March 1---Peaceful WAters:

This evening was when I was heading back to the West Palm Beach airport to pick up Ken, so I wanted to hit the bird trails again along the way.  But since I was just at Green Cay and Wakodahatchee the day before, I decided to head to Peaceful Waters.  I was really disappointed that none of the birds we saw there a couple weeks ago were there anymore---the flock of Spoonbills, flock of White Pelicans, as well as lots of Ibises and ducks and such.  At least it was a pretty day, so I got a walk in---toting a heavy 150-600mm lens.
Did see this guy---another new creature for me--basilisk!  I hear he's also called a Jesus Lizard because he can walk on water.  Really reminded me of a tiny dinosaur!

 It was another very pretty day here in South Florida.  Breezy and about 72.  Nice day for a walk.

 I believe this is a snowy egret.

 a female Red Winged Blackbird.

 an Ibis.

 Great Egret

 I think this is a Tricolor Heron.

A couple Florida Cooters.

 which way to go?

 Still a pretty walk.

 with a really nice boardwalk, as well as mowed grassy walkways.

 Mottled ducks?  I assumed they were whistling ducks when I took the picture, but now I see they aren't.

 heading out.

I thought about going to Wakodahatchee for a little while, but I would have been back tracking and would have only had about 30 minutes there before having to head off to the airport.  So I headed towards the airport.  Even stopped and shopped in a couple stores along the way.  Still got to the cell phone lot plenty early.  Ken's flight was on time for a change, but they had jetway problems, so it took him about 45 minutes to get off the plane.  At least there was a nice breeze blowing so I sat in the car with the windows down and enjoyed the breeze. 

Jan. 29, 2016---Peaceful Waters Sanctuary:

Peaceful Waters Sanctuary is a 30 acre wetlands park with 1,500 feet of elevated nature boardwalks and one mile of walking trails.  Originally I had asked my daughter if she wanted to go to Mounts Garden in West Palm Beach, then to Wakodahatchee Wetlands to look for birds.  Time to take up a new hobby, so I think I'll take up birding!  Anyway, she immediately said that she wanted to go and even suggested we hit up Peaceful Waters Sanctuary in Wellington, too, since she had read there were Roseate Spoonbills there.  I've not seen them anywhere before, so I was excited to go there, too, and hopefully see the Spoonbills.  We weren't disappointed!
There weren't many birds in the actual sanctuary,  but we enjoyed walking around the wetlands.

 People there told us there were a lot of birds there last week.  But we had really heavy rains the last couple of days---and 2 tornados---and many of the birds relocated to the water treatment area.  But we did see a few feathery friends in the ponds.  Like this green heron.

 another view of the sanctuary from the boardwalk.

 Always like seeing these colorful guys, too---Purple Gallinule.

 Wonder if this guy is vacationing from St. Louis?  There are a lot of red winged black birds there.

 I believe this is a northern mockingbird.   They are the state bird of Florida

Tri colored heron.

 spider lilies

great egret

 great blue heron

yellow rumped warbler?

more wide angle views of the wetlands or Peaceful Waters.

looking at the grassy walkway towards the boardwalk.

another grassy walkway

 There were a bunch of white pelicans, some unique ducks, and the spoonbills in the water treatment plant pond right next to the sanctuary.  We enjoyed the walk around the park and over to the fence of the water treatment plant.  There I was able to get pictures through the chain link fence of those birds.

roseate spoonbills

white pelicans

some kind of duck--hooded merganser?

good view of the spoonbills bill.

ibis and spoonbill

2 spoonbills, ibis and a snowey egret.

I found it interesting how the pelicans lift their wings when they put their heads in the water.

Looked like they were having lots of luck fishing, or whatever they were catching.

glossy ibises, snowy ibis and a spoonbill

close up of the snowy egret

lots of birds there.

some going this way and some going that way.

here they were on the side of the retention pond coming towards me.

This spoonbill was saying hi.

Greater Scaup or possibly lesser Scaup