Camping and Birding in South Florida

Collier-Seminole State Park

It's time for a break.  Camping and birding will be good.  Except we are in January and it's freezing temperature at night in Georgia now.  Florida is calling! South Florida to be exact.

Setting up camp only takes about an hour!

We left Georgia before dawn and were able to set up camp by early afternoon in South Florida, Collier-Seminole SP, not too far from the Everglades but closer to Naples. 

This waterway is in the State Park.  The trip through the canals was peaceful and serene but did not yield a lot of bird species.  We did have some interesting encounters with Ibises and Yellow-crowned Night Herons among other birds. 

Juvenile White Ibis. 

Debbie paddling

Ten Thousand Islands Wildlife Refuge

We saw a life bird the next day at the Ten Thousand Island Wildlife Refuge, a Mangrove Cuckoo.  We felt we never fully explored this hidden gem! 

Andre on a birding trail

Debbie at a Wildlife Refuge

Debbie relaxing, I think. 

There were many quiet and peaceful moment as well.  

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve

At the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve, we enjoyed seeing a Great Horned Owl sitting on a nest and a pair of Bald Eagles, also nesting.  Not a sight you see every day.  We picked up another life bird nearby, a Snail Kite.  This Preserve is just ...wonderful! Will take a whole blog post just to share the uniqueness of it.

Some trees are so beautiful, men have to build the boardwalk around them!

Lowdermilk Park Beach in Naples

Willet

Sitting on a pretty beach is also birding.  Lowdermilk Park Beach was beautiful but a bit crowded. The whole city of Naples is a bit ritzy but folks are friendly enough.  We left after a couple of hours and headed to the Corkscrew Audubon Sanctuary.  

This may be Debbie's favorite birding spot, the beach. 

We spent a couple of hours at the Corkscrew Audubon Sanctuary.  A great place that we could have enjoyed better if our feet haven't started hurting after all the walking the previous days.  It's still a gorgeous place.  It will take a whole blog post about this unique place too.  Just the old trees will take your breath away! I saw a pretty snake (non-venomous) and almost reached out to pick him up for a minute or two!

Green moss on the water making a tapestry 

Great Egret

Mute Swan

We made stops on the way back home and picked up two more life birds.  Nanday Parakeets, and Mute Swans. 

It's been a great camping and birding trip and we're already looking forward to the next one!

Camping in the mountains for a few days

Our camping adventures found us in the North Georgia mountains this month for a few days of camping.  Black Rock Mountains State Park.

The tent was comfortable.  The days were pleasant, but the nights were chilly.

We hiked every day, birding.  There were a lot of trails around.  We couldn't do them all. The birding was fun.

Debbie thinks all these walking keep us young.  She is right.

The area was beautiful.  Very green.  Lots of butterflies, birds, deer, amphibians.

After years of camping, we know how to keep things simple, organized, and efficient.

The State Parks have bathrooms with hot shower.  When you go during the week (versus weekend) and after school starts, you have very few people at the campgrounds. We enjoyed the facilities with hardly anyone else.

Sometimes, we are ready to go home after three nights/four days of camping.  Sometimes, we want to stay longer and have in the past.  We wish we could stay longer on this camping trip.  But it was time to go home.   We enjoyed it.  The simple life!

Chasing a bird

Limpkin

"Chasing a bird" is a saying in the birding circles when a birder goes out of his way to see a bird.
Why would anyone do that? Birders will chase a bird they've never seen before or a bird that has been sighted out of his usual territory and considered "rare".

Georgia Veterans State Park

Debbie and I chased the Limpkin this month.  It took us three separate trips to the area to finally see the bird.  We usually see these rare birds on our first try.  The only place you could find this bird in the U.S. is typically in Florida.  Otherwise you'll have to go to the Caribbean Islands or further south.
Two Limpkins came to the Georgia Veterans State Park giving Georgia birders a unique opportunity to see it.  We saw both.

We enjoyed the pretty area while we were there

  Several birders from Georgia went to see this one bird! Many drove farther than we have.  For us, it was a little over one hour drive from Macon.  It's also nice to run into other birders.  I believe everyone who saw the bird felt it was worth it.  We did.

Limpkin by Jerry Amerson

This is a better picture of the Limpkin taken by my friend Jerry Amerson.  You can tell he has a better camera than I do! Debbie and I had a good close view of the bird but he flew farther before I could take a good picture.

Now we have Limpkin in our list of birds.  Oh yes! that's the whole purpose, right? Beside enjoying the birds, we keep a list of birds we've identified in a "year-list" and a "life-list".  And if a rare bird comes close to where you live, you go check it out.

Visiting with Connie and Duane in Decatur

We stopped by Connie and Duane on our way to the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau last week.

They got a new home in Decatur and we wanted to see it.

The home was beautiful.  We also wanted to spend some time with family...and play games, grill outside, chat, be together.  We did all that.  It was pleasant.

They must like to spend time with us too, because they came to join us on the second week-end of our vacation in Tennessee and that was awesome.

Connie and Duane

Debbie and Duane

 Family is important.  Come see us sometimes!

Camping and Birding near the Georgia Coast

Camping is great.  Birding is great. Camping and Birding ...super great!
We spent 3 nights and 4 days camping and birding last month (March).  We were at the Gordonia Alatamaha State Park which is a full facility campgrounds State Park.

 By "full facility" I meant a campground with water and electricity at the site and bathrooms with hot shower.  The above picture shows our bathroom.  Debbie's bathroom is on the left and mine is on right.  Funny I'm writing this but since we were the only campers with tents, everyone else having RVs or motorhomes, we had the bathrooms all to ourselves.

Debbie holding a Cherokee Rose. 

This State Park was close enough to the coast so we were able to visit and bird many coastal birding spots.  In the above picture, Debbie is by a Cherokee Rose bush at the Skidaway SP near Savannah.  No, she didn't pick the beautiful rose.  It's always better to leave beauties in nature alone for all to enjoy.

The above pictures are taken on Tybee Island, North Beach, where flocks of Black Skimmers, Gull species, and Terns were resting.  The North Beach at Tybee remains the unspoiled part of the island.

Harris Neck

Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge became one of the top birding spots for us in Georgia along with the Altamaha Wildlife Management Area.  If you love nature, this place got it!

Baby alligators at Harris Neck

Baby gators at Harris Neck

Altamaha WMA

Harris Neck NWR

These little alligators should be afraid of us, right? Didn't seem like they were at all.  Pictures were taken with a camera phone so that tells you how close these gators were.  They were literally on the banks of the trail.

Skidaway SP

Debbie at Tybee Island

As tired as Debbie was that day, she still looks happy.

Turned out to be a great camping and birding trip with over 120 birds species encountered in four days.  We had the benefit of a very wide variety of birds' habitats.