The morning of February 10th was warm and breezy. 23 bird folks gathered at Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive for a day of fun. Missing from the group photo are Mike and Effie Smith, Virginia Hall, Julie Appleget, Eileen Riccio, Jim Meyer, Will and Kathy Carter, Bonnie Schirmers and Jan Doudna.
A female Painted Bunting, Swamp Sparrow, Common Yellow Throat showed up at the entrance along with loads of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Northern Harriers flew over the marshes in several locations along the way.
Northern Flicker and Grey Headed Swamphen were two more sightings .
The exciting find were the Black-necked Stilts that were at a good distance away, but Jim Meyer got a decent photo. There seemed to be an abundance of Black-crowned Night Herons.
A female Painted Bunting, Swamp Sparrow, Common Yellow Throat showed up at the entrance along with loads of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Northern Harriers flew over the marshes in several locations along the way.
Northern Flicker and Grey Headed Swamphen were two more sightings .
The exciting find were the Black-necked Stilts that were at a good distance away, but Jim Meyer got a decent photo. There seemed to be an abundance of Black-crowned Night Herons.
Just a few weeks ago, there was an abundance of Fulvous Whistling Ducks. This day provided a sighting of two. It was the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that amazed us. There had to be well over 3oo hundred lining the banks of the canal on our way out of the drive.
Overall, there seemed to be fewer birds still in residence than when we were there last year. Not that it wasn’t active enough. It was. We tallied 52 species.
Blog by Rey Wells & Fred Hileman. Photos by Rey Wells, Jim Meyer and Fred Hileman