Wakodahatchee 2020

An old friend came for a visit last week and we took in a number of Florida sights, including the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. I have been there many times, but never this early in the season. While there were a lot of birds, there were not many nests yet. I suspect that this will change shortly! 

This is not to say that we lacked for wildlife! Quite the contrary, with numerous iguana sightings and many shots of the usually illusive purple gallinule. It was a terrific visit!

Wood Stork

Tricolored Heron (I think)

Little Green Heron (I think)

Great Blue Heron

Glossy Ibis

Femaie Ahinga

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

American Alligator

Purple Gallinule

Iguanas

Absolutely gorgeous!

As we were leaving!

“Give to the world the best that you have, and the best will come back to you.” ~ Edward Bok

Yes, a new blog post. I started out doing two posts a week when I began blogging over 8 years ago. As time went on, I cut it down to once a week, then once a month, to where we are now. I think that this is the second or third post that I've done this year!

Bruce and I have been in Florida for about a month (heading back home next week for the holidays). Up until the last couple of days, the weather has been beastly hot and humid. The car registered 97 degrees one day last week. This is apparently exceptional at this time of year, even for Florida, and really made it too hot to do things out of doors for an extended period of time. 

Last winter a friend recommended making a trip to Bok Tower.  Located in Lake Wales, Florida, this is about a two-hour drive north for us, so you really do have to plan a day for it. With the recent break in the weather, we decided to make the visit.

We accompanied a guided tour that ended at the tower itself, and we were able to listen to the carilion bells being played, while we could also watch the bell player on a TV screen, The property is covered with lovely gardens, some of which are just amazing. 

"Bok Tower Gardens (also known as Bok Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower) is a contemplative garden, and bird sanctuary located north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States. It consists of a 250-acre (100 ha) garden, the 205-foot (62 m) tall Singing Tower with its carillon bells, Pine Ridge Trail, Pinewood Estate, and a visitor center. The tower is built upon Iron Mountain, one of the highest points of peninsular Florida, estimated to be 295 feet (90 m) above sea level.^[4] It is a National Historic Landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, nationally significant for its association with Edward W. Bok and its designers." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bok_Tower_Gardens

The friendly, little squirrel actually got too friendly and we had to get away from it!

Outside of the gift shop

Pileated Woodpecker

It somehow seems appropriate that St. Francis has a gecko resting on his face🤗

 Bruce held up the tree so that the tour group could safely pass under it.

Amazon Waterlilies - utterly amazing. They are substantial enough that a child could float on one.

Bruce got close enough to this little guy to determine that he was probably dead. 

In addition to the wonderful grounds, the property also has a lovely cafe and a super gift shop. The shop is large and stocked with a wide variety of quality items including soaps and candles, honey, bulbs for planting, tableware, etc. 

It was a lovely day trip, and it was so nice to be outside for an extended period of time.