outdoor photography

Scarlet Skimmer  On April 26, I found my first Scarlet Skimmer, a beautiful male. I have red-green colorblindness, but even to my eyes, the red in this dragonfly was incredibly vibrant.  He first gave me a couple nice dorsal views, but then I was able to photograph it from the side, and that became one of my absolute favorite dragonfly photos. Scarlet Skimmer Scarlet Skimmer

Black-and-white Warbler On April 25, I returned to Maitland Community Park. One of my friends had seen a male Blackburnian Warbler there the day before. I did not find that bird, but I did see 8 species of warblers, which is pretty good for this Spring. There were a couple species that let me get fairly decent photos. I particularly like the  Black-and-white Warbler photo, but American Redstarts give me fits when it comes to photography. This photo has some room for improvement, but this will do for now. American Redstart

Rambur's Forktail (female) The last time I went to Central Winds, the birding was really slow, so I had some fun looking for interesting bugs. I found a Rambur's Forktail female down by the lake. This is the first female I've photographed. Right nearby was a moth I haven't yet identified. White Moth The lake shore is also filled with these spiders, and it's very iritating that they don't have a common name. They are  Leucauge argyra. They like to spin their webs across the trail just to give me something to do while looking for birds. Leucauge argyra  There was a little flower garden with the butterflies I posted earlier. Of course, there were also honeybees here, and one of them posed nicely for a photograph. Honey Bee

Dainty Sulphur On April 24, I visited Central Winds Park to look for migrants. It was really slow. So I decided to turn my attention to butterflies.  However, since they removed the butterfly garden, the park was pretty slow for butterflies as well. I did see a couple Red Admirals flying around, and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, but that was about it. Then I decided to go to the dog park next to see what might be there. I found a couple small butterflies around a little area with flowers, and I photographed both of them. One was a Red-banded Hairstreak; unfortunately, I couldn't quite get to the right angle for this guy, so he's facing a little bit away from me. The other was a Dainty Sulphur, and I got my best photos of this species nectaring on dogfruit.   Red-banded Hairstreak

Black-throated Blue Warbler On April 21, I drove to Maitland Community Park after work. It was pretty slow, but along the boardwalk I found 2 Black-throated Blue Warblers. One of them flew into the bushes right in front of me and started foraging along the leaves. Every once in a while, he would stay put in the sun long enough for me to get photos. I've been trying for years to get presentable photos of this species. Unfortunately, his bill is partially obscured in some of the photos, but I'll take it. I'm amazed at the detail in some of these photos. Black-throated Blue Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler

Song Sparrow  Song Sparrows are tough in Central Florida. A little farther north and they're pretty common, but around here, I only see perhaps 1-2 in a winter.  And then they rarely cooperate. They often stay low in their favorite brushy habitat and keep to themselves--they aren't really interested in singing in the winter time. So on Feb 27, I was surprised to see this guy perched up on top of the brush in full view. Finally I have presentable photos of a Song Sparrow in Seminole County. Song Sparrow Song Sparrow

Southern Skipperling On April 17th, I visited Marl Bed Flats, and I did something I haven't done in years. I took my 180 mm macro lens and not my 400 mm telephoto lens. My bet was that I wouldn't see any birds that needed photographing but I would see bugs that needed photographing. Thankfully, I was right. I walked out to Lake Jesup looking for birds, and walked back looking for bugs. There were lots of butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies that took a good deal of my attention. I got my first presentable photos of a Southern Skipperling and my first ever photos of a Big Bluet. Here are the dragonflies and damselflies I'd seen. Rambur's Forktail Big Bluet Four-spotted Pennant Eastern Amberwing Here are some more of the butterflies I saw.  Including the Southern Skipperling above, I only saw three species, though there were several of each, especially Little Yellows. Fiery Skipper Little Yellow

Rambur's Forktail On April 18, I walked around Central Winds Park looking for birds and bugs. I didn't see many of either, but I did find a few bugs worth photographing, in particular a Rambur's Forktail and a very cool-looking spider, which I believe is  Leucauge argyra . Leucauge argyra

Coyote On April 19, I got up early and drove to the Kilbee Tract of the Little Big Econ WMA. I was hoping to find shorebirds, and my biggest hope was to find an Upland Sandpiper, which I've never seen before. There's plenty of dry grass there, and it just seems like the perfect place to find one. I got there before sunrise walked the 1.3 mile road to the flats. The first thing I noticed was a Coyote sitting among the cattle. When it saw me, it stood up, looked at me, and then trotted off. That was my first photo of a Coyote. Long-billed Dowitcher Long-billed Dowitcher Once out there, I was a bit surprised at how few shorebirds there were. There were three Long-billed Dowitchers along the Econ River, as well as a few Least Sandpipers and yellowlegs, but not much else. Then as I walked a little farther south I saw a very small pond that was nearly full of shorebirds--mostly yellowlegs, but a few Black-necked Stilts and a Black-bellied Plover. I was still pretty ...

Swarthy Skipper About a week ago I shared the fun experience I had with Jeff Cagle at Tosohatchee WMA. We found about 30 butterflies, and more than half of them were new to me. Especially the skippers. I'm finding out that skippers can be extraordinarily difficult to identify. Some of them are like the empids of the butterfly world. Perhaps I'll feel differently once I get to know them more, but right now, that's how I feel. Twin-spot Skipper But skippers are kind of fun as well, and their small size makes them somewhat of a challenge to photograph. But often they don't mind me getting close to them if I move slowly enough, and that left me with some half-way decent photos of these guys. And that makes for some exciting time. Horace's Duskywing Skipper Confused Cloudywing With my colorblind eyes, I think of these skippers in groups of "orange" and "brown." The orange ones can be really hard to tell apart from each other, ...

Downy Woodpecker I decided to visit Oakland Nature Preserve for the first time in February after someone reported a Golden-crowned Kinglet there. There were actually 3 of them there, and they stayed round there for more than month. The park is wonderful. There's a very nice boardwalk that takes you to the southern shore of Lake Apopka, and the first time I was there, I found about 11 species of wintering warblers there--an almost unheard of total for the winter.  I decided that day that I needed to visit more often this Spring. Brown Thrasher So this morning I visited hoping to find migrating warblers. I walked the boardwalk and then some of the trails that take you through the pines. I was surprised at how slow it was. I tallied just three warbler species on the morning: Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat and Pine Warbler. There were lots of birds around, but warblers were really scarce. The biggest boardwalk highlight was a calling Yellow-billed Cuckoo, though even t...