St Marks NWR: 2-20-17: Alligators everywhere!

BirdMobile at St Marks NWR

 10 feet long

Living dangerously!

St Marks NWR: Mixed feeding flock with mergansers

Female Red-breasted Mergansers

Snowy Egret and hovering Forster's Tern feeding with the mergansers

The mergansers would fly back to the other end of the canal and start foraging along again.  The accompanying other species would follow them.

We see these mergansers in SE Alaska each summer.  They nest farther north and migrate farther south than any of the other American mergansers.

Images from St Marks NWR: 2-20-17

Handsome male Greater Scaup

Female Greater Scaup on the left

Savannah Sparrows

They have an extension-ve range and are one of the most numerous songbirds in all of America

Eastern Phoebe with lunch

Aptly named Yellow-rumped Warbler

These little guys breed farther  north than any other American sparrow.


St Marks lighthouse

We are able to use the BirdMobile as a blind and by taking out the scenes and plastic rainproof covers we can shoo from the safety of the Mobile without disturbing the birds.

Our state bird, the NorthernMockingbird

Widespread and industrious

Male Anhinga,

aka Snakebird 

Flyby 

Female in heavy wind

This is MY spot!

Camp Helen State Park: Sunday, Feb 19th

This 185 acre park comprises a wide variety of uplands, wetlands, and shoreline habitats.  

Great Blue Heron

Lake Powell is the largest of the rare coastal dune lakes in NW Florida.  These coastal dune lakes are separated only by white sandy dunes from the emerald green waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Heavy rains can cause flood-level waters to open a natural channel (a pop-out) through the dunes to the Gulf.  Alternatively, storm surges during hurricanes can force salty Gulf water to rush into the lakes (a flush-in).  As a result, the salt level in the waters of these lakes can vary greatly.  Some of these lakes, like Lake Powell for instance, feature natural outlets to the Gulf.

Carolina Chickadee

Barely hanging on!

We stopped by Pitt Springs for a short 2 hour hike to break up the travel day.

Reflections

Killdeer

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Sayings of Mark Twain