Post-Christmas walk at Lake Apopka

Santa brought me a new camera for Christmas. Arthur and I headed to Lake Apopka on the 26th to give it a spin. The weather was fairly drearly and we missed seeing the Groove-billed Anis that have been hanging out there for a few weeks, but we had a nice walk and enjoyed our first visit to this local birding mecca.

We saw a couple of American Kestrels. One was quite distant and gave me a chance to check out the zoom on the camera. The bird is perched on the middle tree in the first photo below.

This Bobcat was also really far away. It disappeared into the reeds as we approached.

We also spotted no less than four North American River Otters crossing the path or bounding alongside it.

Along the trail we saw this pile of feathers. I think it might be an ex-American Bittern.

We weren’t the only birders out looking for the anis.

Even though we missed the anis, we did manage to get some good birds, including a flyover Fulvous Whistling Duck, which was a lifer. That one goes on my Better View Desired list, for sure. I’m happy with the camera so far — looking forward to giving it a good workout in 2015 and beyond. 🙂

Here are my eBird checklists from the walk: out and back.

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