Want to see Red-headed Woodpeckers?

By Jim Meyer

Eileen and I recently spent the weekend in Inverness, Florida and checked out a couple spots we had on our list. The first was Lake Panasoffkee which
is just three miles off the Florida turnpike going West on highway 44. It's on page 14 of the West Florida Birding Trail pamphlet. Upon driving into the property we were on the lookout for RHWP's and we weren't let down. Upon arriving at the sign-in area, before we could sign in, we saw a beautiful male RHWP land in a tree not 50 foot away, soon to be chased off by another "guess what". In all we had four RHWP's in that area. We did not get to explore the trails and lake since we had Sammy, our Collie, who was not allowed in the Wildlife Management Area.

The second area was Chinsegut Nature Center located about 12 miles South of Inverness just off Highway 41 on CR 476. The 400+ acre Park was donated to the Federal Government by Col. Raymond Robins in 1932 and is managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Col. Robins named it "Chinsegut" which is an Innuit word for the "spirit of lost things". The Nature Center is open on Friday and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. but the Park can be accessed anytime from a South entrance. We hiked the 2 1/4 mile trail around the Park and we saw an amazing 24 RHWP's! Several were close to the entrance which is nice also. In all we had 30 species with good numbers of Downy and Pileated Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmouse, and E. Bluebirds. Chinsegut is everything Col. Robins envisioned.