Fun Times in Florida

The main purpose of our recent trip to Florida was not birding.  Rather, it was about trying to figure out if WE want to be 'snow birds'.  However, we enjoy birding and so whenever and wherever we travel, we are always watching for birds.   

Wilderness areas are the places we go for fun!

This trip was also about taking some time to relax.  I almost titled this post, "Relaxed Birding in Florida" because I did not keep written lists of the birds we saw and most of our travel was planned day-by-day.  We did have certain areas of Florida we wanted to check out, and we also had friends we wanted to visit.  We fitted birding in with those things by looking at eBird to find birding 'Hotspots' in the county we were in at the moment.  And we sometimes just pulled in at "Florida Birding Trail" signs we saw along our way.

Now, I consider ANY type of birding to be "fun" but I realized when looking thru my photos that we also experienced quite a few "funny" birding moments on this trip.  Everyone's idea of both "fun" and "funny" are unique to them (personally I'd rather walk with the wild alligators to see birds than go to a theme park but I might be a little strange).  

For me, it's fun to go birding where there are palm trees and blue skies.  

And, it's fun to go birding with my husband.

I feel a little safer with him between me and the alligators.

There are two alligators in the center of this photo.

Besides palm trees, I also think it's fun to see the live oak trees covered in Spanish moss.

We watched a pair of pileated woodpeckers in one large old tree.  We have pileated woodpeckers at home but not trees like that!

It was fun to see tons of blue-grey gnatcatchers and try to get a photo of one.  They were everywhere we went, and they seemed to be constantly on the move.

Well, almost constantly.

We spent part of a day at Homosassa Springs State Park.  While waiting for the boat ride into the Springs, a family standing near us was talking about seeing a snake in the water.  It was no snake, as they soon found out.  It was an anhinga, fishing in the water.  They aren't nicknamed 'snakebird' for nothing.  Imagine seeing only the wet neck and head of the bird in the next photo slicing thru the water!

Homosassa is fun because you get to see some birds close up. 

We were amused by a lady's comment that it was so nice the bald eagles "could come and go as they pleased".  It was nice that she thought so, but in reality, the eagles could not fly away, as they were injured birds whose lives had been saved by rescuers, but are no longer able to fly.

It was a chilly day when we were at Homosassa.  I wish I had taken a video of these wood storks so you could see them in motion.

Their pink feet and legs were shivering from the cold.  (It's a wonder they hadn't turned blue!)

 Cold weather or not, this pair of great-blue herons knew it was time to start building their nest... that was fun to watch.

Babies are always fun, even an "Ugly Duckling" baby... this one is not a duck though, it's a brown pelican.

Its parents were taking good care of it.

Well, actually, they were spending most of their time preening and the baby was sleeping while we watched.  But, it was fun to see anyway. 

While we don't have pelicans to watch at home, I often enjoy watching red-tailed hawks.  But I don't usually get to photograph them close up like this:

How's that for showing off a 'red-tail'?  Maybe you'd like to see its head, too...

I obviously enjoy bird photography and I thought it would be fun to get a 'head shot' of a flamingo while we were in the park.   It took awhile, but I was pretty happy with this shot.

One last photo from Homosassa Springs, before we move onto the wild side again.  Lately I've been trying to study raptors... in particular, the differences between black vultures and turkey vultures.  I want to be able to recognize each kind in case I see a black vulture at home (where it might be a 'county first').  The black vultures at Homosassa were very co-operative in helping me with this.  

Did you get a good enough look yet?

One day we just happened upon a tractor museum.  They weren't the 'right color' tractors, but it was a very nicely done museum anyway.

Paquette's Historical Farmall Museum

This stop lead to the only 'Life Bird' being added to my 'Life List' for this trip.  So, you never know what's going to happen when you are birding.  If we had not gone to the tractor museum, we would not have made a quick spot at the pond nearby to see what kind of ducks these were...

which turned out to be ring-necked ducks.  Nice!

Another fun thing that happened was at one of our impromptu stops at a Florida Birding Trail.  We didn't know anything about the place, but we had extra time before we wanted to head to our motel for the night.  It didn't look like much of a spot...

but it was the perfect habitat for red-headed woodpeckers... and we saw three of them there!  That was pretty fun!

One of the more humorous birding moments came when we were visiting friends near The Villages.  Strolling around Lake Sumter Landing, we saw a cormorant piloting a row boat with its mate riding along.

He obviously named his boat after her.  I hope Shirley was enjoying the ride.

One of the last places we went birding was a 'hot spot' we found on eBird.  The Hague Dairy in Alachua County, was just what it sounds like, a large experimental dairy run by the University of Florida.  

Now, I love a dairy farm.  Having grown up on one, I love everything about them-- including the smells.  So, birding by the manure pit and around the Hague Dairy ponds was fun for me.  The pit had attracted hundreds of yellow-rumped warblers.  It was amazing... there were so many!

And they were so friendly!

I think that was the most fun thing that happened while we were birding in Florida!

 





 

Butterfly Heaven in Gainesville

A couple of months before we were planning to drive to Florida for a winter vacation, there was an article in our Sunday newspaper about the Gainesville area.  While reading it, I made notes of places that sounded enjoyable to visit.  One of them was the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  It was one of the first things we did after arriving in Florida, and it was definitely a highlight of our trip!

We hoped to have sunny, warm weather while we were in Florida.... enjoying tropical scenes, flowers, birds, and butterflies.  

All that happened right in the Butterfly Rainforest.

But, first, my husband had to scrape ice off our windshield that morning!

Then he drove us to the Butterfly Rainforest... and we went inside, into another world.  

We started thru the "Monarch Passage"...

There were videos on each side of the hallway, but we were excited to get to the conservatory, so we didn't linger long.

(I think I need to go back sometime!)

From the hallway we emerged into a larger area, in which the displays (the "Wall of Wings") were astoundingly beautiful.

There were sections overhead with framed digital images of butterflies from around the world.

We went over to  the counter and were given a few basic instructions before going into the rainforest (be careful not to step on or touch any butterflies, only open one door at a time when entering and exiting).  Then, we went in...

At first, there didn't seem to be that many butterflies, but I was enjoying the beauty of the plants.  As we moved farther into the space, we started seeing more and more butterflies.  

They were on the flowers...

and on the foliage...

 even on the bridge railings.

One popular spot for them was this large rock.

How many butterflies can you find on it?  

Did you see this one?  It was pretty well camouflaged.

There were even butterflies on the signs.

Besides butterflies, there were a few birds.  I enjoyed watching this one taking a bath.  The other two birds did not seem to enjoy it very much!

There were many wonderful things to see... small streams with waterfalls and a pond (complete with a turtle under the bridge and a large koi swimming around in it).  

One of the docents told us that at 2:00 there would be a butterfly release on the bridge in the center of the garden.  She said we could go look at other displays in the museum and come back at 2 if we wanted.  No need -- I was happy to spend the time wandering along the paths, relaxing, and watching the butterflies.

Everything was wonderfully well-kept and beautiful!  

That's not a dead leaf... that's a butterfly!

 The 6,400-square foot outdoor, screened enclosure was immaculate.  They say there are between 60 to 80 species of butterflies and moths in it all year long.  Because it is open to the air, it was a little chilly when we were there (remember the ice on our windshield that morning?) so I was glad to have  my jacket on.

A little before 2:00, we made our way to a spot on the bridge so we would be able to watch the release.   A large percentage of the butterflies are from around the world (just a few are native to Florida), so they are not released outside, but into the conservatory.  This young lady told us a little about each of the species before she gently took each one in her fingers and let them go.

Some were ready to fly and quickly took off.

Others needed a little more time and she placed them carefully on something so they could fly away in their own time.

She explained the difference between butterflies and moths... in appearance, mainly their antennae, as you can see in the next photo of a moth.

I already don't remember most of the names or many of the facts she told us about the different kinds, but the next one is an owl eye moth (again... I think need to go back!).

After the release, we finally left the rainforest conservatory to look at the rest of the facility.  

The next photo is a small portion of the racks where they raise the butterflies from chrysalis.  Chrysalises are purchased from various countries in different parts of the world.  They arrive in the mail - there is a sample package in the exhibit, but I did not get a photo of it.

Here is another section, with a butterfly that will probably be released at the next opportunity.

The Butterfly Rainforest is located at the University of Florida and they have research labs and drawers full of collections of butterflies and moths from around the world.  The McGuire Center is the world's largest Lepidoptera research facility.

There are large windows looking into the research facility so that visitors can observe.  This student was painstakingly cutting apart labels to pin with the specimens.  It's good to know that butterflies are being studied and loved by so many people.

I told my husband that visiting the Butterfly Rainforest 'made' my trip to Florida... it truly was wonderful!   If you are ever near Gainesville, I highly recommend a visit!