Sadly my day of departure had arrived, but with a few hours before my flight we headed off for another look round the southern trails at Lake Lizzie. Gray Catbird, and Pine and Palm Warblers were seen as we walked down to the woods, where we also had Northern Parula and a White-eyed Vireo.
A few Tree Swallows and a single Purple Martin were feeding overhead, and after having not seen one for a few days, two Swallow-tailed Kites were also seen drifting over and came close enough to finally allow me to get a half decent pic of one.
Although we'd had around ten Downy Woodpeckers during the trip, I'd failed to find a Hairy, so when I found a woodpecker here hopes were again dashed as it was 'just' another Downy. However as I was watching it another woodpecker flew in and chased it off before disappearing into a nesthole and although I'd presumed that it too was also a Downy, I had some nagging doubts. Luckily I had taken a quick snap of it before it went in, and upon reviewing the photo later the longer bill, and unmarked white outer tail feathers (cf the pic of the Downy above) indeed pointed to this actually being a Hairy Woodpecker, which was the consensus too when I asked for opinions on the internet. So happily I'd finally managed to catch up with one and which would be my last new bird of the trip.
Walking round the trails further Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron were seen, along with a Wild Turkey. Also the Owl sp. (probably a Great Horned) was again seen flying through the trees in the exact spot that it had been seen on our previous visit here, and a couple of Carolina Wrens were seen too.
Heading back towards the car park a couple of Black Vultures sat in a tree overhanging the path keeping their eye on us as we passed underneath.
Final highlight of the morning, and indeed the trip, was this Gopher Tortoise which crossed the path in front of us.
So the end of a truly brillant trip was here, with masses of great memories to take home, and I'd definitely recommend Florida as a birding destination. Altogether I recorded a total of 160 species during the trip including 97 new birds, plus a further 25 only ever seen once before on various twitches here in the UK.
The complete list is detailed below, along with the various animals and reptiles etc that we saw. A good number of both Butterflies and Dragonflies were encountered and those identified are also listed below, although sadly a number of others had to be left unidentified due to brevity of views, but hopefully I'll be revisiting the States again in the future so there's always next time...
