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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kibet" data-source="post: 3538759" data-attributes="member: 126488">Day 2 Sunday 5th MarchPossum Branch Preserve – Wall Springs/Dunn Water Reclamation – Fred Howard Park CausewayPossum Branch Preserve has a “blink and you miss it” entrance. It is just a set of locked gates, that if you drove by it, you would not think anything was there. The sign is faded, so even when you are standing in front of it, it is difficult to read. Google maps points directly to it, and so it makes it easy to find. There is a few spaces for cars and those seemed to be from mainly fishers. I was dropped off just before sunrise. This allowed me to see the morning flyovers of White Ibis, Snowy Egret, and some gulls. As it was still dusk, I checked out the trees in the hope of a Barred Owl, but no luck. White Ibis (with a Juvenile), a Little Blue, a Snowy Egret and a pair of Glossy Ibis were in the main water body. A Black Vulture flew overhead, with an unrelated flyover of Brown Pelican in the opposite direction. About 10 Common Grackle called by from some thin trees on the other side of the path.In the reeds in the middle of the water, a Red-Winged Blackbird buzzed as I walked up and around the little body of water. Passing by a fisherman who had tangled his hooks in the bushes, (not relevant but sets the scene). A Tri-Colored Heron joined the waders from earlier as I viewed from the opposite side. As I made my way around the final edge, double checking the water (Gator awareness 101) before turning my back on it to check the trees, I observed only a single Eastern Phoebe. As I returned to the entrance, I had covered the area in less than thirty minutes. I was wondering whether to do the same loop again when I noticed that there was a little path to the left through trees. As most of this was under cover, there was not much too activity, until I found a break in a fence that yielded a treasure trove of medium sized birds. I was immediately greeted by bird song with more Common Grackle, a Blue Jay flying with a twig, and probably one of the loudest singers, the Brown Thrasher. Moving around the bushes in the field for more Blue Jays and Thrashers, I was then distracted by the unassuming magic pole with a raptor on top. Backtracking to get a better look, I saw that it was a Red-Shouldered Hawk on top. I took the long way around to try to improve on the photograph to get the sun behind me, and the Hawk was gone. As soon as I turned my back, I heard loud tapping and as it was the only large bit of wood, I went back to the pole to find a Pileated Woodpecker in sunlight, joined soon after by Eurasian Starling. The Pileated flew off and out of a hole in the pole, popped the head of a Red-Bellied. The bush where I was standing had a Cardinal, followed by a Gray Catbird popping out before retreating as soon as it spotted me. A couple of Killdeer were on what I assume was some sort of landing pad for the Emergency care nearby, as Blue Jay crossed back and forth over the field. I returned to the path, finding a Zebra Longwing, the Florida State butterfly. A Common Ground Dove perched on one of the bushes, which I initially mistook for another Catbird at a distance. A Viceroy butterfly was also seen.As I returned to the path where I started, walking back to the entrance, I improved on shots on the Tri-Colored Heron, before getting a quick capture of a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, a better Gray Catbird and a displaying Snowy Egret. With a Red-Winged Blackbird in flight, I got a good close up of an Anhinga, before a Great Blue as I headed to be picked up.I was dropped off at Wall Springs and at the first pond, there was only a couple of Mallards. There was nothing really of note in the trees or to the next body of water. There was much more activity there allowing for close up shots of Tri-Colored Heron, Great Egret, and Little Blue Heron fishing. A single Red-Breasted Merganser was feeding in the shallows. Some Tri-Colored Herons did not take too kindly to this intrusion and mobbed the Merganser, who eventually tired of the harassment and moved to probably a less prime fishing area. Other than the Heron activity, a single Belted Kingfisher was briefly seen, choosing to perch on an obscured branch, and a White Ibis was also fishing. After taking a walk around the remains of the park to little result, other than a raccoon outside the bathrooms (although not to the same experience of the gang attack in SF), I walked up to the Dunn Reclamation ponds. The only birds seen on the walk up was an American Robin and a quick fly-by of some swallows. At the Reclamation ponds themselves, there was a raft of Scaup (sun was in the eyes so could not tell if Greater or Lesser), Laughing Gulls on the ledge between the two ponds. With very little else to see, I wandered back down to Wall Springs to be picked up again after spending 90 minutes or so for the entire area. After lunch, we went out to walk along the Fred Howard Causeway, which looking back at it now, there may have been more to see also at the landside of the park itself. The causeway itself led to some decent birding when not on the “partying” side. With a Double-Crested Cormorant far out trying to swallow a rather relatively large fish, Semipalmated Plover and a strutting Ruddy Turnstone. At the base of the causeway, there was a flock of Black Skimmer swooping around. The beach at the end of the causeway was not of much interest, with it being far too crowded being a weekend, and the walk back gave rise to more shorebirds. Willets, Sanderling, Marbled Godwit, Black-Bellied Plover and Whimbrels. The final winged creature was a Gulf Fritallary butterfly. Having not really paid attention to butterflies before, I was glad that there was accessible butterfly charts online.Photographed New Species – 24/60</blockquote>

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