Birding and Hiking in Grassy Waters Preserve

For a change of pace, Tony and I hiked in Grassy Waters on Saturday.  The Owahee Trail follows the head waters of the everglades and the source of fresh waters for palm beach county.  While we have never seen the quantity of bird life at Grassy Waters that we do at Wakodahatchee and Green Cay, we usually see a variety of both animals and birds. 

 As we started our hike, we ran into a lady with a dog (which is a no no) and two small children making lots of noise.  She mentioned how she was disappointed because she hadn't seen anything, I was hoping that it was because all the wildlife was scared from all their commotion! 

 

The 8 mile hike did not disappoint.   We did not see a lot of birds, but it's the quality, not the quantity that was important.  Grassy Waters also borders Mt. Trashmore and the most prevalent birds there are the Black and Turkey Vultures, floating high on the thermals over the trash piles.  You always want the wind to be blowing in the opposite direction of your hike and cooler days are a must!    

Pileated Woodpecker

Starting our hike seeing normal birds for the area, a couple Red Shouldered Hawks, a couple woodpeckers, a graceful Wood Stork flying overhead, two Red Bellied Woodpeckers and  a Pileated Woodpecker flew in from the swamp too- you know, the woody woodpecker kind.  I never even knew what it was until I came home and looked at my pictures! 

  

Belted Kingfisher

A couple of Belted Kingfishers were teasing me, a skittish, elusive bird that is very hard to get a good picture of because they are always flying off in the opposite direction!  Of course we saw the usual wading birds, a couple of Great White Egrets, a couple Tricolor Herons, a Little Blue Heron, both a white juvenile and an adult blue one and a Limpkin.  We also saw some waterfowl, Coots, Morehens, and Ducks.

 

  

Towards the end of the hike we saw about 100 Ibis starting to roost for the evening, filling the trees along the canal.  

 

 

 However, our hike held several surprises for us.   We took a half a mile detour down a boardwalk and in the distance near the marshes, we saw a Bald Eagle!  We watched him for 15 minutes or so before he flew off.   It was actually the 2nd one I had seen  this week!

  

Bald Eagle

 We also saw a mysterious raptor near the M canal which I am still trying to identify, it was almost the size of an eagle and soared right over our heads! 

Mysterious Raptor

 

 

The great thing about Grassy Waters are the other animals that you can see.  Besides turtles and alligators

that line the canals, we saw 3 separate sightings of raccoons.





 We noticed a mother and her 2 babies walking down the path right towards us immediately after we had seen the mysterious raptor. 

  

Because we were stationary, she didn't really know we were there, so I had ample opportunity to click away.  They were so cute!  

 

 

We also spotted a large river otter.  While we couldn't watch him play in the canal, we did get a close encounter with him before he disappeared in the brush and the water. 



River Otter

And of course, what is any hike in Florida if you don't see a snake!  Very happy when they aren't poisonous and I see them before they see me!    A large 5 black snake greeted us near the end of the hike. 

 

 

 As we drove out the parking lot, we saw the most beautiful bird in Florida, a Rosette Spoonbill, sitting on a pipe at the entrance to the dump, guess he was trying to spruce up the entrance! 

 

Florida has so many parks and preserves, Tony and I have fun checking them all out to see what treasures they will reveal. 

National Parks, Here we come!

Once again we are on the road again to visit our nation's National Parks.  This time we are visiting three of our favorite parks, Glacier, the Grand Tetons and my all-time favorite, Yellowstone.   The first time we visited Yellowstone, I fell in love with the bizarre geothermal features, the diversity of the landscapes and the wildlife.  We visited there two years ago, but this time I will have my monster lens, so all the wildlife will look much closer.  I can hardly wait to try it out! 

We start our trip flying into Jackson Hole and then immediately drive for a couple days to Kalispell to pick up our Florida friends, Connie and Bill Wagner.  We decided to take the scenic route, driving through both the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone for a quick glance of things to come. 

We started the first morning out, driving through the National Elk Refuge, just outside of Jackson, WY.  While we saw loads of ground squirrels, we did see a single elk.  However, on the highway side of the refuge we spotted a pair of Trumpeter Swans with 3 chicks, known as cynets,  swimming in the wetlands just outside of town.  Once on the endangered species list, the Trumpeter Swans have made a comeback and can be seen numerous places throughout Wyoming and Montana.  This is the first time I have seen them outside of Alaska. 

We took a little side trip in the Tetons to look for moose at the Jackson Lake Lodge.  I love the view from the windows and patio of the lodge.  I was disappointed to see that there was a haze over the valley and the Tetons themselves were shrouded in a haze.  Smoke from the Washington State fires had drifted over the Tetons.  We arrived too late in the morning to see any moose, they were sleeping amongst the willows in the acres between the lodge and the lake.  On our return trip we need to stop by at dusk to check them out.  However, I still found a photo moment to document our trip.

Next stop, Old Faithful Inn.  How great is this that we can just drop by for lunch, and at the same time take in an Old Faithful eruption too! 

Old Faithful is the flagship geyser of the park, a magnificent geyser and reliable as it can be counted on to erupt every 60 to 110 minutes.  Old Faithful eruptions are between 105 and 184 feet high.  Watching the crowds gather for the eruptions, it reminds me of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”!  Every 60 minutes there are tons of people sitting around the geyser waiting for it to blow.

Old Faithful erupting

Next stop, Butte, Montana.  The countryside on the way to Butte was nice.  Butte itself is a large town for the area, comparatively speaking.  We arrived on Sunday night and the place seemed devoid of people,  We found a place for dinner and then tomorrow we will do it all again on our way to Kalispell, Montana.

Peru bound, but we haven't made it out of Ft. Lauderdale!

Today is the first day of our 15 day Peruvian adventure.  We have been packing for weeks, been innoculated against a bunch of diseases and have a whole pharmacy of prescription drugs for the trip.  Our friend, Connie and Bill Wagner are our traveling companions.  The day started off great, beautiful day, made great time to the airport, boarded on time and off we go- right!  Wrong!!

Only once before have I been on a flight where they had to kick people off, today makes it two.   I guess flying is like the LIFO inventory method, last in, first out and the last  people who walked on, 5 of them had to get off.  The plane would not have enough gas to make it to Peru with a full flight.  As Crissy would say "REALLY!". 

After 45 minutes of splitting up families, shuffling people, passports and luggage we were finally ready.  Doors closed, we were good to go, only an hour late.  However, the air was getting a little stale, must be sitting the sitting on the runway counting passengers 20 times.  No, something to do with the air intake, we wouldn't be able to breathe in flight - now we have a mechanical  problem!  After 15 minutes everyone has to get off the plane.

Finally a replacement plane has come, we just boarded and I'm keeping my fingers crossed we will be off a mere two and a half hours late.  At least everyone has been pleasant and we have been with friends making lemonade.  Peru bound once more!  Let's hope the taxi is waiting for us.