I had an awesome vacation for butterflies, and I found lots of them, 33 species and 12 lifers! I spent about one week of my 3+ week vacation chasing butterflies. Out of that time, I was mostly in two spots. I spent several days at the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area and a couple more at the State College of Florida in search of butterflies. I have seen a decent amount at these places in the past and this year was even better. I also spent half a day at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, looking for birds and butterflies. I found one Ruddy Daggerwing while walking the boardwalk. Then near the nature center, there were many more butterflies flying around, however most were away from the boardwalk. Weather was absolutely perfect this year, 82-86 degrees and sunny the entire vacation. The photos below are from my Florida vacation in February. Enjoy!
I was in Florida for 5 weeks this winter and it was amazing! This wasn’t just a bird vacation, rather a relaxing, enjoying the daily sun and not being in Wisconsin for winter type of vacation. I think I did less bird things than I would normally do, but I still ended up with over 150 species and 12 life birds. I tried to focus on a few birds that I had not seen before and without spending too much time driving for them. Snail Kite was a top priority, which I made a separate post about earlier this week. I also saw that Vermilion Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird and Tricolored Munia (ABA bird) were being seen at Torry Island. I made several trips there but was unsuccessful with the Tricolored Munia. I found the other two, along with a Blue Grosbeak and several Painted Buntings. There was also an Indigo x Painted Bunting seen occasionally and I found that as well. Another spot I focused on was Three Lakes WMA. I saw that Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman’s Sparrow were seen among others. I had seen all three before, but I wanted to spend more time with photos on them. I did the Lake Apopka Wildlife Dr, which is only open on the weekends, and is an 11-mile one way drive. It’s basically water or marsh on both sides of the road and is incredible for photography. Another awesome place was St Marks NWR, which has been hosting an American Flamingo (ABA bird) for over a year. This time I was able to go and see it, among many other things. All in all, it was a very enjoyable time spent in Florida. I took over 15,000 photos and edited over 400, while down there! This is a very large photo gallery post, so please take your time going through it. If you have any questions or would like more info on any of the places I visited, feel free to contact me. Enjoy!
Torry Island/Lake Okeechobee, FL
St Marks National Wildlife Refuge, FL
Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, FL
Three Lakes WMA, FL
Lake Tohopekaliga, FL
Newton Park, FL
Apalachicola National Estuarine Reserve–Unit 4, St George Island, FL
I have been on vacation for a while in Florida and one of my main target birds this year was Snail Kite. I saw a couple last year while I was here, but very brief views and no photos. I tried several of the known locations for them right away but was unsuccessful. I finally found a female at Torry Island, in Bella Grade on the south side of Lake Okeechobee. I was talking to a local woman about a Painted x Indigo Bunting, when it flew up from the marshy area. I saw the general area where it landed, so I walked over to and climbed the observation tower to scan for it. After a few minutes, I finally found it sitting really low to the water, but it was at least 200 yards away. Of course, it was on the south side of me, sitting in terrible light. After a few minutes, it flew down to a stump in the water and then again quickly flew and grabbed a snail. It took the snail and flew to another perch and started eating it. This was a really slow process and since it was further away, I gave up watching after 40 minutes or so. This area was also hosting a beautiful male Vermilion Flycatcher and two Tropical Kingbirds. Both of those birds were life birds for me, so I focused on them for a little while. I came back to the observation tower after, and the Snail Kite was still in the same spot and hadn’t moved. I guess I didn’t miss anything to fun. Below are the photos from that day. Enjoy!
Lake Tohopekaliga
A couple weeks later, we took an airboat tour on Lake Tohopekaliga, with Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures. I didn’t bring my equipment with me, as I thought it just going to be a fun boat ride. Well, that was a huge mistake! We saw 6 Snail Kites, which like most birds in Florida are extremely tame. We got within 75′ of a female sitting on a post hunting, in a large, loud airboat! The captain turned off the boat and explained to the others what bird it was and that it’s endangered. I couldn’t believe it, best view I ever had and no camera, unbelievable! After the tour, I talked with our boat captain, and he suggested I do a private tour just for the Snail Kites. So that’s what we did. I booked it for the following day, early in the morning, to get the best possible light. It was amazing and well worth it, if you are interested in getting up close and personal to them. On the private tour we saw 8, including two males, one of which posed beautifully for me. I highly suggest doing one if you’re down ever down that way. Photos below are from the private airboat tour. Enjoy!
Snail Kite information
I’ve included a few links with more information about them.
