Polly Wanna Parrot...but...

Mr. Ru came home from a bicycle ride yesterday,

And announced he'd seen a flock of the "green parrots"

That we see almost daily flying over the house...

I don't have a bicycle yet,

So we packed a lunch and picnicked at a nearby park,

Then we drove into the other nearby park

Where he'd seen the green birds...

Nothing...

But we'll keep checking/trying,

Later in the day...

I did get to warm up the camera a little bit,

After several days w/o using it...

Above is a male boat-tailed grackle,

On the rail of a bridge over a canal...

The male grackles...

Aren't as pretty as the female grackles...

A few species of birds were getting drinks

While we watched from the bridge...

Including some white ibises.....

A Florida red-bellied "cooter" was also basking on a rock near the bridge.

An aside...We went to Dania Beach a couple days ago...got lost on the way to Ft. Lauderdale Beach

Actually, but we found the really nice Dania Beach further south as a result...I didn't take my

Camera...so I should've known we'd see two black skimmers ~ a lifer ~ on the sand...amid hordes of terns! We also saw an osprey soaring over the shoreline...

Am anxious to go back w/ the camera now..... 

Key West and the Great Seafood Gluttony

Seafood, seafood, key lime pie, and more seafood...

This is how I expect to spend a day in Key West,

And I was not disappointed Sat., when we attended

The 7th Annual Florida Keys Seafood Festival

In Key West....

First, we slurped down conch chowder

And conch fritters....appetizers really...

Then we went back to the line of food booths

And grabbed a grilled lobster plate to share...

After eating and checking out the arts and crafts booths,

We drove to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park...

America's southernmost state park.

(And a part of the Great Birding Trail.)

Before visiting the fort, we watched what I believe was some part

of the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Regatta...

I found this lone sandwich tern on the small beach in the park...

While visiting Ft. Z. Taylor,

Ru discovered an odd couple

When he looked out the cannon portals....

The iguana was quite large,

And so was the "great egret"....

When I see this photo,

I keep thinking of

The Owl and the Pussycat!

I remembered seeing the white morph photo

Of a great blue heron in the Stokes Field Guide,

So I was anxious to get back home and see....

I'm pretty sure this is indeed a great blue heron

With the white morph going on...!

...Looking down the row of cannons...

This fort contains the largest cache

Of Civil War-era seacoast cannons

In the United States...

Also puttering around the "semi moat" below the fort

Was a female ring-necked duck...

And what I thought was a common merganser...

But it's a female red-breasted merganser, a lifer...

I only saw the one merganser paddling around with

Several blue-winged teals...and coots...

This male/female teal pair are under mangrove roots...

Back on the road, we went to Conch Republic Seafood Co.,

For more seafood...I had fish and chips...

...That is, after we ate slices of key lime pie

From Kermit's...we ate at both places

Six years ago during my first visit to Florida...

We also strolled the boardwalk outside the restaurant

(And other restaurants)...

Several brown pelicans were floating

in the marina...

This one is an immature... 

Key West is known for the free-roaming roosters

On the island....

This is a quad of black-breasted reds...

That's hubby w/ a large stuffed frog named Jingles,

A Christmas gift from our daughter...

Ru decided we were going to use it

For our travel photo mascot...

So here he is at the southernmost point in the US...

Key West is well-known for its gorgeous sunsets...

We were on the road heading home when the sun went down,

But stopped along Seven Mile Bridge

To take not-so-great photos, but...

It was a beautiful sunset!

A great ending to a really nice day.

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park

The eastern side of the HTBSP is just across the street from

Ft. Lauderdale Beach...

I had high hopes of getting bird pics...

...Pffftt!

But it was worth the $6 park fee

To see this fig tree...

That's Ru in there, dwarfed by this ginormous tree...

The crown of the tree is over 100 feet across...

The park is a part of the Great Florida Birding Trail...

We parked here and walked thru the underground tunnel

To the beach, where we soaked up rays for awhile...

I was in great need of some beach therapy,

And it definitely revived my slightly wilted soul.

Fern Forest Nature Ctr.

Fern Forest NC is on the Great FL Birding Trail...

It's 247 acres of urban wilderness,

Containing over 30 species of ferns,

Located in Coconut Creek...

Ru and I visited there recently;

Overall I was a bit disappointed but

We did see a couple things of interest...

Like a few monarch butterflies in the Sensory Garden area...

And a distant wren, not sure which one it is....

Any help would be most welcome...

It appears to have white below the eye,

On the throat and a white eye band...

Back coloring is solid not mottled...

Carolina wren?

I'm definitely getting senile...I thought I'd shared a photo of

The ruddy daggerwing butterfly, but have not...

This one is better than the previous photos I'd taken anyway...

Wild coffee grows abundantly in S. Florida,

I think we've seen it at every park/nature ctr.

We've visited so far.

I'm really anxious to see more birds

But it's windy and cold (for Florida anyway)...

A/c hasn't even come on today! That's a first.