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.

This and That...

How was your Christmas?

As usual, I'm glad it's over with,

But we did have a nice Christmas Day . . .

I haven't really been out taking photos

For several days, so now's a good time to

Post misc. photos...

One of the rest stops along I-75 in the Everglades

Is taken over by a bunch of black vultures...

Creepy, yes, but I managed to get a photo...

Speaking of creepy...

A real common sight

While visiting state parks or

Any nature area with a forest-like setting,

Are huge spider webs overhead,

With these golden orb-weaver spiders

Hanging out in their center...

From back leg tip to front leg tip,

A full grown GOW is about four inches long...

Did I mention that spiders

Are my least favorite creepy crawly?!

Moving along to prettier subjects,

The common primrose willow can be seen

Here and there...

Closer to home, about 3-4 blocks away in fact,

In a McD's parking lot...

I took photos of one of two cattle egret

That were trolling for scraps...

Of all the places

To finally see a cattle egret!

Even closer to home,

This little frog

Had to be rescued

More than once

From BIL Sam's pool...

There are many ducks in the 'hood

Thanks to the large ponds nearby...

They waddle by most days

Ru likes to give them

Bread scraps...

I did a post on my S Dakota Blog

Showing the pair of Eurasian collared doves

That were visiting the feeders...

These doves were first introduced to the U.S.

Here in Florida...

This one's on the street light out front...

We have mourning doves

In the backyard often...

The ibises are occasional visitors thru the 'hood...

We see a squirrel pretty much daily,

Skittering along the fence around the back yard...

And have put peanuts out for it...

The palm warblers are scarce visitors now...

 Boat-tailed grackles are super common...

But it was a unique sight when

A female grackle found a tiny snake

In the backyard near the pool.

Iguana See an Anhinga

We liked Long Key Natural Area enough the first time

To make another visit,

And managed to find different critters

To take a gander at...

I was pretty excited to discover this male (or imm.) anhinga sunning...

It tolerated my presence pretty well...

At a slightly different angle, I was able to pick up the reflections in the water...

Hubby spied this iguana hanging by the pond...

These guys are escaped/released ex-pets, can be seen

Along canals and other bodies of water,

Regardless of the human population...

Hubby also spied an atala hairstreak butterfly...

There were gulf fritillaries about the little butterfly garden also...

I believe this is a red-bellied turtle

(As noted in previous post)...

Seemed to be swimming over to greet me,

But he just kept swimming under the bridge.

Up in the trees, I could hear a couple different birds twittering, but it was pretty hard to make out what they were they were so busy flitting about...I managed to capture a black-and-white warbler as it pecked at the bark for a moment before moving again. This warbler was a lifer for me!

Sawgrass Sanctuary

It must be said that

Just because a birdie haven is reeeally small,

Doesn't mean it doesn't hold

Some worthwhile,

Feathery foto ops!

Ru and I visited Sawgrass Sanctuary,

which has a walker's path circling the outer parameter.

The sanctuary is a mere 20 acres,

And we only found three birds here...BUT...

One was a lifer...

Actually another was a recent lifer too,

And this was my first photo op w/ it...

Walking out on the observation platform,

Ru spied this immature green heron

on the water's edge below us...the lifer...

A No. mockingbird landed on one of the platform posts.....

...And in the water between the platform and land,

A wood stork was feeding...

I've seen many wood storks since arriving in FL,

And was happy to get the op to take some close-up shots...

Also out and about,

Were many dragonflies,

Like this red one...

There were a few cypress trees on the water's edge.....

Heading out of the sanctuary,

We found a wood stork sunning

By a water canal....

Along with another lifer,

a tri-colored heron!

Woo hoo!  :o)