Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge is a huge area of land. Unfortunately it does not open until 8:00 AM. With our time spent at Alexander Springs, we did not get there till closer to 9 AM. We were trying to find the entrance when another car quietly pulled up behind us. Ken did not notice it and began to back up but the Subaru refused to be a part of a collision so it auto-braked and stopped the car. We were talking to the guy in the car later when we parked and he said that he was not worried because he knew it was a Subaru and that it had the anti-collision system. We parked next to him and he headed off on his own. We ventured deep into the refuge and saw some songbirds at the very beginning of the path and then larger birds further into the refuge. There was a tower that we climbed up and we were able to see one of the long time volunteers explaining the water system to a brand new volunteer. We climbed back down and spoke with them. Ken even got the older gent to sing the De Leon grade school song. The song was something about waking up with a smile in the land where orange blossoms bloom. We completed the loop and got back to the car just as the heat was building to an uncomfortable level.
Driving up to the reserve we passed through a smoke cloud
The Great Florida Bird Trail
We are on track
The road is just a dirt track
Our near collision buddy
Lots of options for trekking
A tufted titmouse
At first I thought it to be an odd dragonfly, but it turned out to be two different flies hanging on to each other, one little one on top of the bigger one
Blue beauties
Fine orange butterfly
Hmmm, butter makes me hungry
A shady space!
Big puffball flowers
This red shouldered hawk hung around for a photo shoot
Red flowers
Another great dragonfly
A rare bunch of trees
Perched on a reed
Egret
The tower in the distance
Turtles
Glory be!
These are the areas that are over due for burning
Three fish crows on the top
Vultures waiting for us on the path
The view from up high
A great blue heron
Red winged blackbird
What might this beast be?
A fresh water turtle about 30 inches long
More vultures
Red bellied woodpecker the second woodpecker species of the day
Vultures on the palms
More spectacular flowers
Cat tails
A tiny turtle that did not make it
Swallow tailed kite
Making a tight turn
Big heron on the wing
Spider like flowers
The third species of woodpeckers the Red-headed Woodpecker
We heard a train
And there it was, choo choo!
Helpful information
An Osprey
Back to the parking lot
Audubon and Mud Lake
Bears! Beware non-clawed beings
It has been 3 years and 354 days since we began our Migration
