Here are a few pics from Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, We did a 3 mile walk around one of the smaller ponds. Out to the Lookout Tower and down along one side of the very large lake. It was very nice with enough of a breeze to keep us cool, these pics are almost entirely bird pics.

Great Blue Heron

White Ibis juvenile

Snowy Egrets (white with yellow feet)

The dark birds in this pic are Glossy Ibis

American Coot

Great Blue Heron

very cool--especially that Great Blue Heron! Really sounds like a lovely trip.

Holly, it's wonderful for you to share your trip photos with us!
Feel like I'm vicariously along for the ride!

Besides the birds we admired a few of the wild flowers, mash grasses, butterflies and huge live Oak trees. Just as we got to the Lookout tower a big, fast moving storm rolled thru but we were pretty comfortable standing under the tower with a few other people, mostly fisherman. It cleared up just long enough for us to get back to the car before another big storm rolled thru.

Lovely!

Nice!

Thanks guys, Really glad you are enjoying them.
The Glossy Ibis was a new bird for me. I have never seen them before. So glad I brought my Bird ID book with me. We watched that GBH come in and land. 1st and last pic are of the same GBH as it was flying in and after it landed.
We visited DeLeon Springs and Tomoka State Parks
These pics are from Tomoka Sate Park it has the largest stand of old growth live oak in Eastern Florida. It was a lovely spot and we ate our packed lunch at a picnic table near the water. Of course you didn't get in the water at Tomoka as there were signs posted everywhere not to swim because of the Alligators. I was really hoping to see one (at a distance) but we never did.

There are these truly lovely little parks all over Fl. Some are State, County and City. Some are fairly large and some are just small little gems. This is one of those small little Gems. Riverbridge Garden Park City of Ormond Beach.
In another city in another state this area around and under the end of the bridge would be just a weed and rubble strewn dump.


A small Herb Garden donated by the Seaside Herb Society and an historic building.

Along with the lovely Garden Park there is a network of piers and walkways for the fisherman some under the bridge and a gazebo so you can get out of the sun or rain and fish in real comfort. Makes for a nice walk around and sometimes the locals will sit still long enough to have their pictures taken.

Ric even found himself a fishing buddy. That was more than happy to share his bait and his small catch.

HollyAnnS said:Ric even found himself a fishing buddy. That was more than happy to share his bait and his small catch.

Great pictures, @HollyAnnS When you were in DeLeon Springs and Lake Woodruff you weren't far from us. Blue Springs is a nice place to visit when the manatees are there, but it is probably too late in the year to see them now. If you want to see alligators, go to the Black Point loop on the Merritt Island WLP. We have never failed to see at least one there hanging out on a mangrove island. We have even named him George and the last time we were there he had a companion whom we have tentatively named Georgina.

Thanks Jean, I will check it out. Blue Springs was on my list but I have heard that the mantees have already moved out. We were there several years ago and I snorkeled the spring head. It is a great park, we saw several large alligators on that trip and a good size flock of turkeys. When we were there the last time I used the entrance closest to the spring head. The next entrance down was closed due to flooding. They were teasing me to look out for Alligators and we laughed about it. When we stopped at the little store they said the alligators don't come up that far because there isn't enough for them to eat close to the spring head but they do see them sometimes when there is a lot of flooding. Then we walked down to the area at the second entrance an there sat a big old gator.
We were out at David's on Sunday afternoon. He has a wonderful garden very interesting. I picked up the little Mini Pixies that I ordered from him they sure are cute little plants. We also ran around in the Historic downtown area and really loved the old buildings. Looks like a nice area to live in.
E.F.G. Orchids was closed so we will probably be going back to that area.

@HollyAnnS When you were at David's, you were about a mile from our house! Too bad we won't be down there until next week. You will love E.F.G, Orchids.

I am a pacifist but I think if I was "nature touring" in Florida, I'd carry a gun......

Oh Jean you are right, too bad we will miss you. It would have been so nice seeing you. As per your suggestion I think we will head down toward Titusville today. We have never been in that area and we will check out the Merritt Island WLP

@HollyAnnS I hope you get a chance to see the roseate spoonbills if you go to Titusville.

Jean, I just have to tell you how much fun Ric and I had today. We went down to Merritt Island WLP and had the greatest time. I think it took us more than 3 hrs to do the Black Point loop and visited quite a few other areas as well. It was a wonderful day. I have a ton of pic to go thru but I needed to tell you that not only did we see gators but we saw a very large one that had just caught a big bird I . I got several good shots of him dragging his meal out of the water and on to the bank. He wasn't very far from us either just on the other side of a rather narrow canal. I have seen gators in the wild before but nothing like this. I also got lots of beautiful bird and wildflower pics and sighted some new to me birds. I did see 2 Spoonbills flying over and lots of Manatee. It is mating season and they sure were frisky, much more active than I am use to as well. What a great day. Can't thank you enough for sending us down that way. I could go back tomorrow and do it all over again.
These pic aren't for the faint of heart so don't open them if you aren't up to the view.

oh my!!

Those are the least disturbing of the gator pic's I took. Several of the others are much more graphic and I didn't think suitable to post. Wildlife in the raw.