outdoor photography

Brown Pelican Yesterday morning I went out to Jetty Park near Port Canaveral.  I went there to see gulls.  I wanted to see black-backed gulls, but I was also hoping to get better at identifying immature gulls. I'm getting pretty good at identifying adult gulls, but immatures still give me some trouble at times.  I didn't realize that, since I'm not a Brevard County resident, I would be charged $10 to enter the park.  But I got over that irritation when I got out of the car and right off the bat found one adult Great Black-backed Gull, and then five minutes later, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Then I saw three Bonaparte's Gulls floating in the water. As I walked over to the beach, I found younger gulls to test my ID skills.  The one below is a Lesser Black-backed Gull. Lesser Black-backed Gull But the gull below gave me some trouble. It was a large gull, and I'm thinking it's a first year Great Black-backed Gull, given its large size, wi...

Ruddy Turnstone Yesterday morning I took my daughter and my parents to Ponce Inlet for some fun at the beach. Since I was primarily being a dad, I didn't do much birding, but I did bring my camera and I did scan the horizon some to see what may be flying by.  I was hoping to get lucky and start my year with some gannets, scoters, and other fun birds, but all I found was a few Northern Gannet.  But I sill had fun walking the beach with my daughter photographing the birds near shore. Sandwich and Royal Terns Ring-billed Gull Brown Pelican Royal Tern At one point my daughter and I walked out onto the jetty, and I kept my eye out for a Purple Sandpiper. I didn't find one, but I did find two more birds, this time two Royal Terns, with fishing line dangling from them. In the photo below, it looks like the fishing line is actually attached to the fish in is mouth, but the the other one was hooked near the belly. That makes four birds in the last two visits. ...

Northern Gannet I returned to Lighthouse Point Park at Ponce Inlet again in the hopes of finding a Razorbill. We found one far off the jetty.  My father, who's in town for Christmas, located it in his scope, and I was able to locate it briefly with my binoculars.  It was very far away (I probably would not have been able to identify it with my binoculars), the winds were strong and the waves were high, and the Razorbill appeared to be spending a lot of time "flying" under water.  So no photos of the Razorbill, but later this week we're hoping to go to the gulf where people have been getting pretty good photos of Razorbills. Black Skimmer Black Skimmers, though, were a very different story. There were many there, and a couple were actively bathing and skimming by the shore, making me very happy.  Gulls were numerous too, though not like the last time I came came here.  We found only Herring, Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls, plus Royal and Sandwich Terns...

Forster's Tern I took my daughter to the lighthouse park at Ponce Inlet for an afternoon at the beach today.  I went as a dad, not a photographer, but that didn't stop me from taking my camera with me.  There was a flock of gulls and terns there, and my daughter thought it would be fun to go see them.  So I photographed Forster's Terns, Sandwich Terns and Royal Terns.  There were also several Brown Pelicans there, and lots of Sanderlings.  But the biggest birding moment was finding three Northern Gannets. I set a goal at the beginning of the year to find 250 birds in Florida this year, and the Northern Gannet was my 250th find this year.  So that was a pretty great moment for me. Sandwich Tern Sandwich Tern Royal Tern Brown Pelican Snowy Egret Northern Gannet Osprey Sanderling