Showing posts with label Little Talbot Island State Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Little Talbot Island State Park. Show all posts

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Snow Much Fun!!!

A rare Florida visitor, indeed!
A Snowy Owl has taken up residence at a state park near Jacksonville, Florida for a little over a week. This is reported to be only the 3rd ever confirmed Snowy Owl sighting in Florida.


I made the trip to see the Snowy Owl at Little Talbot Island State Park on Friday morning. The owl was hunkered down on a dune, a good distance away from the viewing crowd. 


It was a chilly (by Florida standards) morning with strong winds blowing 20+ mph. The owl remained still most of the time that I was there, occasionally preening or stretching.





Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Little Talbot Island State Park

We spent this past weekend camping at Little Talbot Island State Park in northeast Florida. It was my first visit to the park and it surely won't be my last. Little Talbot Island is one of seven parks that make up the Talbot Island State Parks.


The campground is on the west side of the park on Myrtle Creek, nestled among large Live Oaks and Palms. Here is a picture of the marsh at low tide. The Park Rangers notified us when we arrived that there had been some flooding  the past few days at high tide. It was quite a sight to see the tide come in, right on in to our site.


Luckily the water receded nearly as quickly as it came in.


Little Talbot Island is one of the few remaining uninhabited barrier islands in this part of Florida. The park has  nearly 5 miles of beaches, were are about a quarter mile from the campground. I observed an abundance of shorebirds, mostly Black Skimmers, from the boardwalk. There weren't any people on the beach this blustery day and I didn't want to disturb the birds that were trying to get some rest in the 25+ knot winds.


Two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, a female and a juvenile, spend the afternoon foraging in the trees in our campsite.


I saw a few Carolina Chickadees around.


The campground wasn't overly birdy. A few others I saw were Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and a Barred Owl. We look forward to coming back and checking out some of the other parks in the area. We did stop at Huguenot Memorial Park, which is really close by. I'll share some photos from there later in the week.