Birding Florida {Tampa & Sarasota area}

I met Nicole in October 2015 while we were volunteering at Desert National Wildlife Refuge. She was an avid birder and traveler who was wrapping up her Big Year, I was a curious person who knew little more than the difference between a robin and a cardinal. She took me birding with her one day and I've been hooked ever since. She is currently living in Miami, so when we arrived in Florida, we arranged to meet up on her way to Georgia to visit family. We first birded Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Lake George State Forest.

Male Painted Bunting

American Avocet

Clapper Rail at Merritt Island NWR

We obtained a permit to bird at Lake George State Forest. Such a beautiful 

area where we found the brown-capped nuthatch, which sounds oddly like a squeaky toy!

Before Nicole left, we decided she should spend a night with us again on her way back south. What had been planned as one night, quickly turned into another and another and before we knew it, a week had passed. This is a recurring theme for us.

With only a couple hours of light left on our first day, we headed to Lettuce Lake where I saw my first limpkin, barred owl and roseate spoonbill!

This looks like you could walk on it, but it's water underneath! 

 And a venomous cottonmouth aka water moccasin!

 The next morning we spent the entire day at Fort Desoto County Park. This place is now one of my favorite places in Florida. The water and the beach are absolutely gorgeous and they have camping along the bay side.

Before we had even technically entered the park, we met a group of birders who quickly became friends. Lavern, Janie and Fern have spent many years birding the Sarasota area, so they knew right where to point us.

The following day we met them at the Celery Fields where they knew TO THE MINUTE when the bitterns would be flying in to roost and when the barn owl would fly out to begin hunting! It was amazing, and because of the timing, I was able to bring along my mom and my kids to see all this happen!

After the first couple days we started meeting up in the morning and all piling into one vehicle to travel together. This was a fun way to really learn about each other during the drives. They took us to many hotspots including Myakka State Park, Deer Prairie Preserve, Red Bug Slough, Siesta Key Beach and my favorite, Circle B Bar, recently made famous with an extremely large gator crossing caught on video. The birds were plentiful and very close thanks to the narrow ponds. I returned a few weeks later to find that sadly most of the water had completely dried up and very few birds remained. Still tons of alligators and turtles though!

 Photos from Circle B below-

Snowy Egret

Roseate Spoonbills

Green Heron

Baby Alligator

After everyone left, I attended walks with local Audubon groups to Emerson Point Preserve, Felts Preserve, and Crowley Nature Center where I saw my first Sherman's Fox Squirrel.

When Family Comes to Visit {Sarasota}

We always love it when family comes to visit! We have some family in the area, so we spent a day with them kayaking the mangrove tunnels at Lido Key. It's been years since we've seen our nieces and their mom, so this was a very special day for us!

This little guy tried to hitch a ride.

We found sea stars, jellyfish, dolphins and a sea urchin.

 Asher even managed to spot this teeny, tiny, baby seahorse! How cool!

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 Then my mom came to spend 9 days with us while Daddy was in Cuba.

We took her to the Mote Marine Laboratory to see seahorses, and pet stingrays. 

We spent a few days on the beach to soak up the sun while the kids played in the sand and surf.

Running circles around Meemaw.

My friend Nicole was still with us for part of my mom's visit. We happily took her up on her offer to watch the kids so my mom and I could have time alone together for the first time in many, many years! Of course we went treasure hunting (flea market and a thrift store).

We spent time looking at birds and other creatures at the Celery Fields, I took her to see the barred owl family that lives at Pinecraft park and before she left, we walked around the fruit festival where we met this goat with a panda on his side.

 We were parked on our friends' property where her three horses were just outside our door. One horse is very friendly so it was pretty comical the time he snuck up on my mom. Another time all three horses came to look in the trunk of her car to see what groceries she brought!

 The following week we managed to get all 3 siblings together for the first time in nearly 10 years! We had breakfast, went to the MOTE and to a park to play.

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Next my dad and stepmom came for a visit. They were doing the rounds visiting friends in different parts of Florida, which worked nicely for me. After spending a few days with us in Sarasota, I hitched a ride to Ft Lauderdale where my very first "mom vacation" began. They picked me up in Naples and stayed a few more days with us in Sarasota before heading back to Ohio.

We took them back to Lido Key for their first ever kayaking experience! 

A double-crested cormorant followed us around and kept diving under our boats. So funny.

They took us to the Big Cat Habitat where we saw lots of animals and even saw a few really cool performances including a bird that could roller-skate, a monkey and these giants- a lion named Handsome, a white tiger and a LIGER! Yes, really!

"Don't feed the bears"....unless you're at Big Cat Habitat, in which case it's encouraged.

 I took my parents to the Celery Fields where we had the best nature sightings of alligators, snakes, a raccoon, and of course lots of birds. We ran into a fellow birder, Steve, that I'd met previously. He is a retired firefighter who miraculously survived 9/11. He and my dad, also a firefighter, had lots to talk about.

Common Yellowthroat

Glossy Ibis