It was another lovely day in paradise today. In the mid 80s with a brisk wind. We left the Clarion Inn for Johnathan Dickinson State Park about 20 minutes away. The first bird we saw was an American Kestrel at Hobe Mountain. The habitat is sandy and arid with lots of Palmetto Palms, scrub bushes and some Slash Pines.
This morning Barbr was looking and looking for her sunglasses. We were leaving and it was sunny out, she needed them. We looked a bit and it turns out that I stole them!!! I had Barbr`s glasses on my head!! I had just grabbed the first pair I saw and put them on my head ready to use them. We had a chuckle and with our own sunglasses on our noses we set off!
Once there we walked to the top of Hobe Mountain, the tallest mound south of Lake Okeechobee at 87 feet above sea level. It was about 4 flights of stairs high. From the tall viewing tower, the view was spectacular. One can see the Atlantic Ocean and Hobe Sound (we were actually just immediately north of Jupiter Florida here). It was really windy up there also, I had to hold on to my hat.
We checked out the rest of the park and viewed a Florida juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk and a Pine Warbler visiting the picnic grounds.
We did see a pair of Northern Cardinals lounging on a branch in the sandy area. They are the lucky ones compared to our local Northern Cardinals who deal with snow and cold. It was just weird for us to see these birds but they are local to southern Florida.
We had to work for each bird we saw today and there were really no birds. We are hoping that there will be more birds on Merritt Island. All along the highways we saw lots of Vultures, both Turkey and Black.
From here we did a trail to the beach of Hobe Sound through the scrub and brush at Hobe Sound Wildlife Centre just 3 miles away north of Dickinson off the Federal Highway (US1). This was a very nice trail but too short. What we did encounter at both parks were lots of people fishing.
From here we thought we could get to another birding area before heading north to arrive at Titusville tonight and meet up with Colleen tomorrow morning who will join us for the rest of the Florida birding. But Saturday afternoon traffic which crawled north on US1 delayed us and we had to move to I95 and drive on to Titusville. We checked into the Executive Garden Hotel and drove off to explore Merritt Island. We had about an hour and a half of day light and we stopped at Gator Alley (tide was still going out so no mud flats yet) and then to the beach gate area to see the Florida Scrub Jay family that is usually there. But that road was closed. Colleen had warned us that some roads were closed due to last fall's hurricane. We were not sure about this road as there were many cars that were exiting this road from the opposite direction and we know this is a dead end, so we will check this out tomorrow during daylight hours. One the way out of the park we saw a Great Horned Owl sitting on a nest. It was dim for photos but Barbr got one and she is sleeping away right now and I don't want to wake her up and ask her where is the photo. So no photo.
We made if off the causeway after 6 pm with all the fishermen. Tomorrow we plan to spend the day there and maybe Viera Wetlands also.
We did get the sunset this evening and it was spectacular. All of today's photos are by Barbr except the Pine Warbler photo. Our comment from the last three days o fbirding is that there are few birds around and while we have birded this same week in Florida in other visits, this year we are slightly more south and there have been few birds in the different habitats we have visited so far. But there is always tomorrow and we visit one of our favourite birding spots, Merritt Island!!
This morning Barbr was looking and looking for her sunglasses. We were leaving and it was sunny out, she needed them. We looked a bit and it turns out that I stole them!!! I had Barbr`s glasses on my head!! I had just grabbed the first pair I saw and put them on my head ready to use them. We had a chuckle and with our own sunglasses on our noses we set off!
Once there we walked to the top of Hobe Mountain, the tallest mound south of Lake Okeechobee at 87 feet above sea level. It was about 4 flights of stairs high. From the tall viewing tower, the view was spectacular. One can see the Atlantic Ocean and Hobe Sound (we were actually just immediately north of Jupiter Florida here). It was really windy up there also, I had to hold on to my hat.
We checked out the rest of the park and viewed a Florida juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk and a Pine Warbler visiting the picnic grounds.
We did see a pair of Northern Cardinals lounging on a branch in the sandy area. They are the lucky ones compared to our local Northern Cardinals who deal with snow and cold. It was just weird for us to see these birds but they are local to southern Florida.
We had to work for each bird we saw today and there were really no birds. We are hoping that there will be more birds on Merritt Island. All along the highways we saw lots of Vultures, both Turkey and Black.
From here we did a trail to the beach of Hobe Sound through the scrub and brush at Hobe Sound Wildlife Centre just 3 miles away north of Dickinson off the Federal Highway (US1). This was a very nice trail but too short. What we did encounter at both parks were lots of people fishing.
From here we thought we could get to another birding area before heading north to arrive at Titusville tonight and meet up with Colleen tomorrow morning who will join us for the rest of the Florida birding. But Saturday afternoon traffic which crawled north on US1 delayed us and we had to move to I95 and drive on to Titusville. We checked into the Executive Garden Hotel and drove off to explore Merritt Island. We had about an hour and a half of day light and we stopped at Gator Alley (tide was still going out so no mud flats yet) and then to the beach gate area to see the Florida Scrub Jay family that is usually there. But that road was closed. Colleen had warned us that some roads were closed due to last fall's hurricane. We were not sure about this road as there were many cars that were exiting this road from the opposite direction and we know this is a dead end, so we will check this out tomorrow during daylight hours. One the way out of the park we saw a Great Horned Owl sitting on a nest. It was dim for photos but Barbr got one and she is sleeping away right now and I don't want to wake her up and ask her where is the photo. So no photo.
We made if off the causeway after 6 pm with all the fishermen. Tomorrow we plan to spend the day there and maybe Viera Wetlands also.
We did get the sunset this evening and it was spectacular. All of today's photos are by Barbr except the Pine Warbler photo. Our comment from the last three days o fbirding is that there are few birds around and while we have birded this same week in Florida in other visits, this year we are slightly more south and there have been few birds in the different habitats we have visited so far. But there is always tomorrow and we visit one of our favourite birding spots, Merritt Island!!
No comments:
Post a Comment