It’s been a month since I took any nature pictures.   I’ve also been without cable service since August 13^th (thanks to Charley) until September 7^th.  Unfortunately, I lost service again on the 10^th when trucks removing debris from our neighborhood knocked out the power and cable service again.  Power was restored in five hours, but it took Comcast another three days to repair the cables.  So, here it is, September 14^th and I once again have cable service and access to the internet.

During my latest hurricane evacuation from Punta Gorda (thanks to Ivan) to Lakeland, where my daughter lives, I took the opportunity to visit Saddle Creek Park, which is located in the northeast section of Lakeland.  This is a 740-acre park, with about 500 acres of small interconnected lakes (former phosphate pits).  The park has several boat ramps, playgrounds, picnic areas, restroom facilities, and a nature trail.  There are a lot of water birds along the shores of the lakes and one can find migrant warblers along the nature trail on the north side of the park.  There also seems to be a lot of dragon flies and butterflies.  Since I left my binoculars at home in Punta Gorda, I concentrated on getting some nice images, rather than looking for different species of birds.  It was fun to be outdoors again, away from the devastation in Charlotte County.

Peace River Audubon held their first field trip of the 04-05 season on Saturday, September 18^th.  Although the trip was originally scheduled to visit the Laurel Landfill, we felt the landfill would be quite busy with all of the debris pickup activity.  Instead, we went to Fort DeSoto. 

Fort DeSoto turned out to be quite busy also.  Since there were no hurricane evacuations planned for the weekend, I think many people thought it was time to get outdoors and visit the beaches.  Even though the Park was crowded, we still saw 55 different species of birds.  Our first stop was the rest area beyond the toll gate on I-275.  The tide was out, so there were quite a few water-type birds on the flats, including Spoonbills, Sandpipers (Least and Western), Herons (Little Blue and YC Night), Terns (Forster’s, Royal, Sandwich), Egrets, and Black-bellied Plovers.

As we continued driving to the Park, a small flock of Monk Parakeets were observed.  Our first stop in the Park was the East Woods, where we hoped to see some Warblers.  Nary a one was sighted.  We then went to the East Turnaround, where again many Egrets, Herons, and a mixture of shorebirds were observed on the flats.  Our next stop was the radio tower.  We finally had some Warbler action.  We saw several Yellow Warblers, a first for several of us.  Redstarts and Black & White Warblers were also observed.  A Frigatebird was observed flying overhead.  On the way to the Tower area, we observed several Eastern Kingbirds, Tree Swallows, and Loggerhead Shrikes. 

After a restful lunch, we made a final stop at the north lagoon.  A flock of Skimmers, along with other Gulls, Terns, and shorebirds were observed in the far corner, away from the people.  A lone Reddish Egret was also observed.  Everyone had a good time and welcomed the chance to get away from the devastation in Charlotte County.