Unofficial Event Update: Treasure Coast Birding Festival

David and I, along with Tim, led a field trip out to Goodwin Wildlife Management Area today in conjunction with the Treasure Coast Birding Festival. It was a lot different than my DeeMotivation walks out there in that we were in a bus. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantage is that you can go further out into the area which gives you the potential to see stuff you might otherwise not get to. The disadvantages are that you don't get exercise and miss much of the smaller stuff like snakes. Either way it was a great day out there. If you didn't GOYB and join us, here's what you missed (click on pictures to enlarge):

This is a family of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks. There were a few family groups out there. The ones that don't have bright orange bills are the young ones. Bird Trivia: You know how a female duck pays for lipstick? She has the store put it on her bill.

This was my favorite sighting of the day. A mom bobcat with her two youngun.

This was a herd of spoonbills that flew over.

Goodwin is just the prettiest place on the planet. The color is incredible. These are egrets. We had a few.

This picture is out of focus, but I like how it shows snowy egrets, a juvenile white ibis, and a glossy ibis. One big happy family. It looked like one of those "love makes a family" schmaltzy after school tv specials.

This is a green heron trying his best to imitate an american bittern. Until David confirmed otherwise, I thought it was a bittern.

David jumped off the bus to grab this guy and introduce him to the bus. He was a garter snake.

If you look at the part of the snake nearest to David's sleeve, you see what looks like a cut in the snake's skin. It's actually a scent gland, from which the snake releases a really really nasty smelling musk if some big scary guy jumps off a bus and picks him up. David released the snake unharmed after I got the picture,  but I think he might have to burn the jacket.

Join us next week for a walk out at Split Oaks wildlife management area. Remember, you can see all kinds of cool pictures on the internet, but you can only experience snake musk if you GOYB and come out walking with us!