This morning I visited the Babcock-Webb WMA, arriving there about 7:45 a.m.  It was a nice sunny morning, temperature in the low 70s.  I traveled the Oil Well Grade, Tram Grade, Seaboard Grade, and Tucker’s Grade loop.  The roads were good, although there was a lot of water in the fields adjacent to the roads.  I saw quite a few butterflies, including several dozen Queens.  Following is an e-bird report of my bird observations.

This morning, a photographer friend and I visited Babcock-Webb.  The primary focus of this trip was to photograph spiders and insects.  However, the first hour or so, we did spend photographing birds. At the pond, by the check-in station, a Limpkin walked to within five feet of us.  We saw the usual Egrets and Herons and some killdeer. 

This place is an excellent place for spiders.  Everywhere you look, you’ll usually find some of the Orbweaving spiders, including the large Yellow Garden and Banded Garden Orbweavers.  Butterflies were also plentiful.  We even found a Black Swallowtail caterpillar.  It was a very productive morning.

I went to Myakka River State Park with a small group of photographers from our camera club.  We arrived there around 9:30 and stayed to about 2:00.  It was a very comfortable sunny day, in the 80s and with some breeze.

We started at the boardwalk at the north end.  Other than a few wading birds, such as egrets and herons, there were not many birds around.  The only ducks seen were five Mottled Ducks.  There were a lot of dragonflies in the area; I observed at least five different species.  We gradually worked our way back to the concession stand, where we had lunch.  Other than Vultures and a few wading birds, there were not many birds down at the dam.  No Limpkins were observed.  After a few more stops along the river, we called it a day.  Following is the ebird report of the birds I saw and counted.