Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A LITTLE FLORIDA BIRDING

A Reddish Egret, one of 14 "lifers" on my trip.
My recent trip to Florida was totally theme park related, but on the day I flew out, my friends were nice enough to take me to a place recommended by some birding friends, Merritt Island, where we spent a few hours birding before I got on a big metal bird to fly home.

Click on photos to enlarge and scroll through them.

I had 14 lifers on my trip;

 1. Sandhill Crane
 2. Fish Crow
 3. Royal Tern
 4. Florida Scrub Jay
 5. Black Vulture
 6. Greater Flamingo
 7. American White Pelican
 8. Brown Pelican
 9. Snowy Egret
10. Little Blue Heron
11. Tricolored Heron
12. Reddish Egret
13. Roseate Spoonbill
14. Woodstork

I didn't have my personal photographer and his "big lens" with me, so the pictures I did manage aren't great. I bird with binoculars, but Rob must of been impressed enough with my list, because we're planning a trip together in the Fall of 2014.

Tricolored Heron
I'd never seen so many American Coots at one time!

Florida Scrub Jay, thank goodness for binoculars!
Two of the birds I was most excited to see were Pelicans, and the Florida Scrub Jay. I had really good looks at both types of Pelicans and the Florida Scrub Jays, but no great pics, next time. I also didn't hang around and look at the Florida Scrub Jays to long because I was getting eaten alive by "salt water marsh mosquitoes", next time I will be better prepared.

One of the birds I had the best looks at was the Black Vulture. We came upon a  flock of them who seemed to have very recently dragged something that must of got hit by a car, off to the side of the road and were devouring it, along with a few Turkey Vultures.

Greg stopped the car and Pat and I got out and walked towards them, close to enough that we didn't need binoculars, but not to close to cause them to fly away. It was really cool to have them flying all around us, and so close, but roadkill is smelly! 

Black Vultures, a couple Turkey Vultures and a blood stained road.
Vultures doing what Vultures do, devouring road-kill.
Another shot of a Black Vulture.
Flying Turkey Vulture.
A couple other cool sightings we saw were one lone Manatee, and an alligator.

Greg got really excited when he spotted this guy.
 I'm looking forward to a return trip and spending a lot more time at this place, with bug spray!

Friday, November 16, 2012

FLORIDA WAS FABULOUS

This picture really wraps up my trip; lots of sun, fun and relaxation.
I remember when I was getting ready for my first trip to Orlando, Florida, in October of 2010. My friend Pat said, “Don’t get bit by the Disney shopping bug”.  I’m not one to really buy souvenirs but I did come home with more stuff then I would normally buy, but didn’t give it much thought at the time.

I recently spent eight days in Orlando with my friends, Pat and Greg. We split our time between Disney and Universal. We had breakfast with Goofy and Donald, dinner with Winnie and Tigger, we laughed, we watched parades and fireworks, and we laughed. We drank Butter Beer, flew on brooms with Harry and Ron, and we laughed. We escaped the bad guys with Spiderman, danced with Minions, and we laughed. We watched more parades, and more fireworks and we laughed more. We had an encounter with dolphins, we snorkelled, fed exotic birds, and we laughed some more.

We had a fabulous time. I now understand why people get “bit by the Disney shopping bug”, because you want to bring some that "magic" home with you, and I did.

Please enjoy a few pics from my recent trip. I'm already looking forward to a return visit.

Breakfast with Goofy was so much fun!


I was super excited to meet Chip & Dale!
We all enjoyed dinner with Pooh Bear and his friends.
Tigger kinda stole the show when he proposed to me though.!
Enjoying a Butter Beer in the "Hog's Head Pub"!
Dancing with the Minions was a blast!
We all loved the Minions!
Meeting Spiderman! I have this pic on a photo comic book cover, very cool.  
We made so many memories and had so many special moments, it was a fabulous trip.

My Past Florida Blogs; Disney Magic, Solo at Universal Studios, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter .