Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park

Hello,

Happy Easter everyone!

I am sharing another great Florida park called Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. This park consist of 54,000 acres or dry prairie. It is home to many endangered plants and animals. Two of my favorite sightings were of the Loggerhead Shrike and the Crested Caracara. Both of these birds were seen on the long 5 mile entrance road into the park. This is supposed to be a great park for viewing the night sky, we were only there for the day.


A Loggerhead Shrike, a songbird with raptor habits. It's nickname is the Butcherbird and is related to the Northern Shrike.

The Crested Caracara, one of my favorites.

Great Egrets have a party and invited the  Crested Carcara.

Egrets and herons and warnings of alligators.

One of the views of the trail, a pretty clear blue sky and some palm trees.

Near the visitor center, there was a sculpture of the Carolina Parakeet. This parakeet is now extinct and was the only parrot species native to the United States. The last known wild Carolina Parrot nesting location was in this park. Also in the collage is a  Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly.

A Wood Stork sky.

Eastern Meadowlark

American Kestrel

Most of our walk on the trail was out in the open, no shade to be found. I would suggest going to this park on a cool day.

On the trail at Kissimmee Prairie



"There is no happier person than a truly thankful, content person."


My thankful list for today:
I am thankful to find birds that are on my want to see list. :)
I am thankful for pretty days to take our walks.


Thank you for your visit and comments on my post. Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead!

Thanks to Michelle for the meme Thankful Thursday

I am also linking up to Skywatch Friday, I hope to see you there.

Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Disney Wilderness Preserve

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

Happy Canada Day ( a little late, sorry) to my Canadian blogging friends.  And I wish everyone in the USA a happy 4th of July. 


For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing more of our Florida trip. On this afternoon we took a drive to the Disney Wildlife Preserve in Kissimmee. It is not your usual Disney Park, the 11,500 acre property was transferred to the Nature Conservancy to preserve and restore the wetlands and is part of the Everglades ecosystem. They have a program to help the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker on the preserve. I read that the woodpeckers are doing well in the pine habitat. The Wood Stork and families of Sandhill Cranes, Crested Caracara, Bald Eagles and other birds can be seen at the preserve.

 One of the first birds I saw at this preserve were the Eastern Meadowlarks. They are beautiful birds, I love their bright yellow colored chest.

For Skywatch Friday I have a view of the trees, wetland and marsh and a pretty sky.

I like this old Walt Disney quote I found. It seems very fitting even for the present time.

"Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future"  Walt Disney.

For my Good Fence entry a view from the overlook of the trail and wetlands on the Disney Wilderness Preserve. We saw some pretty clouds and blue sky during our visit.

The Mockingbirds were common birds seen all around the preserve and in Florida. This Mocking bird posed nicely on the post for me.

Another one for my skywatch, it was a hot day and we wished for some cloud cover for our walk on the trail.

Some fence scenes from around the Preserve's visitor center, the pond, swallowtail butterfly and heading out of preserve we saw some cows on the field. It is a conservation area with both working and protected lands. This preserve is also listed on the Great Florida Birding Trail. If you are ever in the area I suggest visiting and taking a walk on one of the trails.


 I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.


To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Eastern Meadowlark

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Eastern Meadowlark.  It is a beautiful medium sized songbird.. I do not see them near my home very often, due to the farmland is disappearing.. But,  I was thrilled to see not just one but five of them on the grounds at the Bodie Island Lighthouse in the Outer Banks, NC.

They were still a distance away and my photos are not as clear as I would like.. But, I enjoyed seeing them, I could not fit all five in one photo. So I had to take several shots.

The Eastern Meadowlark will stalk thru the grasses probing for insects will their long bill.  They are beautiful birds with their bright yellow underparts and a bold V on their chest..

Till next week's wild bird post.. I wish you happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and fence photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes

Thanks to all of our hosts... Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

4th blog Anniversary

I am linking up Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-b-birdin I hope you will join in on the fun and share your critters and birds.

It is hard to believe 4 years have passed since I started this blog on July 13, 2009. For my 4th anniversary post I am sharing some photos I posted previously or as near to my blog's previous anniversaries.

 My first post was short and sweet, just talking about the Caribbean cruise we took and it included a photo of one of my trip lifers.. the Brown Booby seen between St Thomas and St John.

Brown Booby seen during a boat ride from St Thomas to St John..July 2009.

  Our first port of call during this Caribbean cruise was San Juan, Puerto Rico. From the fort we could see an iguana on the grass and our ship in the distance.

My 1st blog Anniversary July 2010, I posted about my backyard birds, like the juvenile Redbellied Woodpecker.

Also, in July 2010 a Sandhill Crane was sighted in Elkton Maryland.

 My 2nd Anniversary in July 2011, I was driving around the back roads in Maryland looking for new birds.. On this day I saw the Redheaded woodpecker and.......

another favorite find while driving the back roads was this pretty Eastern Meadowlark another July 2011 bird.

In July 2012, my son and his friends and hubby and I cruised to Bermuda from Baltimore. It was a great trip and most likely the last cruise we will take.

 I loved this beach we visited in Bermuda, the sand, water and sky were beautiful.

 These Bermuda birds are (Long-tail) White-tailed tropicbirds.

Back at home in July 2012 I was posting the juvenile Catbirds in my yard. It is not often I see two catbirds so close together. I believe these were juveniles at the time of the photo. This is not a fancy anniversary post and sorry no giveaways, just a quick look back at previous years post. Thanks for stopping by and I always appreciate my blogging friends following my blog and all your comments over the years.

Besides  these two favorites Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin.
I am sharing some more of my favorite blogs to read and visit. Maybe you might know these bloggers already if not you may enjoy visiting their blogs too.

I think everyone knows Betsy from Tennessee, she blogs about hikes and trips with her hubby George. Betsy also shares her pretty gardens and flowers.

I love to travel and this blog makes it easy to travel to Australia by visiting Red from Oz. She shares awesome scenery and reports on her own travels in OZ the land down under.

To see some awesome photography you should definitely visit  Brian King Photography. You will see beautiful birds, flowers and more.

If you have a birding blog I am sure you know Stewart with his Wild Bird Wednesday blog but
Stewart from Australia has two blogs. On this blog Stewart shares more stories about his life and birding trips.

Last but not least, if you are addicted to birds like I am you should check out Kathie's birds . Kathie lives in Arizona and does some great reporting on the Arizona birds.

I hope if you have time click on my links and visit with my blogging friends and their blogs.

 I wish everyone a happy weekend.

 To see more beautiful photos and cute critters

 please visit:  Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious hosts Misty Dawn of Camera Critters and to Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin.

Rural birds and scenes

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday

My post and mosaic includes some rural scenes near my neighborhood and scenes I see on my way to work.

 I am able to see the sun rising above this field on most of the clear mornings.  Most of early morning's I am seeing fog over the fields. I usually get to this same spot everyday at the same time and the sun is in the same place each day.  Must be my timing is right on for seeing the sun rise.

 A Song Sparrow is a commonly heard bird , a resident of Maryland.

My sunrise on the way to work,  Eastern Meadowlark,  local produce stand, red barn, rolls of hay, Song Sparrow.

This is one of the fields I pass on the way to work everyday. A rural scene with the corn fields and rolls of hay.

Sunflowers, Eastern Bluebird, Tree Swallow, a local white barn. The Bluebirds and Swallows are common birds I see perched on the wires about the roads. Once in awhile I will see the Eastern Meadowlark.

Sometimes I catch a bluebird sitting on top of a birdhouse. It is nice to see homeowners and farmers putting up the bluebird houses.

Everyone likes to stop here for their produce, veggies and flowers.



To see more wonderful mosaics and photos check out : Mary's Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday.  Thanks to our host Mary and to the group at Our World: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sandy and Sylvia.
I wish everyone a safe and happy week ahead.

Birding the back roads

I am linking up with Camera Critters

I have been enjoy listening to the Great Blue Herons and their babies from my deck. The adult Great Blue Heron comes back to the nest and the babies go beserk and sound like they are fighting over the food. I linked up my you tube video. My neighbors thought they were some wild animals in the woods fighting. You have to listen for yourself to actually hear the noises and sounds coming from these heron babies.

Great Blue heron nest


Last weekend after listening to my herons in the morning at home and then hiking at the Catoctin National Park I decided to take the back roads home to look for Dickcissels reportedly seen in the area. I missed seeing the Dickcissel hopefully someday soon but I did see a Redheaded Woodpecker, Eastern Kingbird and a beautiful Eastern Meadowlark.

I was a happy birder to see the Meadowlark. It had been over 20 years since seeing my first Meadowlark. My first Meadowlark sighting was seen over 20 years ago on a farm right down my street. It is a beautiful bird and has a lovely song. I have never seen them again on my street and last weekend was my second sighting of the Eastern Meadowlark in Maryland.

This beautiful bird inhabits open areas such as meadows, prairies, farms and grasslands. It can often be found singing from a fence post while searching for insects. It is sad to see that development of farmland means a loss of habitat for the Meadowlark.

The next bird we saw while on the back road was the Redheaded Woodpecker.  I knew this bird was being seen in the area after reading my listserve emails. It is one of my favorite woodpeckers.

The Eastern Kingbird was another bird I saw perched on a wire over the road. I usually can tell a kingbird by the white on the bottom of their tails.

To see more wonderful and cute critters please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters

Thanks to Misty Dawn for hosting the Camera Critters meme and thanks for stopping by to see my post. I hope you enjoyed my birds and I hope everyone has a great weekend and happy birding.