I visited Oscar Scherer State Park this morning.  Although this Park is only about 45 minutes from where I live, this was my first visit.  There is a $4 entrance fee.  This Park is about 1400 acres in size and has a small creek, called South Creek running through it.  There are also two small lakes, Lake Osprey and Big Lake.  It contains many acres of pine flatwoods and scrubby flatwoods that are populated with the threatened Florida Scrub Jay.  There are 15 miles of well-maintained hiking trails.  There are over 100 tent and RV campsites with complete hookups for electric and water.  Very nice Park. For directions, click here.

I walked along some of the trails.  Wildlife sighted included a gopher tortoise, rabbits, squirrels and about 15 species of birds, including scrub jays, northern flicker, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, numerous cardinals and mockingbirds, blue jays, and a few wading birds (little blue heron and great egret).  Because of the lack of rain, the place was just about bug free, except for lovebugs.

I visited the Babcock-Webb WMA on Friday morning from 7:30 – 10:00 and Sunday morning from 7:00 – 10:00.  I was hoping to see a King Rail, but didn’t even hear one.  On Friday morning I spent most of my time on Tucker’s Grade and Seaboard Grade.  On Sunday I concentrated on the Webb Lake road and Oilwell Grade.

I didn’t see many birds, maybe about 25 different species altogether.  Some of the more notable species seen included a Northern Flicker, Great Crested Flycatcher (adults and juv), Eastern Bluebirds (adult & juv), and Eastern Towhees.

On Thursday morning I went over to Ollie’s Pond.  I was told there had been a dozen Spoonbills feeding there in the morning for the past three weeks.  However, there were none there during my visit from 7:15 to 9:00.  Apparently the muddy areas they were feeding in are now covered with water from the rain the last few days.  I walked the path the whole way around the pond.  It was well maintained and very few bugs.  I observed about 20 species of birds, including Bobwhite, Egrets (Great & Snowy), Herons (Little Blue, Great Blue, & Green), Anhinga, Mottled Ducks, many Red-winged Blackbirds, and a Brown Thrasher.  I observed one Alligator in the pond.