Flagler Finds

Summer is winding down...even in central Florida...but for now it's still plenty warm. Just not quite as warm as September. Our old homestead in S Dakota just got slammed with 3 feet of record-breaking snowfall a couple days ago, yikes! (The Rapid City area.) That "world" seems ages ago...it has been nearly two years now since we left the midwest...it'll officially be two years at the end of this month.

So, speaking of our new reality...Hubby and I really don't get to the beach nearly as often as we should, but we did recently get some beach therapy...

...It was lunchtime, and not just for us but for this ruddy turnstone as well....

...And this sanderling...

The sand ghost crabs are abundant on Flagler Beach, providing free entertainment as they go about the serious business of clearing sand from their tunnel homes. It was another relaxing, pleasant day at sea side.

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.....Back at home, I've been keeping track of all the interesting things nature is coming up with in our own back yard......

This pretty bloom is actually hanging in the back neighbor's yard, just over our fence...but the scraggly little tree is actually in our yard. The squirrels use it as a ladder to get up onto the fence.

This tree has pretty, peeling bark...and white cluster blossoms up on top.

These clusters of tiny mushrooms kept appearing on and off this summer, under the magnolia "tree" (it's actually a branch sprouted from a magnolia tree stump, but it looks like a small tree and has had blossoms  :) )...

In the front yard, I recently captured a fritillary at a crown-of-thorns...

Lately, I've been sticking close to home due to a nasty head cold / bronchitis, which is finally getting better and I'm feeling more amongst the living again.

New Bellies to Feed

The only birding done lately has been watching the usual activity at home...well, except we did take a maiden voyage recently, with our new bike carrier and bicycles, on a park trail along the Intracoastal Waterway. I didn't take a camera (hubby would've been most unamused) as this was about exercise; a.k.a. no dwaddling. We saw an osprey on the opposite shore, surveying the expanse of water before it from the top of a bare tree. And we saw little blue herons and one great heron on the water's edge by the path, cruising for food. 

Yesterday we witnessed a female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering at one of the bell-shaped flowers in our front yard...then she perched on a thin tree branch above the flowers for a few moments. I knew I'd never get to the camera in time so didn't bother. Darn it....

However, I did get some shots "through the looking glass" of what I'm guessing are the new offspring pair of our resident male and female red-bellied woodpeckers!

First, this is Mama RB Woodpecker at the suet, which I can hardly keep in supply it's going so fast...and of course a blue jay at the nuts/seeds feeder...

...Ok, ok, without further ado...here they are! Our newbies! Will they stick around like their parents? I hope at least long enough to see what gender they are. Mom and Pop wasted no time showing them where the easy pickin's can be found.

A closer look at suet fledgling...

The tufted titmice are really scarce right now, but lately I've seen one here and there zing in to the feeder and zing out. This one looks like it could be a fledge, but I really have no clue.

Washington Oaks Gardens State Park

How's that for a mouthful of title?! Ru and I finally visited the WOGSP, off of A1A and touching on the shore of the Matanzas River, part of the Intracoastal Waterway. The park was originally part of a Spanish land grant in 1815 that was developed into a plantation, owned by a distant relative of George Washington. Purchased in 1936 by Owen and Louise Young, the couple built a winter home near the waterway under the live oak hammock, and developed the gardens. When Mr. Young died, Louise gave the land to the state. The park is part of the Great Florida Birding Trail....

This is the view of the Matanzas River / Intracoastal Waterway from the WA Oaks Gardens Park...

A great blue heron graciously allowed us to walk close-by due to the fact that a fisherman was nearby fishing off the sea wall.....the heron was all in shadow until the sun broke through the clouds suddenly, after I'd taken a zillion photos....

The gardens are graced by this huge live oak tree that is dripping with Spanish moss...

I'm surprised I didn't see more mushrooms besides this lone one....

A grey squirrel was keeping a very close eye on us as we strolled by "his" tree....

A pretty, curly frond....

Barely into the garden wandering, the tranquility was interrupted by sudden hammering...I followed the sound as far as I could w/o wading into a pond....a pileated woodpecker sending Morse code...

At the pond's edge is a charming gazebo...

And near the gazebo, this lovely statue....

I'm afraid I don't know the names of most of these flowers...

Bird of paradise, of course.....

I believe this is a double delight rose, a favorite of my mom's...there is a rose garden at WA Oaks...
And pink flowers of many kinds...

Hibiscus of course...

There were many other flowers, some not yet in bloom. We saw one other bird, unidentifiable, that may have been a Caroline wren...besides the usual No. cardinals.

Spring Shift & Jay Blanchard Park

    Here in central Florida, we're well into the spring season, and just starting to see hints of the hotter summer months not far ahead. It has been 7 months since Ru and I finished our 4 month job in Hawaii, and we are quite slow to get ourselves truly settled in. But we are making slow progress little by little. We weren't here last summer, so I am try to prep mentally for the hot humid yuckiness of June - Sept. Yea right, as if! I'll be staying indoors 99% of the time!

    My lack of motivation encompasses birding, except for enjoying the daily entertainment our backyard birds (and squirrels) provide us with.  When I try to sit outside in our screened lanai to read, I have a hard time ignoring the almost constant action!

    The smaller birds are nearly all gone..the pine warblers, the goldfinches, and the chipping sparrows. I did see a Carolina wren a couple days ago, first one after many weeks. The blue jays, our one red-bellied woodpecker pair, and the No. cardinals are here year-round....(it HAS been one year since we moved into our house!) We also have too many mourning doves...minus one as of yesterday, thanks to the "sharp-shinned hawk" that I posted about previously...having now seen it up closer, I think it's a  Cooper's hawk after all. (Sharp-shinned only winters here.) It scours our feeders regularly, unfortunately. We do have a newcomer, a brown thrasher! I had seen a few last spring in neighbors' yards but this is the first to hang out at our house...it seems to like the suet, which has become so popular it only lasts about 3 days! Yikes! Someone is snarfing under the coverage of night!

    We recently took a day trip to the Orlando area with our new friends/neighbors, starting with a visit to Jay Blanchard Park, where there is a paved biking trail that starts along a canal. While our friends biked, we strolled part of the canal and enjoyed seeing many shore birds....plus a gator...I definitely got a really good dose of birding that day! .......

Right off, a common moorhen near the canal's shore, puttering about...

There was also a mucky adult white ibis on the canal's edge....

Along with 4-5 immature white ibises.....

And ~ oh excitement! ~ a limpkin! A lifer! According to the Stokes field guide, found only in Florida....

There were some red-winged blackbirds around...that was a surprise since I haven't been seeing them anymore in our area....

We came to a spot where two swallow-tailed kites were circling around overhead...I managed an okay shot, which is a small miracle, as bad as I am at shooting moving "targets"...this was the first time I've seen them so close up. We saw some at quite a distance in S Florida last year.

We were sitting on a bench, watching a great blue heron flying low over the canal....

Peek-a-boo! The gator we'd seen several yards back, was still within sight on the opposite edge of the canal...As the heron flew over the gator, the gator lunged half-heartedly at the heron, totally missed...
Toto, weren't not in Kansas anymore...

Back near our resting spot...plenty of these little buggars in our own backyard...this one was looking for hand-outs...

As we headed back towards our car, an anhinga (immature or small/young male) came to shore right in front of us...look closely & you can see a string around its neck...

While attempting to get photos of a moseying little blue heron, we witnessed it capture and swallow a frog....whole...

Whaa fwaug-g-g?! Trying to look innocent....but what about the large lump in its throat? Oh yuck.

And the little blue heron continues hunting, like nothing happened...

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Back on the home front, here's the Cooper's hawk with the remains of its catch, below the feeders...ok there's only a wing, did it honestly eat the whole body, bones and all?! I discovered the miscreant upon return from a leisure bicycle ride....

Our newest "family" member, the brown thrasher...not a hermit thrush. Has white wing tips, golden eyes, and a long tail. It's getting over its camera shyness...As you can see below, it manipulates its tail out of the way. Sometimes it appears to not even have a tail.  Which reminds me, the tail-less mockingbird from last year is back and hanging in the back yard quite a bit now. Let's hope Mr. Cooper leaves it alone!

"Peanutbutter and... raisins?! Where's the chocolate?!"