16 members and friends of Space Coast Audubon enjoyed a late-afternoon / sunset hike at the Helen & Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary in Rockledge, Florida. Our time started out with a short talk by Charlie Venuto about the Cruickshanks and their contributions to birding within Brevard County and beyond. Then we hiked into the preserve, where we encountered some of the resident Florida Scrub-Jay population, 12 other species, and a number of eastern cottontail rabbits. Our hike ended with a beautiful sunset, two Great Horned Owls (one being harassed by a Northern Mockingbird), and a Bald Eagle.

We had a great day out at TM Goodwin WMA today. We started on the Fellsmere Grade Road and then went into the WMA after the gates opened. We were also able to visit the Broadmoor Unit which was quite active. We finished the adventure with lunch at Marsh Landing.

On a warm Autumn day 24 nature enthusiasts headed out to explore St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park.  We welcomed several first-timer attendees and enjoyed seeing familiar faces as well, including some of our human snowbirds. As the host, one big highlight for me was having so many photographers on the trip. Thanks to Joel, Chris, Deanna, and Leonora for capturing and sharing photos from our adventure. 

We had a great turnout for our dragonfly identification class at Orlando Wetlands. Our instructors, Mary Keim and Randy Snyder from Orange Audubon Society, held a short class to help us learn how to tell different species apart. Then we hit the trails to see what we could find! We ended up with 7 species, and another 3 species found by individuals just before and after our picnic lunch.

We had a good showing of 18 birders at Viera Wetlands on the evening of 5/31. The Least Bitterns were out in full force and we saw about a dozen including a couple of babies and one flying right over our heads!