Field Trip to Princess Place Preserve

WHERE: Princess Place Preserve

WHEN: Sunday, Feb. 24 (NOTE NEW DATE)

TIME: 2pm-5pm
MEET: At the old lodge on the waterfront

Have you ever visited Princess Place Preserve? It's a wonderful park just south of our St. Johns County, at the north end of Flagler County. Yesterday was my first visit there, and now that I've discovered this marvelous place I'll be sure to visit it again!. St. Johns Audubon is sponsoring a field trip on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 24. Princess Place Preserve is a very special place for nature enthusiasts. You'll see birds galore, a wide diversity of native plants, marshes, trails through both hardwood and pine forests. The property also has quite an interesting history. Bald Eagles are nesting, and the short trails always produce surprises. Bring your friends and a picnic.

I visited yesterday with two friends so I could check this place out to post about it for our blog here, and it could not have been a more perfect day. The property faces Pellicer Creek  and gives great opportunities to see water birds of all sorts. The Creekview Trail parallels the creek and gives even more views, but there are forests as well and changes to see forest birds. I added the brown-headed nuthatch to my life list yesterday at Princess Place!

So we sure hope you will join us on the 24th. To give you a taste of what you might expect to see here is the list of bird species my two friends and I saw yesterday:


Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Willet
Ring-billed Gull
Royal Tern
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird

Wildlife Boat Tour!

Join us for an exciting trip aboard the Victory III. Those who attended our outing last year had such a great time that we decided to repeat it. This will be a fund-raiser for both St. Johns Audubon and HAWKE. Right now you can get the tickets via PayPal right here on the blog. Just print out your PayPal receipt to use as your ticket. 

As noted, we will provide a continental breakfast, and have hopes of seeing birds, dolphins, and wildlife galore. The Victory III can hold a lot of people so bring your friends!

Calendar of Events

Note that at the bottom of our blog page we display a calendar of upcoming events, both chapter-specific such as meetings and nature walks, and things of wider interest such as the Great Backyard Bird Count. We'll try to keep this up to date with all the pertinent information for events. Clicking on an event, such as a nature walk, will give you more details about the event in a pop-up, as shown in the example photo above.

So be sure to check our calendar for the latest information on dates and events.

Welcome to a New Year

Welcome to the new blog for the St. Johns Audubon Society located in St. Johns County, Florida.  We are a large and sprawling county, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the St. Johns River, pictured in the photo above, on the west. We include wonderful shore birding areas such as Guana River and Fort Matanzas, and beautiful parks along the river like Alpine Groves.  Our county seat is historic St. Augustine, home of the first permanent European settlement in the US.  We also have beautiful undeveloped countryside and farming communities.

This rich variety of habitat gives us a wonderfully varied bird population as well, yet the changing demographics lead to many conservation challenges. With this blog we hope to keep you up to date with all the events and activities that we are involved with, and we hope you may join us in our journey and get involved too! We're happy to have you with us.