Orlando Wetlands~Its Christmas!

Howdee all~

While in Titusville having service done to Homey….we took a suggestion of fellow birders and went to Orlando Wetlands in Christmas, Florida.

The OWP is a water treatment wetland and city park run by the city of Orlando, located in Christmas, FL. It takes treated wastewater from the Orlando metro area and runs it through a series of ponds, in which the vegetation take up remaining nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. The water is then discharged into the St. Johns River. 

Click here to see Maps and Bird Check list of the Wetlands park.

Jeff and I did a 2.5 mile loop …

The park is large and we didn’t  have enough time to

see the whole park. 

We were greeted by A chorus of Coot, Limpkin, Boat-tailed Grackle, common Gallinule and roaring alligators..

Mottled Duck

There were large expanses of marshy areas..

We passed thru one area..

There were Turkey Vultures on one side of the road..

And Black Vultures on the opposite side..

We continued on looking thru the reeds…to our delight we found

American Bittern

In the same vicinity a Green Heron flies in..

We notice a Purple Gallinule in the greenery…

Also in the same are a Glossy Ibis is preening..

A hawk flies in and causes a ruckus amongst the birds..

Red shouldered Hawk

We continue on and find a Common Gallinule..

Jeff disgiscoping..

Bald eagle

Taken with my 20x point and shoot.

Digiscoped by Jeff

We continued on looking for more birds..I wanted to see rails..

We didn’t find any rails this day..

We did find two Wilsons Snipe

The area was active with alligators..

We heard and saw them roaring ..This one is just lounging around..

It was facing the road so we quickly went by..

Baby alligator snoozing..

Onward we pass these pretty flowers.

We find another Purple Gallinule..

Beautiful colors..

A large green Dragonfly

I think this may be an Eastern Pondhawk

We decided to take the shorter loop and do the Bird trail..

We find a Corm with some sticky white thing stuck to its bill..it kept trying to flick it off.

See this very blurry photo below…Jeff tried to digiscope this bird but it flitted around too much..

We had wonderful views of not one but four Least Bittern in this area.

They flew in and out of the reeds several times.

Neither of us were fast enough to get a good photo..

What a wonderful thing to see! We were so exited and left thinking nothing can top this…(Well ~this Cedar Waxwing flock did)

We continue on

Passing Great Blue Herons..

Blue-winged Teal

White Ibis

Glossy Ibis

 

Immature Ibis in the green..

Glossy Ibis on a dead tree..

White and Glossy Ibis

Hanging out in a dead tree..

Boat-tailed Grackle

More Ibis

 

Little Blue Heron

More Blue-winged Teal

Anhinga

Common Gallinule..

We really enjoyed this park..

And will be sure to visit the next time we are in Titusville

We saw 51 species

It was Christmas for us here at Orlando Wetlands Park…

Tri-colored Heron

 

 

Orlando Wetlands Park, Orange, US-FL
Mar 30, 2012 8:45 AM - 12:25 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments:      <br />Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.1
51 species (+1 other taxa)

Wood Duck  
Mottled Duck  
Blue-winged Teal  
Pied-billed Grebe  
Wood Stork  
Anhinga  
American Bittern  
Least Bittern      4 in the same area - watched them fly and land several times
Great Blue Heron  
Great Egret  
Snowy Egret  
Little Blue Heron  
Tricolored Heron  
Cattle Egret  
Green Heron  
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  
White Ibis  
Glossy Ibis  
Black Vulture  
Turkey Vulture  
Osprey  
Bald Eagle  
Accipiter sp.     Short tail hawk?
Red-shouldered Hawk  
Purple Gallinule  
Common Gallinule  
American Coot  
Limpkin  
Sandhill Crane  
Killdeer  
Wilson's Snipe  
Mourning Dove  
Belted Kingfisher  
Red-bellied Woodpecker  
Pileated Woodpecker  
White-eyed Vireo  
Fish Crow  
Purple Martin  
Tree Swallow  
Carolina Wren  
House Wren  
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  
Gray Catbird  
Northern Mockingbird  
European Starling  
Cedar Waxwing  
Northern Parula  
Eastern Towhee  
Savannah Sparrow  
Northern Cardinal  
Red-winged Blackbird  
Boat-tailed Grackle  

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)