Florida Bound: Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

On our way home to Austin from the Everglades, we decided to visit one more state park along Florida’s western coast, the Homosassa Wildlife State Park. This 210-acre park is a rescue facility for many bird and animal species native to Florida. Most of these animals cannot survive in the wild, but their home at the park is as close to their natural habitat as possible. That draws in many other animal species to take up residence, as well. The state park, with is spring-fed waters, is also a rehabilitation center for injured and orphaned West Indian manatees, who eventually are released back to the wild.

Great Horned Owl

Because I have a lot of photos to show, I’m going to keep text to a minimum and only show my favorite images or ones that tell a good story. You’ll see mostly birds and reptiles here, mainly because the mammals, including the endangered Florida Panthers and Red Wolves,  were too far away to allow for a good picture.

Wood DucksBarred Owl

American Alligator

Likewise

Flamingos

This Green Heron has a severe wing injury, and lucky for it, it has a home at the state park.

I watched a male Anhinga work several minutes to pull a section of leaves from a tree I was standing under. Once he pulled the short branch away, he flew over to the nest where his mate rested. She dictated where she wanted him to put it, and it was clear that she wanted it “just so.” My husband might recognize this scenario.

Eventually he got the branch in an acceptable spot.

Nolan and I sat down to sketch this beautiful alligator, sparking the interest of others who came over to watch us. The alligator seemed to appreciate our attention, and it kept moving ever closer to us. I’m sure that’s the reason, right?

Baby American Crocodile — note the distinguishing “zipper” teeth characteristic. American Crocodiles are endangered.

For juvenile comparison, a baby American Alligator (to better see the jaw difference, look to the big guys above)

Brown Anole, showing his dewlap. This is an invasive species.

White Ibises, Juvenile and Adult

Great Egret

White Ibis
 
 
Red-Shouldered Hawk

Flamingo

Flamingos, mildly bickering

Brown Pelicans, wonderful parents to their little baby. I watched the father add sticks to the nest, and both parents shared the responsibility of feeding their baby.

Here is an image of the feeding process, made interesting by the very large bills of the parents.

Whooping Crane, Endangered

American White Pelicans, with their visible “horns.” These horns will be shed after breeding season.

Roseate Spoonbill

Sandhill Cranes

Broad-headed Skink, perhaps?

Burrowing Owls

Bald Eagle

Lu the African Hippopotamus. Part of the previous privately-owned attraction at Homosassa Springs since 1964, Lu the hippo was given special Florida citizenship in order to allow him to stay at the State Park’s native wildlife refuge.

It was time at last to officially leave Florida and travel west toward Texas. Just to offer full disclosure about our Florida trip, we did sneak in two days at Orlando — Epcot and Universal Studios. A detour, I admit, from the wildlife we focused on the rest of the time, but we wanted to have some butterbeer at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Without going into details here, I’ll just say that we had a glorious time, and butterbeer is yummy.