We had another great day of birding today! Our first stop was the lake near the FGCU Food Forest. It was still early in the morning, and the light over the water looked amazing. We picked up some of the “common locals” we were still missing from our trip list, so it was a nice warm-up to start the day.
After that, we drove over to Babcock-Webb WMA. We walked around for a while hoping for something special, but at noon the birds were pretty quiet and we didn’t have much luck. Still, the habitat there is beautiful, and it always feels like something could pop up at any moment.
In the afternoon, we headed to Prairie/Shell Creek Preserve. That turned out to be a great decision! We got amazing views of an Eastern Towhee and then found one of our top targets: the Florida Scrub-Jay. It was super cooperative and even perched close enough for some nice photos.
Since we still had a little daylight left, we decided to give Babcock-Webb one more try. And it paid off! Just before sunset, we finally spotted the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. It came out at the perfect moment, and we were incredibly lucky to catch it before the light disappeared.
Overall, it was an awesome Day 3 with lots of good birds, a few surprises, and a perfect ending!
A short video created by my father to show the summary of the whole day: