Birding Excursion at Horicon Marsh

I realize that we didn't have to travel far for this excursion but sometimes we need to be a tourist in our own town.

On Monday, we went on a Habitat Birding by Bus and Boat excursion as part of the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival.  The weather was perfect.  The day was sunny and started out in the upper 40s/low 50s at 6:00 a.m. and ended in the mid to upper 70s.  We were clearly the amateur birdies and were surrounded by people who could pick birds out of a fully leafed out tree and identify the type of warbler by it's call. But we had fun and saw a lot of birds.  Our group collectively identified 106 species.

We started the day along a gravel road bordered by trees on both sides and this is where we found many warblers along with sparrows, woodpeckers, orioles, bluejays, etc.  We spent 1.5 hours walking 1/2 mile.

We then explored a grassy field and continued on to the marsh.  Later in the afternoon we took a pontoon boat into the marsh and along with many birds saw quite a few turtles including a snapping turtle basking in the sun and a mink run along the shore.

Here are a few photos of some of the birds (and other animals) we saw:

Indigo Bunting

Rose breasted grosbeak

Blue Winged Teal

American Pelican

Geese

Yellow Headed Blackbird

Great Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

Snapping Turtle

Sandhill Cranes

Tree Swallows

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Paul's parents are renting a condo in Florida for two months this winter and so we went down to join them for a few days.

Today we took the Coach Safari which allowed us to see a lot of wildlife even though the temperatures were a bit cool and windy for the animals (67*F but sunny).  We saw lots of alligators, mostly female alligators with their pod of many baby alligators.  Here are a few pictures:

How many baby alligators can you find?

We also saw many birds:

Great Blue Heron 

Great White Egret

Turkeys

Vulture

Bald Eagle

Sandhill Cranes

Anhinga

An interesting bird was the cattle egret which follows cattle around and eats the bugs that are stirred up while the cow is grazing.

The turtles were also neat.  We saw a soft shelled one along with some hard shelled ones like cooters.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Our first stop today was Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, FL.  This is the aquarium where Winter in Dolphin Tale lives and where much of that movie was shot.  If you haven't seen the movie I highly recommend it and if you are ever in the area, this Aquarium is a must see for animal, dolphin, and turtle lovers.  Their focus is rehabilitation and as a non-profit all money earned goes directly into rehabilitating sick and injured marine animals.

Winter wasn't very active today but here is a picture of her.

The sea turtles were fun to watch.

There were also sharks, stingrays and some other fish.  To end my thoughts on Clearwater Marine Aquarium, here is a photo that those of you who saw the movie may enjoy.

For lunch we stopped at Frenchy's Salt Water Cafe an excellent recommendation from a local.  It's focus was seafood as you may guess and the fish tacos I had with cajun grilled red snapper were very tasty.  Paul had a cajun grilled red snapper sandwich and said it was incredible.  We highly recommend this restaurant.

From there we went to Clearwater Beach which had a fair number of people considering the cooler weather (high around 73*F).  I picked up a few shells and we walked along the water.  I had rolled up my capris but still got them wet.  I guess the water was just too irresistible.  We also saw a few birds which were not afraid of humans and so I could get quite close for some nice photos.  

Lastly, there was a cute tiny critter that I only had time to take one picture of before the waves pulled it back to sea.  

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Today we visited Hollis Garden in Lakeland, FL.  It is a beautiful garden set on a pond and it is completely free and open to the public.  The flowers and plants are beautiful.  Here are a few pictures of the garden and it's plants.

Here are pictures of some cute little critters.

In the afternoon we headed to Keele and Curley Winery in Plant City, FL.  The winery started with a blueberry farmer who needed something to do with the blueberries he had left over at the end of the season. It took several years to perfect their blueberry wines (they have a dry, semi-sweet, and sweet blueberry wine) and since have added many other fruit wines and fusion wines (80% grapes and 20% other fruit).  I had the opportunity to taste all of them and left with several bottles of wine.  My favorites included the Dry Blueberry, Key West - Key Lime Fusion (with sauvignon blanc), and the Peach Chardonnay.  If you enjoy fruit wines, it is a great winery to visit.

Wildlife around the condo

The condo Paul's parents are renting has a balcony overlooking a large pond and we have enjoyed watching the wildlife.  Here are a few photos.

Twin Cities Trip September 17-20

Last weekend we traveled to the Twin Cities with my parents and my sister and her family.

Saturday we left early and enjoyed lunch at Ted's Pizza in Menominee, WI.  They have excellent pizza and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area. Then we got to Bloomington, MN, checked into the Quality Inn & Suites and spent the afternoon relaxing.

On Sunday, we headed to my favorite zoo, the MN Zoo in Apple Valley.  This zoo is always evolving and it is designed around themes.  They had redone the entrance to make room for a new penguin exhibit.  From the zoo we stopped at El Loro in Burnsville for lunch.  It was nice to be able to get good Mexican food for a change.  After lunch, we relaxed at the hotel and took the kids swimming.  My husband and I then had a chance to catch up with some old friends over dinner.

Monday, we spent the day at the Mall of America after a quick trip to Minnehaha Falls.  We visited the Sea Life Aquarium which had been redone since we were last there.  They have made some really neat changes that I think make it more interesting to people of all ages including small children.  We also did some shopping and were hoping to find some unique Christmas gifts but were disappointed.  We ate lunch at Kokomo's Island Cafe, a great Caribbean restaurant.