outdoor photography

Sunrise Over the Atlantic Ocean Last week I went on a pelagic trip into the Atlantic Ocean. We left Ponce Inlet at 4 am in search of a sunrise and some pelagic birds. We were not disappointed. The sunrise was spectacular, and we had a chance to see some nice pelagic birds. We didn't see anything rare, but it was fun nonetheless. Cory's Shearwater Great Shearwater Audubon's Shearwater Shortly after sunrise, we saw our first pelagic bird--a Cory's Shearwater. Soon we were in the midst of the Gulf Stream (about 40 miles off shore), and we began to see more Cory's Shearwaters (a couple were Scopoli type), one Great Shearwater, several Audubon Shearwaters, and both Sooty and Bridled Terns. We had at least one Parasitic Jaeger (my only lifer on the day), one likely Pomarine Jaeger, and a few Brown Boobies. Sooty Tern Bridled Tern We went out 65 miles to the western edge of a canyon that was about 2,500 ft deep about half way across the Gulf...

Yellow-rumped Warbler The first Yellow-rumped Warblers just migrated into our area, and I saw them for the first time this fall on Tuesday.  Pretty soon they'll be everywhere.  As you could probably guess from their name, these warblers have a bright yellow patch on their rumps, but I find that they are more quickly identified by two yellow patches on the sides of their chests, since their rumps are sometimes covered with their wings.  Yellow-rumped Warbler  Yellow-rumped Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler This past July I went to Dallas, and they were there in there in full breeding plumage by the hundreds.  Most of these were of the "Myrtle" subspecies, like we get here in Florida. But I did find one "Audubon's" subspecies there, which was kind of nice.  The Audubon's Warblers have yellow throats, and the Myrtles have white throats without a white eyebrow. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)