I’m always eager to explore new birding locations, so I trekked over to Lake County on a foggy Saturday morning to search for some migrating warblers at the Ferndale Preserve near Clermont.
It’s a 190-acre preserve on the west side of Lake Apopka that includes upland and wetland ecosystems. There’s also definite changes in elevation from its height of 165 feet above sea level and then dropping down along Lake Apopka. And, based on my morning visit, it’s a place some birds love to visit.
I came across five different types of warblers during my time at the preserve: Yellow Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler and Common Yellowthroat Warbler.
The place was also loaded with different types of butterflies, too. (And a lot of mosquitos as well, unfortunately.)
I suspect this won’t be my last visit to Ferndale Preserve.
Back in January, the park was teaming with Roseate Spoonbills who were settling in for the winter. Now it’s May, and only a few Roseate youngsters are hanging around the park.
Perhaps it’s because I went to UCF and am partial to black and gold, but the Yellow-throated Warbler is one of my favorite little birds. So you can imagine how surprised and happy I was this week when a Yellow-throated Warbler visited my backyard for the first time in about…