Florida Birding: Smyrna Dunes Park (pt. 1)

     Last week we visited our family in Florida, on the east coast. The weather was warm, hot, even. There was swimming both in the pool and in the waves of the beach right outside their door. It was quite different from the weather happening back at home and honestly, glad I missed it.

    Close to where my in-laws live is Smyrna Dunes Park, a lovely boardwalk loop with beach access and some birds too if you are looking. Also, people come here to look for the beloved tortoises. Apparently people are quite passionate about them, and being a protected and threatened species, that's a good thing.

    This park is part of the Florida Birding Trail. My in-laws had an e-bike I was able to borrow to ride down to the park and skip the $10 parking fee (also, highly recommend-- e-bikes are abundant down here and people in cars don't try to run you off the road).

The middle of the park is comprised of grasses and saw palmetto, if you look carefully you can find some birds that are more content on the ground or in open spaces. The Northern mockingbirds can often be seen atop a lookout post.

When you first enter the boardwalk to the east, there is a palm hammock which definitely has birds in it but they are often hard to see. Unless they are really in a mood to be seen.
Cardinals were singing everywhere, and I love how when you go to different places with the same birds, hearing the slight difference in their song. It's the same song, it just sounds different... like someone with a regional accent.

Often you can hear the common ground doves, but on this instance I was lucky to have one fly in and land right in front of me!
I was on the boardwalk while it landed just to the side, below.

And holy crap, they are small and cute.
This is a bird I'd love to put in a pocket.

Also, look how beautiful this bird is! I love that orange beak and the subtle purple iridescence in the dark spots on their wing.

If you go too early in the day, you won't see the star attraction, the gopher tortoises.

A solar powered animal, they only emerge once it has warmed up a good amount outside. You can often see their burrows in the dunes, but as the same begins to warm around 9-10am, they begin to show themselves.

Gopher tortoises are a protected species and you can even see people on their lawns, put up "Tortoise Crossing" signs to warn people to be on the lookout for these little buddies.

As tempting as it is, touching this animal, moving it, even doing construction if burrows are present, are illegal. Tortoises and their burrows are protected by law.
I am pretty sure that the same tortoises I saw this time around were the same ones I saw last year, in these very same burrows.