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Glossy Ibis

08/02/2025, Green Cay Nature Center

#nature #animal photography #wildlife photography #lumixphotography #panasonic lumix #wildlife #wild bird photography #bird photography #wild birds #birds #ibis #glossy ibis #florida #south florida #green cay

Merry belated Christmas everyone!!! I’ve been wanting to make a post for a while now but things have been pretty hectic between coming back from my trip to Florida and helping my family with last minute preparations for Christmas. After that my brain needed a few days to just be goop but I’m back now and want to talk about something pretty cool! So while I was in Florida me and my bf went to go visit this wetlands called Green Cay where you can walk around a board walk and see some pretty cool birds and reptiles. The day we went was pretty cold and cloudy (it was like that for most of the time I was there) so that meant there weren’t many reptiles out but it also meant there weren’t many people there either so we got to see a lot of really cool birds!

As soon as we pulled up to the parking lot we were seeing birds such as blue jays, northern mocking birds, common grackles (of course), a red-bellied woodpecker, mourning doves, and a bunch of squirrels. I know none of those species are rare so it makes sense that I would see them but I think it’s so cool to see species that I’m used to like blue jays, squirrels, and woodpeckers hanging out in palm trees.

(Red-Bellied Woodpecker)

Next, we went into the visitor center where they had a few exhibits with animals. The first was a display about native frogs Vs invasive frogs that had Cuban tree frogs and cane toads for the invasive species and green tree frogs, pig frogs, and southern toads for the natives. Sadly, I could only find the Cuban tree frog, cane toad, and pig frog since the glass was super foggy and the frogs like to hide anyways. They also had an American kestrel named Kilee and an Eastern screech owl named Oliver in little flight cages. Both birds were born in the wild but now have injuries that prevent them from flying so they have to live the rest of their lives at the center. The sign said Oliver had been hit by a car and for Kilee it just said she had problems with her wing feathers so idk what happened to her. There was also two tanks one that had turtles (peninsula cooters, Florida softshell, and Florida red-bellied) and a second tank that had some baby American Alligators.

(Pig frog, Cuban tree frog, Kilee the American kestrel, Oliver the Eastern screech owl, peninsula cooter, and American alligator babies)

In the actual park we saw lots of cool species since there weren’t many people out. Like I said no alligators though since it was pretty cold out but we did see plenty of iguanas, a massive Florida Softshell in the water, and a basilisk lizard sitting in a tree!