Florida Gulf Coast Creations

Tag: Ruby-throated Hummingbird

  • Bok Tower Gardens

    Bok Tower Gardens

    This past week we took a trip over to Lake Wales to visit Bok Tower Gardens. It’s one of our favorite spots to go for hummingbirds. Bok Tower Gardens is a beautiful place built atop one of the tallest areas in all of Florida. It was originally built by Edward and Mary Bok in the early 1920s and was meant to be a bird sanctuary. He was a Pulitzer Prize winning author and the editor of Ladies Home Journal for 30 years.

    Large Purple Crepe Myrtle Along Trail
    Large Purple Crepe Myrtle Along a Trail

    The gardens are beautiful with many native plants. Because it’s Florida, there’s always something in bloom. The property sits in the middle of huge citrus groves and the views stretch for miles. That also means the air is filled with sweet fragrances in the spring when the trees are full of blossoms.

    Polydamus Swallowtail On Red Jatropha Flower
    Polydamus Swallowtail Butterfly on a Red Jatropha Flower

    The tower was finished in 1929 and contains a 60-bell carillon. It is known as the Singing Tower. The Boks gifted the gardens and tower to the US and the tower was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark by President Calvin Coolidge. The music is played by a carillonneur. There have only been 4 full-time carillonneurs in the history of the tower. The current carillonneur, Geert D’hollander, has been there for 11 years. The bells are played each half hour during the day with short concerts twice daily.

    Singing Tower At Bok Tower Gardens
    Singing Tower at Bok Tower Gardens

    The gardens are a mecca for hummingbirds, butterflies, and many other species of birds. Sometimes there are uncommon visitors during the fall and spring migrations. A few years back a hummingbird native to the western US made an appearance. This year another has returned. It’s called a rufous hummingbird and they are generally found west of the Rocky Mountains. The last time one was spotted in the gardens, it stayed for several weeks. With any luck this one will do the same. But, in case this one decides to continue south, we wanted to capture some shots before it left. Unfortunately, the adage “you should’ve been here yesterday” held true. We thought we saw a rufous, but we weren’t certain. It can be difficult to correctly identify specific birds when they are juveniles because their adult feathers haven’t filled in. Either way, we didn’t get the shots we hoped for. We’ll keep watching for updates from the park. Hopefully we’ll get another opportunity.

    For more information about Bok Tower Gardens, check out the link below.

    A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.

  • A Long Autumn

    A Long Autumn

    It’s been 3 months since my last post and a lot has happened. September began with a bout of Covid for Pam and me. As soon as we started to feel better, Mother Nature sent us hurricane Ian. We spent the last week of September making preparations for the storm and then spent the first week of October cleaning up the debris. Thankfully our damage was minimal compared to those a few miles south, although we did receive over a foot of rain. Unfortunately for my photography buddy, Art Nadelman, he tore his bicep muscle tendon while cleaning up his yard and had to have surgery.

    Ian delivered quite a blow to our birding activities. Many parks and preserves were flooded or sustained severe wind damage making them inaccessible. One of our favorite state parks is still closed. The bald eagles that we’ve watched and photographed for the past several years have been displaced. The tree with their nest blew down as well as all the trees surrounding their nest. This is a great loss for photographers because the nest was so accessible. We’ll be watching to see where they choose their next home and hope that we can get another great shooting spot.

    If the hurricane wasn’t bad enough, we lost one of our 4-legged babies on October 13. Gabby, our beloved 12-year-old Bichon Frise was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer on October 7 and passed just 6 days later. Needless to say, it was a devastating loss.

    Backyard birding has been the norm this fall. The good news is that our male painted bunting returned to our feeder in mid-October, and we’ve been fortunate to attract a pair of ruby-throated hummingbirds to a feeder since the end of September. Our winter waterfowl migrants are just beginning to arrive so it will be good to start getting out again.

  • University of Florida

    University of Florida

    The University of Florida is recognized as one of the top public universities in the country. It’s also known for its highly successful athletic programs. But this year, UF also had the distinction of being home to a rare yellow cardinal.

    Yellow Cardinal Resting In Willow Tree
    Yellow Cardinal Resting in a Willow Tree

    According to most data, there are an estimated 15 million cardinals in the eastern US. But there are only a reported 10-15 yellow cardinals in that group. So, finding a yellow cardinal is literally a one-in-a-million opportunity. This year one has been living in the natural area teaching lab off Natural Area Drive. People have been traveling from all parts of Florida to find this rare bird. Thanks to some help from others, we were fortunate to find him, but he was difficult to catch out in the open. He liked the willow shrubs and often stayed in the interior areas of the shrubs making photography very challenging.

    We were also lucky enough to find a ruby-throated hummingbird nest with eggs. The female would fly off and return frequently.

    Ruby Throated Humminbird Female Resting On Nest
    Ruby-throated Hummingbird Female Resting on Her Nest

    A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.

  • Rare Bird Sighting

    Rare Bird Sighting

    Every year we see or hear about a variety of rare birds in Florida. It almost always happens during migrations. This year has brought us a Calliope Hummingbird which is native to the far western United States. According to Audubon, it is the smallest bird in North America. The bird we saw was either female or an immature male as the adult males have beautiful purple stripes on their throats.

    Calliope Hummingbird Female In Live Oak Tree
    Calliope Hummingbird Female in a Live Oak Tree

    This bird was visiting feeders with several ruby-throated hummingbirds at a residence east of Tampa. Fortunately, the homeowner is a bird watcher who was happy to let us try to photograph the rare sighting.

    A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.

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