Florida Day 3, Myakka River Part 3 - BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS!

Just a quick post tonight, still wrapping up February's fun at work but tonight I'm home early enough that I went through my photos from  the next attraction at Myakka River State Park, and I'm just going to share a few of those before I turn in.

Once we'd finished with the boat and the tram, we met up with my folks again (only service dogs are allowed so they'd stayed behind with Belle). We had some lunch (snack bar there is pretty good) and then headed over to the weir at the end of the lake to see how the birds were.

I'd been absolutely blown away the year before when I saw 22 count 'em 22 different kinds of birds in the one day we were there. I enjoy birding but I'm not serious about it enough to remember to do lists, but I did sit down that night to write down everything I was sure I'd seen:

Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Tricolor Heron, Yellowlegs, Great Egret, Snowy and/or Cattle Egret (not sure which), American Avocet, Sandhill Cranes, Killdeer, Brown Pelican, White Pelican, Boat-Tailed Grackle, Crow, Osprey, Anhinga, Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Belted Kingfisher, Limpkin, Black Vulture, and Bald Eagle (juvenile).

Amazing, right?

Didn't see quite as many this time. With it being cold and the wind blasting, a lot of the birds were probably hunkered down in the brush. Still, the area at the weir was sheltered and there were plenty of birds hunting for lunch.

The only one of the birds we saw at Myakka last year that we didn't see anywhere at all this year were the sandhill cranes - here were a couple of pairs we saw at the park, and then there was also a small parade of them wandering across the street when we first went over to my parents' friends' home in Venice. Amazing birds! 

First time I'd ever seen them was at a lakefront resort in Indiana in 2017. I looked out a lobby window shortly after we arrived and saw the resident pair; I made some exclamation, a gentleman overheard me and when I described what I was exclaiming about he told me that it was probably a Great Blue Heron. "Nope, I know what those look like and these aren't those". So he walked over to the window and his jaw dropped and he exclaimed "Those are DINOSAURS!"

Later on I did figure out what they were, and the last day of our stay there I got up for an early morning swim and ended up having to wait for the crane family (parents and a well-grown youngster) to finish their morning dance before I could go down to the water. OK, they didn't so much finish as get interrupted by a brash young deer who came bounding through the dance floor - the nerve of some animals! Amazing thing to see, though.

Didn't see any of those in Florida this time though.

Back to this year, now - this bank had been a popular hangout for the roseate spoonbills and the black vultures last year, too - 

but last year there were also alligators! Not this year, too cold.

I think my favorite picture is the 2nd one down here, which is one glossy ibis hanging out with a flock of white ibises. I took a bunch of photos of that group, I loved the contrast and I got a little bit of the sheen on the dark feathers that gives the bird its name. OH - next picture down from that one was a new bird from last year, making up for the missing cranes - that elegant black and white one with the long pink legs is the Black-Necked Stilt; we'd seen a flock flying during the boat ride. Beautiful birds! I think I'd seen them before somewhere but we had a great view of them here.Just pictures after this, so click for a slideshow view.

Might have to indulge in a zoomier zoom lens one of these days...