We took a few days off to visit family in the Tampa area. While away, we were able to visit a few birding spots. On Friday the 12th we drove into Citrus county and spent a few hours in Inverness. Cooter's Pond Park has a fantastic boardwalk system that let's you get a "birds-eye" view of wetland wildlife. We saw many Common Gallinules with their babies. It's interesting to see them walk on the tops of Lilly pads. There were lots of turtles out of the water getting some sun, many butterflies and dragonflies, and of course several gators. In the trees and underbrush, we saw Carolina Wrens, Mockingbirds, Catbirds and an Eastern Phoebe.
Later in the day, we drove north and visited the Withlacoochee State Forest. The third largest state forest in Florida, it contains several Great Florida Birding Trail sites. We stopped at the northern most site, the Two Mile Prairie Tract: Johnson Pond Trail. It's way off the beaten path. We chose this site specifically, because our guide book listed the possibility of at least ten different birds we had never seen before. We walked a mile only to discover that Johnson's Pond is dried up. We saw none of the birds we had hoped to see. It seems that the information in our guide regarding this site is badly outdated. However, not all was lost. Walking the mile back to the car, we did manage to spot a Carolina Chickadee. A new "life list" bird for us. Not the best photo, but we worked hard to get this shot of the Carolina Chickadee. Better birding days ahead.....tweet....tweet!!
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| Carolina Chickadee (Taken 10/12/12, Citrus Co. FL) http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/carolina_chickadee/id |
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