St.Sebastian River Preserve State Park

I took an early morning drive through the northeast section of the St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park this morning. It's a very peaceful and beautiful place to visit with a variety of habitat to explore. The park consists of four quadrants which cover over 22,000 acres. It is located in southern Brevard and northern Indian River counties. Here is a link to a map of the park: www.floridastateparks.org/lib/img/park/parkmap/sts-map.jpg

The day started out with sunny skies, but heavy cloud  cover moved in quickly as colld front pushed down from the north. We stayed on Buffer Preserve Drive while looking for birds, but there are miles of trails that can be explored on foot, or even by horse, but we don't have a horse. There is a manatee overlook at the end of the drive, but we didn't make it quite that far today. At this time of  the year, it's a great place to observe lots of  the "sea cows" as the canal offers warm water and a lack of boat traffic in that area.

Northern Mockingbird
St. Sebastian Preserve State Park

This Mockingbird is perched on a tree that is burned out. At the park, there is notable evidence of fires in many areas. The majority of these are from "prescribed burns", fires set intentionally to restore and maintain the communities. Without these fires, the pine flatwoods, as well as other plants and some animals that depend on these types of communities would be destroyed.

American Kestrel
St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park

The Kestrel was definitely the most popular bird of  the day. I saw at least seven of them! Such a beautiful bird.

Eastern Phoebe
St. Sebastian River State Park

We only counted 11 species on our trip, not very impressive. I have higher hopes for the next trip, which I'm hoping will be soon. There are Red-Cockaded Woodpecker colonies that reside on the preserve and I'm hoping to see them!