With a slight breeze in the forecast, I spent the morning out on the Wading Bird Way trail at the Circle B Bar Reserve.  It’s been ages since I went, and it felt great to be there!  The water levels are much higher than my last visit, when the Wading Bird Way lake was basically a mud flat.  Now the water is high enough that it flows freely through all the culverts.  Little Green Herons flew about in the pre-dawn, posing on various posts.  It’s fun how the birds are less concerned about the presence of people before the sun rises.

It was a hazy morning, free of clouds, but the sun was a hazy orb as it peeked up over the horizon.  The position of the sun isn’t great at this time of year — it comes up over the distant trees, not in between the more picturesque bird-scape trees.

I took a walk out to where the Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks nested last year.  I was hoping to find some yellow-and-black cuties, which we haven’t been able to find (yet) at Viera Wetlands this year.  But I didn’t find any at CBBR either.  :(  I did find this juvenile Purple Gallinule, though.  He was a good consolation prize!

Find my birding list from today on eBird.