outdoor photography

White-throated Sparrow I spent a good portion of last week outside Boston, Massachusetts this past week.  Normally on these trips I have an afternoon or early morning to go some place to do some birding.  On this trip, I was busy enough that I pretty much had to stay right on campus.  There were probably many species that would have been relatively easy to find here that are difficult if not impossible to find in Florida, but I just didn't have the time to chase them.  I did however, walk around the campus in the mornings to see what I could find, and I was more successful than I thought I would be. I ended up with my best photos of several species that are hard to find in Central Florida, including Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, and eastern Black-capped Chickadee. White-throated Sparrow White-throated Sparrows are very common in MD, but when I lived up there I didn't do much bird photography. Before this past week, I had one...

Chestnut-backed Chickadee Here in Central Florida we've grown accustomed to having an easy time identifying chickadees. If you see one, it's a Carolina Chickadee.  But this is no longer the case, as there has been a massive irruption of northern and western species of chickadees into Central Florida.  The irruption was first noticed when the above photographed Chestnut-sided Chickadee was spotted in a park near my home in Seminole County. After this, birders here began giving chickadees more attention, and all of the sudden, people were starting to find Black-capped Chickadees in various locations throughout Central Florida, such as the one photographed below. Black-capped Chickadee There have been confirmed reports of Mountain Chickadees on Sugarloaf Mountain and one unconfirmed sighting of a Boreal Chickadee in Winter Springs!  This is a staggering reality to be faced with.  Who would think that we would ever be able to find these species in Central Flor...

Ruby-crowned Kinglet This past week I went to Seattle to attend my sister's wedding.  It was a pretty good time to hang out with my sister, her husband and my parents.  We had time in the morning for my dad and I to do some birding.  We couldn't go very far or stay very long, but in just the little time we had, I found about 25 life birds (including about 5 birds I'd saw when I was a child living in California but before I was a birder).  We visited a few places in King and Snohomish Counties, including Picnic Point Park, Wallace Swamp Creek Park, Lake Washington and my sister's back yard.  I thought it would be best to share what I saw in two posts. In post, perching birds, and in the next, ducks and gulls. One of the first birds I saw was a Golden-crowned Kinglet (a life for me). We also saw many Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and I was was surprised to find my first Hutton's Vireo, which do a pretty good job of looking like kinglets. It must be irritating for bi...