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

Jan. 28, 2016---Ken's 64th birthday:

Dang, we're getting old!!!  Hopefully we can keep living the good life for a lot longer!!!  Been awhile since we've been able to celebrate his birthday with Angie and Josh.  Our usual waiter at Dyan's even gathered up the gang and brought Ken a free piece of cake and sang happy birthday to him!

Jan. 26, 2016---to the Food trucks:
Time to hit the food trucks again.  So nice to be able to sit outside in Jan. and eat dinner!  Too bad it's still dark so early!

Jan. 25, 2016---Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge:

We had gone to this park once before, but only for sunset.  I suggested we go back here and check out what else is here.  It's all part of the Loxahatchee park that we go to for sunset all the time, but the main park entrance is about 40 minutes away.  Today we headed there in early afternoon so we could walk some of the paths and then head to the fishing pier for sunset.  It was a good decision!
Being a National Park, Ken's senior pass was accepted here, too.  otherwise I believe you were suppose to pay something like $5 entrance (although we didn't see anyone actually stop to pay at the self service kiosk).

There's even a nice big visitor's center here.  We went in and looked around a bit, talked to a volunteer, looked at the displays.  There was a movie, too, but we were wanting to spend our time outside.

 Behind the visitor's center.

 There was a walking tour coming in as we were leaving.  We went on our own as opposed to waiting for another tour. 

 There's a really nice boardwalk through this part of the park.

There were placards along the way explaining what we were seeing.

 like the 350 types of ferns.

 Lots of clouds moving in, this was our last pretty day for awhile.  (lots of rain and even a couple tornados hit the next few days).

 there was a placard talking about the lichen.

 We could hear birds, but didn't see any.

 more of the boardwalk

 The end of that trail.

Then we drove over to another part of the park where I saw there was a bird blind for photographers.  It was about 1/2 mile from the parking lot, but the walk was nice.

 saw lots of birds along the walk.

 There was a viewing platform along the way, too.

 coming in for a landing.

 I believe this egret caught himself some dinner.

 ???

 I believe this in an anhinga.

 his beautifully marked back feathers

 flying egret.

 awkward landing

 egrets

 and they're off

 Ken spotted this large snail floating

 another of the pretty wild flowers.

heading into the blind.

 Only saw 2 birds, but this guy was fun to watch and I hadn't seen him before.

 One more picture of him.

 I have no idea what this is!

 more wild flora

 loved the green middles to these wild flowers.

 a hawk

 in flight

 another wild flower

 ibis in flight.

 heading back to the parking lot

 coming in for a landing---too bad he's not in focus!

 another bird

 and another.

 Then we jumped back in the car and headed towards the fishing pier---driving by this area where there were a bunch of pic nic tables.  Would be a great place for a pic nic!

There was another viewing platform by the parking lot by the fishing pier, so I heading up it and took a picture towards the East over the saw grass.

 Even had a bird here to watch.

 Just before sunset 5 airboats came in together.  Looking at the riders, we figure they are probably working out there somewhere.  Perhaps on the bike trail that's on the berm?

 From the end of the fishing pier. 

 more ibises in flight.

 little rainbow cloud before sunset.

 one legged bird?

 more ibises.

 an alligator even came out after the airboats were gone.

 beginning of sunset.

 looking across the water.

 back up to the overlook tower looking East.

 Looking towards the fishing pier from the tower.

 Not the greatest of sunsets, but not bad.

 at least there were clouds in the sky.

And we saw another beautiful day in South Florida come to an end.