12/21 The Celery Fields & Save Our Seabirds

I took advantage of having a rental car and headed out to a place that had been recommended to me: The Celery Fields.  This is a place that had once been farmed for celery, but had been turned into a bird sanctuary in the 1990s with water being once again let in and ponds and boardwalks being developed.  All of this is just a mile or so east of I-75 as it goes past Sarasota. 

I have no idea why the llamas were here, but they were parked in the median of the boulevard.  Some ladies unloaded them and took them for a walk in the nearby park.  Strange.

Anyway, here is one of the boardwalks into the marsh.  You can tell it was overcast and chilly today.

You don't see this bird very often. It is a purple gallinule and really has gorgeous coloring!  He was eating the flowers and had pretty much stripped the whole area.

This is the flower of the lance-leafed arrowhead.

Not too many birds around today, so I headed off to the Sarasota Save Our Seabirds facility near the Mote Aquarium. While they do rescue a lot of birds, all of the ones in cages and on display are permanent residents because of some injury that prevents them from being released.

Some pelicans.

And a couple of cranes with artificial legs.

A very pretty great horned owl.

And another great horned owl.

This is a sleeping great horned owl! 

And a dozing barred owl.

This is a crested caracara.

And my buddy, a black vulture.  Last year when I came here. One of these birds kept staring at me as if he was trying to figure out who I was.  Then he hopped off his perch, went to the bottom of his cage, picked up an orange pumpkin squeaky toy and dropped it right in front of me!

Headed home and picked up some fresh-squeezed orange juice on the way.