After my very successful morning birding, I was eager to head South to Circle B Bar, a large marsh complex, with also some prairie, lake, and semi-open deciduous forest habitat. The drive there was quite productive, seeing many thousands Turkey and Black Vultures kettling, with the odd Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, and even some decent sized flocks of American White-Pelicans and Anhingas mixed in! One kettle contained all of these species, and is by far the most diverse kettle I've seen. The Anhingas really threw me off...
I could never get them all in one picture, but this frame has mostly Turkey Vultures and Pelicans in it. Can you spot the Black Vulture?
We eventually arrived, but not before seeing my lifer Limpkin while driving, as well as some Cattle Egrets. I stepped out of the car, and was immediately blasted by near-midday Florida heat. And they call this cold! We walked over, and spotted a large group of photographers, photographing a calling Barred Owl! I took a few decent shots, saw a second bird, and headed out onto "Heron Hideout" the main marsh trail.
Barred Owl preening - This is one of the only species of owl that I have heard calling in the day
Immediately upon walking out onto the trail, I was amazed by the amount of noise coming from the marsh. Wails, grunts and screams came from nearly every direction, the sound of hundreds of marsh birds. I found that the majority of sound was coming from Common Gallinules, but some was also coming from several Limpkins! They have extremely bizarre, scream like calls, much different from what I expected from a shy marsh bird! There was also some Wood Storks roosting in leafless trees, another lifer!
Very interesting birds! And even more distinct!
Common Gallinule - A very pretty bird, and the ones here were very tame!
After walking up the trail a little bit more, I had already seen almost all of the herons and egrets found in North America! Tricoloured was probably the most abundant, but Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, White Ibis and Glossy Ibis were all also present in good numbers. I spotted a very large pink wading bird up ahead- A Roseate Spoonbill! A real gem amongst birders, but really to the world in general. Although not particularly rare, it's a banner species for birds in general, everyone's heard of a spoonbill!
After looking through photos, I really couldn't find any good Spoonbill ones, but that's fine. The bird speaks for itself!
Shortly after seeing the Spoonbills, my Grandparents caught up on their bikes, and talked to my mom, so I got ahead a little bit. But not for long, as my mom walked up and told that she had seen a rail! She wasn't sure what kind, all she knew that it was semi streaky and had a yellow bill. I rushed back, but it was nowhere to be found. She looked through the guide, but couldn't come up with anything that quite fit! Just as we were about to keep going, she spotted some movement deep within the aquatic vegetation... A Purple Gallinule!!!! One of my bigger targets, and after hearing from a friend several times, they are quite hard! It stayed very hidden for a few minutes, but the shy bird slowly came out into the open, balancing carefully on a thick reed.
As you can see, an incredibly distinct bird, very different from the Common Gallinule!
I was shocked by the vividness of the natural colours, this photo looks like I went crazy with the saturation, but it's 100% unedited! Combination of bright lighting and an even brighter bird!
While the bird was up, a group of kids on a nature walk came up behind us, and one of the asked "Is that a Cockatoo?" No joke! I got the whole thing on video, and I will forever remember this moment. Cockatoos might be pretty, but in my opinion, nothing compared to this!! As the Gallinule went about its business, a Rail flew across the open water and landed only a few feet away from me! Although it was only a few feet away, it was completely obscured by grass. I inched closer, and a little Sora popped up!
I got my mom on it, and she said that this was the same bird she had seen earlier. Phew!
On my walk up to the next intersection, I saw a good sized flock of Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, my first ever whistling duck! I also got some respectable head shots of a Limpkin with an Apple Snail in it's beak.
There was some other wildlife besides birds as well, a family of feral pigs were foraging at the intersection. Although they can be detrimental to an ecosystem, they were pretty darn cute:
And I hate to say it, more food for the Gators! Of which there was many along this section of the trail, including this lil' one:
I finally got some ok shots of Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, which really do sound like they're whistling, it's the cutest duck call I've ever heard I think! There was also some undetermined turtle species, but I'm pretty sure they were River Cooters.
A big 'un
The trail eventually opened up a little more, and a lake appeared. There was lots of Pelicans on the lake, along withs some new trip species like Double-crested Cormorant, Cattle Egret, a tame Snowy Egret and a lone Royal Tern!
Lots of Fish Crows were calling as we walked back, and several Red-shouldered Hawks did flyovers. We slowly (but surely) made our way back to the Visitor Center for lunch, content with our walk. The grounds around the Visitor Center were actually really nice fore birding, and there was several Carolina Wrens, Northern Mockingbirds, American Robins, and both subspecies of Palm Warbler around. I got decent shots of both subspecies, so you can really see the difference!
Yellow subspecies on top, Western on bottom
My mom seemed to be having lots of luck finding birds, and on her way back from the washroom, she came upon a male Painted Bunting! One of the most highly sought after birds by photographers, birders, and unfortunately even by pet traders, who capture this bird in Central America to be sold on the pet trade. As a result, the species has been listed as sensitive on eBird, so no one is allowed to access exact locations of these birds, or many details at all about it. Because of this I didn't really expect to see one, or even know if it was possible. I rushed over and got some very poor shots, of what turned out to be a pair of birds!
Male on left, female on right
I called a couple other birders/photographers over, but I couldn't relocate them again. I still had a few more targets that I wanted to see if I could hit in the prairie habitat (mainly Bobwhite). After a quick bike around, I came up mostly empty, the only new additions being an American Kestrel that flushed up 8 Wilson's Snipe, and a Bald Eagle on a nest. The Sandhill Cranes I saw before appeared even more photogenic than before, so I took some extra headshots:
A single Black-bellied Whistling-duck also decided to perch up on a stump for me, and later, I came across my first ever (alive) Armadillo snuffling around in the weeds!
So... cute? I looked away for a second while taking this guys picture and it stepped on my foot!
I booked it back, realizing that I was supposed to meet up with my Grandparents to go back to the resort fairly soon. Unfortunately, there was lots of distractions along the way!
Black Vulture Pair and White Ibis
Black-bellied Whistling-ducks and Turtles sps.
Anhinga and Glossy Ibis
Grey Squirrel and Limpkin
And it turns I was ahead of schedule getting back! I wandered around the parking area for a few minutes, and spotted a blur of green, blue and red whizz by, then land right in front of me! The Painted Bunting! It was soon joined by it's female companion, and they fed quite close to me with barely any sign of nervousness.
Beautiful male! Too bad my Grandma missed it again!
Although nowhere near its mate, still a very pretty lemon coloured bird!
Right after I found a different female, and then a Common Ground Dove! What a day!
Common Ground Dove- I always think they look like baby morning doves
And then to top it all off, a very obliging Northern Mockingbird!
You probably don't even need me to say this, but I would 100% recommend Circle B Bar to anyone going to Florida, it's great for photography, and it has an amazing selection of species! I had my best list by far here, with 61 species!
