After-Christmas birding

"The Hermit is the great tone artist, the Red-eyed Vireo the obligato accompanest... . But every individual sings his own song!" -R. Schuyler Matthews, Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music

Yesterday afternoon, my mom, siblings and I rode our bikes to our local Great FL Birding Trail a few miles down the road to do some hiking and geocaching (and for me, birding!). It was a warm afternoon, but the cool breeze and heavily shaded trails made for a nice hike.

Searching for the geocache, we made many stops along the way to look at the lake, various birds, an armadillo, animal tracks in the sand, and so on.

Really, there is something about such simple explorations that feels very refreshing. It is all at once delightful, exciting, and relaxing to delve so deeply into nature, and fully appreciate every aspect of it.

Hiking down to the bank of the lake, I found this Palm Warbler sitting a tree, posing nicely for a long time. Unfortunately, it was rather far away, so my pictures didn't come out very clear, but I thought the lighting was really cool anyhow.

At last we managed to find the geocache hidden off the trail and burried under a clump of spanish moss. After writing in the log book, we returned it to its hiding spot, and hiked back out to the parking lot. The sun was setting quickly.

About three quarters of the way home, we stopped at the big lake, appropriately named "Lake Pretty." Although I spent the later part of my childhood and teenage years in this area, I had never gotten a picture of the lake. Fittingly, it was sunset, and I was finally able to capture a glimpse of this vista that I see almost every day.

Although I didn't see any new birds (I'm getting pretty used to that now!), it was a fun trip.

Until next time,

Happy birding!