Samson's Island

Had a terrific day out on Sampson's Island. As with last year's event, we had a great-horned owl with a baby, and some osprey getting ready to get down. If you didn't GOYB and join us today, here's what you missed:

 An oprey building it's nest. We didn't see them getting down, but there was a boy and a girl and I'm pretty sure they had some Marvin Gaye music queued up.

My favorite thing on Sampson's Island is the antlions. They are all over and very cool. I love pointing them out to folks who have never seen them before. Like me, they are always amazed at such a clever little critter!

Make sure you join us for a future walk. We have Pelican Island, Devil's Millhopper, and lots more cool stuff coming up! Remember,  you can look at my pictures on the internet, but you can only be truly one of the cool kids if you come out and play with us!

Grand Day Out at Lake Apopka Restoration Area

Had a great day at the Lake Apopka restoration area today. Led by Maria Zondervan, we saw 56 species including: red-bellied woodpecker, mockingbird, robin, bluebird, blue-grey gnatcatcher, cardinal, blue jay, palm warbler, pine warbler, american crow, king fisher, tree swallow, anhinga, bald eagle, savannah sparrow, red shouldered hawk, osprey, moorhen, great blue heron, great egret, red wing blackbird, mourning dove, coot, blue wing teal, widgeon, gadwall, ringneck duck, wood duck, tricolor heron, little blue heron, glossy ibis, pied bill grebe, boat tailed grackle, yellow rump warbler, sora, common yellowthroat, swamp sparrow, northern shoveler, phoebe, green heron, black vulture, snowy egret, limpkin, cattle egret, northern harrier, cooper's hawk, northern parula,  turkey vulture, snipe, sedge wren, kestral, northern flicker, barn owl, white eyed vireo, meadowlark, and barn swallow.

And, in pictures, if you didn't GOYB and join us, here's what you missed (click on photos to enlarge):

A magnificent red shouldered hawk.

A phoebe

A ton of gators! 

Really great looks at blue birds

The main reason for our visit - to see the results of
our owl box project! Some of our boxes are still in use
as evidenced here by 5 eggs in one of the
original boxes

There was a LOT of evidence of the owls living there,
including many bones from owl pellets. This was a
bittern skull.

We were theorizing how much some of this stuff had
to hurt going down, not to mention coming back up!

A close up of the bittern skull and neck.

The whole gang, minus me. From l-r:
Steve, Mary, Marilyn, Roy, Nickol, Audrey, Judith,
Phyliss, Mark, Lora, Matt, Maria, and Deborah.

The whole gang, minus Matt. From l-r:
Steve, Mary, Marilyn, Roy, Nickol, Audrey, Judith,
Phyliss, Mark, Lora, Dee, Maria, and Deborah.

Our fearless leader for today, Maria,  Land Manager for the
Lake Apopka Restoration Area from St. Johns Water
Management District.I and Space Coast Audubon
sincerely thank her for sharing her time and
knowledge with us today.