What a nice turn-out for this mornings stroll through one of the most beautiful places on earth, Rainbow Springs State Park!!!! We had 25 enthusiastic birders who were eager to see what the morning would offer.  The morning was a little too foggy to begin with.  This does not induce the insects to get active and therefore the birds don't have the incentive to get moving.  It was a little slow and even with the walk into the back area, the list did not get over 27 species.  But as we came back through the Butterfly Garden the sky lightened and an abundance of birds were found busily gleaning insects from a large oak.  There were at least 3 Pileated Woodpeckers, 3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, 2 Downy Woodpeckers,3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and  4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, The tree was also very  active with Yellow-throated, Pine, Yellow-rumped, and Black and White Warblers and Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers were many numbered.  A very nice ending to a slow morning.  The complete list can be viewed at this eBird link

Another beautiful day to go birding.  Eight enthusiasts converged on the latest superb habitat.  The terrain is so diverse that many different species can cohabit extremely well.  Although we didn't get to see the Purple Swamphens, there were many more species that were seen.  We did get to observe the Great Blue Heron(white form) in one of its usual spots.  We had 48 species. The list can be seen at this link. This Pied-billed Grebe was just trying to take a mid-morning nap.

Twelve of us were joined by freelance writer and photographer Amanda Mims this  morning.  She is writing an article about birding with Citrus County Audubon.  The birds were very cooperative this event.  We had Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loons, Pied-billed and Horned Grebes, American White and Brown Pelicans, Many Bald Eagles including a juvenile, American Oystercatchers, Forster's, Royal and Sandwich Terns, We also had the Nelson's Sparrow.  It was a very active morning with a total of 51 species.  The eBird list can be found at this link.

A great morning to be out. Six of us arrived at Paynes Prairie  at 8 a.m. We started very slow, but as we birded Sparrow Alley, they came "out of the woodwork."  Sparrows, Wrens, Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers everywhere.  We had the whole area to ourselves while we checked the area. Chipping, White-crowned, Savannah, Song & Swamp Sparrows were the order of the morning. Orange-crowned, Black & White, Towhee, Robins, Goldfinches, Common Yellowthroats, and Kinglets. We were only able to bird the Alley and the Boardwalk, the rest was closed because most of the trail was under water.  But for the two hours we were here a total of 48 species.  The list is here at the eBird link

​.We then went to Sweetwater and viola we got to see the Purple Swamphen.  Here with just a brief walk around after the Swamphen, we got 27 species that can be seen at this eBird link. It seemed to be raining Limpkins.  They were standing in the roads, on the rails; you could walk past them and not concern them at all. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were abundant as were the Blue -Winged Teal.