I'm going to try and get back before Christmas.

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This red shouldered hawk couple sat on the light fixture the entire time I was there.

Any id on this would be great. At first I thought it was a palm warbler which are common here but there's no hint of yellow.  Could it be a hermit thrush? That's the closest I could find on Whatbird.com.

Flock of anhingas flying by.

Grackle can't read.

The above is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a greater or lesser. They look alike.

I finally see a kildeer and didn't even know it. The sun was going down and I wanted to get a picture of the shorebirds sleeping. I didn't see the kildeer in the upper left corner until later when I uploaded the pictures. The picture is extremely cropped. I can't believe that little bird snuck into my picture and didn't let me know he was there. There was a small flock of shorebirds together and he must have been hiding in them.