Florida Everglades 2014 - Day 2

This morning, we stopped by Toojay’s Deli and picked up salads (for us girls obviously) and sandwiches (for the boys, again, obviously) for lunch before we headed out to bird.  The deli is also a bakery, so I picked up some yummy rugalach (cinnamon, apricot, raspberry, almond and chocolate – oh and the chocolate one is the best) for a snack and then I saw that they had cheese blintzes!  I love cheese blintzes!  If you are ever in Jupiter, FL, I would highly recommend you visit Toojay’s Deli.

With lunch in hand, we headed to Bob and Jan’s campground in Lake Worth.  As we pulled into the campground we drove along a canal and saw this handsome anhinga posing for photographers.

We also saw and heard several Boat-tailed Grackles.  They’re everywhere! I just love their call.

Bob and Jan had seen several Limpkin the day before, so we decided to hang out at the park and see what we could pick up.  There were several Loggerhead Shrike in the park

and we think the reason they are here is because there a quite a few lizards here and that the Limpkins and Snail Kites are eating the Apple Snails in the lake at the campground.

The wetlands opposite the lake are full of life.  We saw Little Blue Herons

several Wood Storks

and 5 Limpkin.

Jan found this American Bittern –which is a real find because you rarely see bitterns.  These birds blend in so well with their surroundings that you usually walk right by them.

We have also seen many palm trees with concentric rings of holes in them indicating the presence of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  It wasn’t long until the bird showed up and started making new holes in a nearby palm.

We ate our lunch at the park and ran into some gals from the Everglades Audubon Society doing a bird count.

They suggested that we head to Palm Beach to get Black-headed Parrots.  We had no idea what those were – we'd never heard of them!  But, we drove over to Palm Beach Island anyway.  We walked along the River Walk 

and birded the Henry Flagler Estate.  But, no parrots of any kind.

We did find this way cool Banyan Tree.

and a pretty cool spider, that we can’t identify.

After looking down every street and alley in the neighborhood (this is a VERY expensive neighborhood – lots of BMWs, Mercedes and Lexus cars)

We came up empty.  No parrots.  So, we headed back to the campground to pick up Bob and Jan’s camper and move it to our new home in Florida City.  As we pulled back into the campground we ran into the gals doing the bird count and they told us that the black-headed parrots were right there in the field!  We jumped out of the car, and sure enough, there in the lawn were about 20 Black-hooded Parakeets, which the US calls Nanaday Parakeet.

On our way to Florida City we decided to stop in at the Matheson Hammock County Park to find the LaSagra’s Flycatcher that had been reported on the Rare Bird Alert.  Not five minutes in the park and Dave heard it’s “wink” and followed the sound to the bird.  We ran into a guy from Illinois named Matt, who had just found it too!

Just down the trail was a nesting pair of Red-masked Parakeets checking out a nest hole.

It was quite a successful day, and we have now seen 84 bird species in 2 days of birding South Florida.  We headed to Applebee’s to watch the Colts/Kansas City game and then checked into our new hotel in Florida City.  A long, and very productive day!

Florida Everglades 2014 - Day 1

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale, grabbed a rental car and headed up to our hotel in Jupiter.  Next morning, we started our birding extravaganza by driving across the street to the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum.  Classic Dave Russell photo!  Not five seconds out of the car and he's spotted a bird!

Behind the museum is a lovely expanse of lawn that leads down to the mouth of the Loxahatchee River.  Looking across the river and under the bridge were a group of Brown Pelicans sunning themselves.

Next stop was the 11,383 acre Jonathan Dickinson State Park about 5 miles north of Jupiter, FL.  This is the largest protected coastal area between Hobe Sound and Miami (about 90 miles south).  But more importantly, it is reported to contain the sixth-largest protected population of Florida Scrub-Jays.  So, the game was on.  Find the Jays!

We drove along the low oak scrub in the northeastern part of the park, just as the ABA Birder's Guide to Florida recommended.  Nothing.  It was getting chilly, so we stopped to put on our jackets and bundle up.  This is me and Jan.  I thought it would be warm enough to wear shorts, but NOT!

We stopped to pish in the woods, and some other birders in a Jaguar (really? birding in a Jaguar?) stopped by to chat. They were from England and come here to bird with their kids.  How funny is that?! But, no Scrub Jays.

We got back in the car and parked in a little parking lot near some pines and started walking down a trail. Umm, I don't think we should go down this trail, Dave.  I don't care that you think you heard a Scrub Jay down there, either!

We took a different trail, and then, Dave heard the Jays!  I had to run to keep up with him as he followed the sound.  Then, I heard it too!  A Jay!

 Plus, it was a banded bird.  As we all stood there clicking our cameras trying to get as many photos as we could before the bird left, he jumped off of his perch and flew just 6 feet from us!  Spectacular Life Bird for me!!

 We birded the park for another hour or so and then decided that since our luck was running high, we'd head inland to the DuPuis Wildlife Management Area and try our luck at getting Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.  These birds were reintroduced to the management area and nest clusters are in trees marked with white bands.  So, all we had to do was find the marked trees and search the area around them.  Easy, right?

We started in a nice little campground, and picked up some warblers.

Dave got this great photo of a Pine Warbler in a Pine Tree.  Pretty cool!

Then got back in the car and started looking for the nest trees.  We came upon this beautiful grove or meadow that was so lush and green it was like an oasis! But, no woodpeckers here.

It was pretty chilly at the Management Area - low 50's with strong wind gusts.  I thought we'd left the cold weather back in Indiana! We bundled up in our hoodies and windbreakers, but still, I was freezing!  We did see a Common Ground Dove, which was way cool!

After several hours of hardcore birding, we came up with no Red-cockadeds.  We did see several Red-shouldered Hawks, Butter-butts, Pine and Palm Warblers, and a smattering of ducks.  Dave has the comprehensive list, and I think we saw over 40 species today.

By the time we finished looking for the woodpeckers we were all starving.  We looked up a place on Trip Advisor, called Harry and the Natives restaurant, which sounded pretty interesting.  So, we dropped in and had a great time reading all of the silly signs hanging on the walls!

Great burgers, real fries, and an excellent Rueben!  Oh, and they have Don Julio, so I had a stellar margarita!  We left Harry's and headed over to the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge on the barrier island.  By now, the clouds had rolled in and it was pretty breezy. This is me bundling up to walk on the beach!

We walked up the boardwalk and down to the beach. That's Dave scanning for birds. Not much moving now.

We did get great looks at a Willet who flew low over the waves and then landed right in front of us on the beach.  I couldn't get a good picture of it.

 The sun was beginning to drop low in the sky and as we made our way back up the beach to the car, I caught a glimpse of these cool waves in the sand.  Ahhhh, I love the serenity of the beach.

A superb day of birding.  Tomorrow we head to Loxahatchee NWR for Limpkin and then into Miami for Lasagre's Flycatcher.

Florida Everglades 2014 - We're On Our Way!

Today we leave the winter storm of Ohio

and head for the sunny southeastern coast of Florida!  Florida Scrub Jay here we come!

Flower Power Alaska 2013 - Crossing the Great Plains

Now that the container is on its way to Alaska, we were ready to pack up the truck and head on up ourselves.

We said goodbye to Taylor

and waved goodbye to Rafael, who will be staying at the house and taking care of the dogs and cats for us.

On the first week of our journey to Alaska we crossed the great plains of the US.  First stop was in St. Louis to see the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

Then we shot over to Kansas City for dinner at my favorite steak house,The Golden Ox. The steak house is in the old cattle stockyards and has a rustic, old west atmosphere and the best steaks I've ever had!  I took this photo of Dave with my cell phone, and I know he looks really stoned, but he was just smiling!

The next day we turned north and headed up to Sioux City, IA,

where we saw a Hudsonian Godwit

in a puddle along the side of the interstate.
We stopped at a lake on the side of the road that had a little park and pond

and stretched our legs a bit.

We found a tree full of Cedar Waxwings eating apple blossoms.  So cool!

At Sioux City, we turned West and headed toward the Badlands of South Dakota. 

FLOWER POWER ALASKA 2013 - Loading Up Gear

Today begins the first day of heading up to Alaska for the Summer 2013.  The 40ft container arrived at our farm in Liberty, Indiana and we will be shipping our large equipment for the Alaska farm in the container.   It will leave Indiana on a tractor trailer on Friday, May 3^rd, go to Chicago, be put on a train to Seattle, then barged to Anchorage, back on a train to Fairbanks, and by truck out to the farm in Two Rivers.  It should arrive on May 24^th. Amanda looks small inside it.

Michael and Dave spent most of Wednesday afternoon loading fenceposts and equipment.

A neighbor came over with his forklift and helped out a lot!

The new plow we got to build our raised beds arrived and it just fit inside the container.

I can't believe how much stuff we have!  Loading the trailer was like playing a game of Tetrus, lots of contemplation and re-arranging.

Neighbor Marc came over and helped us quite a bit with his little loader!

Dave and Marc loaded the posts that will be part of the fencing around the farm as well as boards used in building a shed.

Here's Jay helping load the mower

Cooperi, Rafael, Dylan and Jay stopped over later in the day and did most of the heavy work moving equipment and supplies into and around inside the trailer. Loading continued well into the dark, and we had to pull out some flood lights and light up the place to see what we were doing!

After two exhausting days, we got her filled, sealed and she is on her way.  38K pounds of stuff!