Circle B

For the second week in a row Bonnie and I have spent the good part of a day at the Circle B Bar Preserve near Lakeland. It’s become one of our most cherished places. We’ve never been disappointed after spending time there. Last week, we were fortunate to have as guests Don and Jan from upstate NY. They got up early and drove over two hours to meet us at Circle B around 8 a.m., and said they added seven new birds to their life list that day. Very cool.

Circle B is a birder/photographer’s favorite, and we notice heavier and heavier use. I’m trying to learn to be patient with groups out birding. Sometimes they come in handy, spotting things we might have missed, like this muddy otter across the bank.

Circle B Otter

You can tell it’s spring because everyone has their breeding plumage. The glossy ibis are aglow with  glossy colors, which I hadn’t noticed before. The morning started out foggy and dark, and the partly cloudy day really helped show off the Ibis’ deep colors. Ibis, by the way, are in the same family as Roseate Spoonbills.

Colorful Glossy Ibis

I learned about Mottled Ducks this week. According to the “interesting facts” in  iBird (which is loaded on my iPhone), Mottled Ducks can be found Florida’s wetlands, along the Gulf Coast through Texas and Mexico. The Florida population is a subspecies occasionally called the Florida Duck or Florida Mallard. Until recently, no other ducks of its genus, Anas, nested in Florida marshes, and the distinctive male plumage has vanished. The two sexes are colored the same. The Mottled Duck is a relative of the Mallard, and is in danger of being displaced (by hybridization) as Mallards are introduced into the same habitats.

Mottled Duck

Flight of the Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks

A pair of Sandhill Cranes built a nest right off the Rabbit Run trail. The eggs are due to hatch mid-March.

Sandhill nest