5-19-17 Loxahatchee Park:

We decided to ride by Angie and Josh's old house and see how it's looking.  Loved this place!  Nice to see it's still looking good.  in fact, the grass has never looked better!

Had breakfast at another of our favorite breakfast places---D'Apple, then went in search of more wetlands.  We had gone to the main park at Loxahatchee a couple times during the year that we lived here, so we decided to go check it out again.  The birding wasn't great there before, but it was a nice walk.

There are a series of canals with lots of info signs around them. 

There are roads along the canals, but they aren't open for public to drive on, just for walking on.

As before, there wasn't much in the way of birds, but it was still a pretty walk.

One of the few birds we saw---a tri colored heron.

saw quite a few insects.  A Monarch?

Another info sign

And another.

There are many paths along canals.  So we took one we hadn't taken before.

another Monarch butterfly?

and another bird---anhinga

there are a lot of these guys in South Florida---White Peacock

this trail took us to a lookout tower.

the closer we got to the tower, we started encountering these guys.  They were huge! 

so colorful, too.  I've never seen grasshoppers like this before. 

A sign said they are lubber grasshoppers

more canals

a bridge over a canal to more canals

views from the look out---looking back from where we first encountered the lubber grasshoppers.

map of the canals

time table of the wildlife

looking back at the look out.

another canal

a few more birds---a glossy ibis and a couple teals.

Close up of the teals

one more grasshopper just because they really are pretty.

there were a lot of pretty dragon flies, too.  Never saw a golden one before.

a bluish one

a great blue heron made an appearance.

a lot of interesting plants, too.

I've seen these guys before.  interesting that they have spots on their wings.

another sign

the walkways are well kept.

a lone water lily

some of the wildlife that are suppose to be here.

another bird---great egret.

I think this is a juvenile little blue heron ?

love the reflections of the sky in the canals.

some weird colorful plant

I'm assuming this is what the above plant looks like before it turns red.  Note the grasshoppers on it.  There were so many grasshoppers that I'm assuming we accidentally stepped on a few!

a lone pink flower.  a wild hibiscus?

another dragonfly---so many colors of them, too.

this route took us by a pond.

and more butterflies.  I believe this is the state butterfly---Zebra Heliconian.

I imagine lots of school field trips come here.  Lots to be learned.

looks like a tiny wild orchid.

some other weird wild flower/weed.

info about the trail

back at the parking lot.

I noticed they now have codes to scan for smart phone tours.

We originally came here because it was listed on the Great Florida Birding Trail.  I've gone to many of the S. Florida parks that are on that "trail" and wouldn't consider many of them as birding areas.  This one maybe, but it's certainly not Wakodahatchee.

more little wildflowers.

We drove over to the deck at the pond.

Here I saw another kind of butterfly---Gulf Fritillary

interesting how different the underside is from the back side of many butterflies---underside of the Gulf Fritillary

from the pond deck towards the lookout tower we were at earlier.

more of the huge deck.

on the way back to SR7 is this farmers market, so we had to stop and check it out.  Ended up with some apples, mangoes and watermelon. 

After hitting the pool for a couple hours, we headed off to Flanigan's, again, for another great dinner there.  Then to the beach to try and catch a sunset. 

Foiled again---too many clouds.  This was as good as it got.

So I took pictures of the lighthouse instead.

and the bridge from the inlet to the marina.

At least it was another pleasant evening.  And Ken enjoyed talking to a fisherman there.

a pompano beach sign.

Back at our condo, I was surprised to see these on the table in the foyer by the elevators next to our room.

another view of the foyer.  Wonder if they're ever used for anything!?

One week down!  time is going too fast!