Cherish is my favorite word, and I cherish the ability of turning the routine into a beautiful moment.
Nature creates in me, a spiritual and meditative time to bring peace, harmony and balance, into an otherwise ordinary day~
Mary Howell Cromer







Thursday, April 2, 2015

Final Entry From My Florida Journey Last Month~


Spanish Moss gives the trees a magical quality.

When I visited my youngest daughter Ashleigh and her husby last month,  they blessed me by taking me many places to see the beauty as well as see birds that I had never seen before.  Florida sure is the place to go birding.  My husby was born in Miami and we lived there as well as Boca Raton for a brief time, but never had I had the opportunities to see birds like I did on this visit~

For those who celebrate the season, may you and yours have a blessed Easter.



Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slide show presentation after you have read the narratives~

I will be linking up with Judith for:

www.lavendercottagegardening.com

&

Stewart for:
   http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/


The colouration of the juvenile White Ibis above was quite stunning to me~


What a surprise as well as a special treat.  We had been walking along the boardwalks through the Wakodahatchee Wetlands near Boynton Beach, when something moved from under heavy camouflage...yikes it was a beautiful American Bittern, a very elusive bird, shown above and throughout this blog post~


Above was another beauty, a Purple Gallinule.  None of these birds had I ever seen before this journey by the way, so it was all quite thrilling for me~ 



Another name, actually a folk name for the American Bittern is Thunder Pumper~


Where so many of these birds live, there are also Alligators~


A Glossy Ibis above~







Common Moorhens were at several of the marshland areas where we visited~


An adult White Ibis~


Common Moorhen




I think that my son-in-law stood with me for at least 15 minutes, watching this Bittern hunting~




Along with the beautiful assortment of exotic birds for me, we saw lots of alligators, snakes, large water turtles and iguanas along the banks and in the water~



Boardwalks took you through the acreage called Wakodahatchee Wetlands, for a wonderful view of nature at it best for the amazing birds and all other wildlife.  
BTW...there were no entry fees for this park~



Can you see the baby alligators too?




We saw 2 different kinds of iguanas at the wetlands area~




21 comments:

  1. Hello Mary, wonderful post and photos from your Florida trip! The birds are awesome sights to see there. And the gators are cool but after a while there are so many to see.. The iguanas are a pretty color. Happy Easter!

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  2. congrats on all the new sightings! we get ibis here sometimes, and have actually had a purple gallinule once several years back, but i'd love to see glossy, the bittern, etc! :)

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  3. a wonderful time with lots of species to enjoy. They are all gorgeous. Even the crock :)

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  4. Hi Mary - What a beautiful post! So many wonderful mosaics and photos. Don't you just love the Bitterns? I rarely see one, let alone get photos of one. I did get some photos right out my side of the vehicle awhile back - We almost passed it by. It was standing in some reeds right by the road, but I spotted it - beak pointed up at the sky.

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  5. I'm surprised iguanas haven't made it up to the Tampa area. That would be really cool.
    Loved all your shots.

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  6. What a treat for you and me to see so many critters....wishing you and yours a Happy Easter!

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  7. After reading through your posts, yet another destination has been added to the bucket list!

    Really like the shots of the bittern.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  8. That certainly was a great trip! I would love to spend some time there too!

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  9. Just brilliant Mary. There is much colour and diversity in Florida and its wildlife and I think you captured it superbly. What I would give to watch an American Bittern for 15 minutes and a chance to photograph one. I think I'm needing some of that Florida sunshine.

    Have a great holiday weekend.

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  10. Beautiful images, but, the Iguanas are my favourite.

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  11. I cannot get over the tremendous amount of various wildlife in this park, Mary, from the many species of beautiful birds to the crocodile critters and other reptiles in the water. I'm so glad you got to observe birds that you had never seen before; that must have been magical!

    Stunning photos that you have shared with us, once again, my friend. Thanks for taking us along this most interesting path to these intriguing profiles.

    Happy Easter Sunday!

    Poppy

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  12. A fabulous park for photographing wildlife. We hope to get out to more places next year that will offer this type of scenery.
    Thank you for linking to Mosaic Monday Mary.

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  13. Mary, Thanks for sharing those great nature photos. Florida is great! Sylvia D.

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  14. Another wonderful post Mary... amazing images of your fantastic wildlife.

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  15. Amazing shots! What a wonderful variety of birds, snakes, lizards and alligators! I bet you will we hankering to go back again next year for the birding!

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  16. How cool to see a white ibis up so close!

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  17. Very nice collection of birds....and the Bittern is sweet! Congrats!

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  18. Great photos of so many beautiful birds! The alligator is very interesting but I don't think I would like to be too close to it. The Spanish Moss on the tree is beautiful.

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  19. Just fabulous photos Mary. We used to visit Boca Raton when my stepson lived there and I have to say I have never seen so much wildlife as in Florida. We have Bittern's over here but I've never seen one - they are extremely shy, so how amazing for you to see one so clearly and watch it hunting - what an experience. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful images with us, visiting you has been an absolute pleasure.

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  20. You saw it all in your short visit! You saw AND you took amazing pictures. All those birds were new to me once ... On our first visit here! But I never tire of seeing them . This is a great state for wildlife. I haven't been to that park and plan to add it to our list of places to go.

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