Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive

We went to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive for the first time in a long while. It recently reopened to cars after the hurricane that went through the area in the middle of October. It was a great morning for it. Starting out cold but warming up nicely. It also wasn’t super crowded as Sundays can get. We saw quite a few photographers that we know as well as a bunch of different birds.

An Eastern Phoebe getting a start on a day of hunting bugs

Great Blue Heron watching over the foggy lake

Yellow Rumped Warbler 

Female Cardinal

Palm Warbler

Great Blue Heron making a landing

Female Northern Harrier

We saw this Osprey with an Eagle in pursuit.  It doesn’t take long for an Eagle to catch an Osprey even when its flying at full speed…

The Osprey saw the writing o the wall and dropped the fish…

The Eagle was waiting for this to happen and made its move to grab it mid-air…

To catch the fish, the Eagle had to make an abrupt flip…

The Osprey bailed out while the Eagle rolled over attempting to grab the fish…

The Eagle finally righted itself and is going for the grab

Our dog Fenway

Female Northern Harrier that wouldn’t go low over the grass

Female Northern Harrier flying overhead

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk handing in the brush

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk eyeing its surroundings

Bald Eagle flying overhead as we exited the drive.  It was inviting us to come back again soon!

That was another great morning of birding. The weather, even when it starts out sort of cold, is great this time of year. The birds love it and we don’t sweat so much looking for them!