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Recap - Ocala Wetlands

3/24/2023

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8 birders joined in  a beautiful morning of birding. Weather was perfect. One of the most interesting and not a bird were the 3 Sherman Fox Squirrels that gave us plenty of photo ops. It just seemed strange to find them in the openness of the wetlands. One was quite acrobatic with a frolocking , tumbling and jumping up and down display that kept us all mesmerized for several minutes. 

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The best bird surprise was to see 2 Black backed Stilts in a retention pond next to the park along with a Lesser Yellowlegs. This was a great distance from our vantage point, but the photo is rather odd. It seems as if the Stilt is drowning the Yellowlegs. 
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There were three raptors. An American Kestrel, Red-shouldered Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk were seen. Great-crested Flycatcher, Parula, Pine & Palm Warbler, many Red-headed Woodpeckers as well as Red-bellied, Downy, & Pileated were seen through-out the trek. 

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The surprise was being photo-bombed by the Canada Goose on the right of the group photo. Here's a close -up. We tallied 38 species for sure, but Merlin picked up Painted Bunting, and several others we could not verify.
The eBird list is here at this link. .
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S131689146
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​Fred Hileman
​Photos by Fred Hileman
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March 9th, 2023

3/15/2023

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9 birders trekked some of the trails at Circle B. Tim and I arrived about 7:15 and by the time the rest of the group had arrived; we had already tallied 21 species.  It is a good lesson for being there at or near dawn. I saw my first of the season Great Crested Flycatcher. That is always a thrill. There were several Great Blue nests that were active. 
The tally for the the morning was 51 species.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S130978913 Here is the ebird link.

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Tim and I travelled down on Wednesday and checked out Lake Mirror and Lake Morten. The Mute swans were very pretty.
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Recap - Emeralda Dual Trips

3/5/2023

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A four-car caravan set off with walkie talkies on February 17th, opening day of the wildlife drive this year.  As with our previous outing at Lake Apopka, we lucked out with a warm breezy day that preceded a showery cold front overnight.
 We parked the cars and went for a couple of short walks on mowed trails.  A highlight was two kingfishers chattering and interacting in the air for several seconds near us.  Later, at the first of several ponds, Bob Ross took this long-range photo of a Snail Kite.  Note the orange feet. 
 At the main pond, many Ring-necked Ducks and hundreds of coots entertained us.  As we left for lunch, three American White Pelicans flew over.  We enjoyed a waterfront window lunch at Ski Beach Bar and Grill in Leesburg.  Here are eight of the nine participants.  Your reporter is the photographer.

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Three folks had to forego Venetian Gardens.  The rest of us took the short walk from the restaurant parking lot to the Gardens.  A slow stroll along Lake Harris and over the several bridges of the Gardens produced close-up photo opportunities of several species, including Little Blue Herons and Great Egrets.  The stars of the show, as usual there, were the Purple Gallinules.  They were numerous.  Toward the end of our stroll, this pair of Purple Gallinules were photographed while fulfilling their mission in life.
Forty nine species were tallied by Bob Ross at Emeralda.  An additional five were spotted at Venetian Gardens.
Rey wells

4 members who could not go on the event day, went the following week. We tallied 53 species. They were similar but not the same species. The striking difference was the 53 Ring-necked ducks the first week and our tally of 300+ .
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Photo used under Creative Commons from Lip Kee