"The Water-Chicken Update" Lake Hollingsworth is Hot!

 

Wow!
KT and I have been having a blast...
For the last two weeks we've been taking walks along our bike route, mainly so we can feed ducks when we get down to the lake. Plus I think the seat in the stroller is a little more comfortable. We started on February 23, under clear skies and slight wind. That's been the weather for most of the time too. Clear, slight breeze, temps in the 70's. There was one day (March 3) that wasn't very warm, and we only made it around the block. Consiquently, that was our low day.

We also had an awesome variety of birds, common yard birds, common waterbirds, and one or two nice migrants. Some local specialties made their appearance too.

Let's run through the species real quick:
2/23- saw 32 species:
Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Yellow-rumped warbler, blue jay, Blue-grey gnatcatcher, red-bellied woodpecker, northern mockingbird, palm warbler, northern cardinal, american robin, eurasian collared dove, White Ibis, boat-tailed grackle, American white pelican, pied-billed grebe, great blue heron, tricolored heron, purple gallinule, american coot, wood stork, ring billed gull, american anhinga, common moorhen, mallard duck, double crested cormorant, HERRING GULL, great egret, caspian tern, forster's tern, Osprey, Red-winged blackbird, and tufted titmouse.

2/24 - Went out the next morning on my bicycle, had a bit of an adventure I'll have to tell you about sometime. In all saw 31 species. Added:
Tree-swallow, fish crow, carolina wren, cedar waxwing, laughing gull.

3/7- Great day, saw cedar waxwings feeding on loquats, they were very quiet, I had to look twice to see them. Also had a tern trifecta on the boat dock in front of the synagogue, Caspian, royal, and forster's. Sweet! Katie and I fed birds Last Wednesday, and it was awesome! We had 43 total species and we Added:
Northern Parula, blue-winged teal, limpkin, royal tern, american crow, cooper's hawk, mourning dove, cattle egret.

Today: Beautiful Day! Katie and I had a wonderful time, she got wore out and fell asleep on the way home. It was our biggest specie count day today, and added some really good birds. There were a lot of Limpkin's out and about, and I even talked to a lady about them Here's what we added:
BLUE-HEADED VIREO!!, white-winged dove,(scored a dove trifecta today, MODO, WWDO, and Eurasian collared dove.), downy woodpecker, black-crowned night heron, bald eagle, GULL BILLED TERN! (on the same bouys I saw them on in the fall), and Ruddy duck.

Scored the blue-headed vireo in practically my neighbor's tree, feeding on bugs. Kept saying to myself "all these butter-butts, wonder if there is anything interesting around..." Sure enough, another vireo species added to the ole yard list...

Hope you are having fun this weekend, word is there's a loggerhead kingbird in the keys.

Later,
GB and KT