Florida Trip--St. Marks Again

We decided to go back to St. Marks and spend the day on Sabbath. We bought some picnic food and things on Friday evening, then got up early--before dawn--and went to St. Marks to watch the sunrise.

This was from the observation tower by the lighthouse just as the sun peaked over the horizon (behind the trees).

The clouds made the colors just beautiful.

Full sunrise.

We ate our breakfast at Picnic Pond with the White Pelicans (again about 16 or 17), about 30 Great Egrets, and a Wood Stork.

Over at the Headquarters Observation Tower we saw the wild pigs again. We also saw a Brown-headed Nuthatch in the pines behind the tower--a lifer.

Back at the lighthouse, I got the standard "Brown Pelican on a piling" photo.

From the lighthouse observation tower we saw this alligator in the water below.

The day had been hot, not as many birds as the day before. A thunderstorm had rumbled by. As the sun began to go down, we headed back to the hotel, tired but happy.

Sunday, we returned home--about a 12 hour drive.

Florida Trip--Back to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

We went back to St. Marks on Friday afternoon and saw the lighthouse. There was an observation deck next to the lighthouse where we could look out over a salt marsh on one side and mud flats on the other. We saw many shore birds, including, a Ruddy Turnstone, Willets, Short-billed Dowitchers, a Black-bellied Plover, and the usual herons and egrets.

I went down on the beach below the lighthouse and found a colony of fiddler crabs.

Short-billed Dowitchers

Willets

This is the observation tower at Headquarters Pond. It overlooked a mud flat where we saw the usual herons and egrets, Black-necked Stilts, Semi-palmated Sandpipers and Plovers, also a mother wild pig and her five young.

This is a Snowy Egret--if you look carefully, you can see its yellow foot.

Black-necked Stilts

These American White Pelicans (about 16 of them) were at Picnic Pond located near Headquarters Pond.

Florida Trip--St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge--Day 1

On Friday morning, we went to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It has a variety of habitats, including salt marshes, hardwood swamps, pine flatwoods, and pine/oak uplands.

We hiked a nice trail behind the visitor's center.

There was a different large grasshopper along the trail--only about 2" long.

We stopped along the road at a freshwater pool and a brackish pool across from it. We saw lots of water/wading birds including this Black-necked Stilt--a black and white bird with long, red legs--doing some sort of dance on the lilypads.

We decided to go get lunch and come back later since there was so much to see. So, we drove into Tallahassee for lunch.