As soon as the bike trail from Magnolia Park turns into the Lake Apopka North Shore Restoration Area, there is a rookery where I saw Anhinga chicks in nest and young Little Blue Herons.
Once again, I saw Northern Bobwhite on the bike trail. This area next to the lake has canals, marshes and other wet areas and is not your typical Bobwhite habitat but they seem to be here regularly.
It soon became clear it was going to be a dragonfly and butterfly day as they were numerous along the entire bikeway. This Pearl Crescent greeted me soon after entering the bike trail.
The topside wings of this White Peacock species is attractive but with some species, it helps to get an image of the underside also for ID purposes. In some cases, you don't have a choice if they happen to be folding their wings up at the time.
At first, this butterfly was upside down and only showing its underwings and I could not tell what it was. Once it repositioned itself, I saw those discal bars and recognized it as a Tawny Emperor.
There were numerous Zebra Longwings along the trail and I observed Viceroy, Gulf Fritillary and others.
After a slow start to the year in this location for dragonflies, they were out in force today along the bikeway, including this Two-striped Forceptail male. Blue Dashers, Eastern Pondhawk and Four-spotted Pennants were abundant, along with Wandering Gliders, Carolina Saddlebags et al.
