outdoor photography

Snowy Egret  Every June in Florida we have the opportunity to participate in a friendly competition called June Challenge. The competition is designed to encourage people to get out there and do some birding during a hot summer month when many birders take a break. Migration is over, and there's often not much new to find, so the competition keeps us out and birding.  Pick a county, any county, and find as many birds as you can in that county during the month of June. The only caveat is they have to be seen; heard only doesn't count. This is my third year participating, and I was very pleased with my June Challenge results.  Every year I've done a little better. In 2012 I found 80 species; in 2013 I found 95; this year I found 104, not including two species I heard but never saw (White-winged Dove and Red-headed Woodpecker). I found 12 species I hadn't seen last year, and I missed out on three I had seen last year (White-winged Dove, Canada Goose, Black Skimmer). ...

Caspian Tern Ugh! It's been two full weeks since I've done a blog post! I've been busy at home and work, but I've also had a little bit of a photographic lull. Weather conditions have made for relatively poor lighting, but mostly I'm just behind in editing photos.  Well, this morning I went to the marina on Lake Monroe.  It's a pretty nice marina, for the most part, and a friend of mine found a Royal Tern there yesterday, so I thought I'd see if it was sticking around.  Unfortunately, it wasn't there today when I was.  But there were about 10 Forster's Terns and 12 Caspian Terns around, and several of them were pretty actively flying near the edge of the marina in decent light.  So I took a few Caspian Tern pictures.  For some reason I have a tougher time with Caspian Terns than with others.  I believe it's the eyes.  It seems far more difficult to get catch light in them, and so they often look sunken into the head and less attractive. So th...

Northern Shoveler I spent the last morning of the year at Merritt Island. We went by Blackpoint Wildlife Drive and then Biolab Rd.  I was hoping to find one more species for the year, but it looks like I'll have to end the year at 259 Florida birds.  Still, it was a nice, sunny day, and there lots of fun highlights.  I don't think I've ever seen so many spoonbills on the island.  There were easily upwards of 50 Roseate Spoonbills, plus many Glossy and White Ibises.  Ducks were also plentiful, and at times the lighting was pretty good to photograph the numerous Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, and American Wigeon and Hooded Mergansers. Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Northern Pintail Hooded Merganser Hooded Merganser Wood Stork Roseate Spoonbill Glossy Ibis White Ibis Caspian Tern Red-winged Blackbird On the way back, we decided to drop by the visitor center to check the bird feeders for Painted Bunti...

American Bittern This morning I decided to drive down to Viera Wetlands.  When I arrived it was very foggy.  I was somewhat disappointed, since I couldn't photograph anything any distance away without losing detail.  So of course, this is is when the Peregrine Falcon decided to appear.  I found it perched on one of the dead trees.  It was not that far away, and on a clear morning, I think it would have given me some very nice photos, but this morning, I had to shoot through through the fog.  There were many other nice things to find here, though.  A Common Yellowthroat was very cooperative, as was an American Bittern.  Later on I found a Raccoon near the edge of the water.  After making my first pass around the wetlands, the fog had pretty much cleared, so I decided to make another pass and hope that the falcon was still around.  It was not.  But, while looking for it, I saw a flash of blue-gray and another flash of brown. ...

Osprey missing the Fish Yesterday my son and I started what I hope will become a Thanksgiving tradition.  We went to Viera Wetlands.  Nathan rode his bike and I took my camera around the wetlands photographing birds.  We were only there for a couple hours--thanksgiving festivities had to be observed--but I'm glad we made the trip. Little Blue Heron We didn't see anything spectacular there, though the click ponds had several species of ducks, including Canvasback, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked, Lesser Scaup, and Hoodies.  They were too far away for good photos, though.  My favorite part of the day was seeing several Little Blue Herons, Osprey and Caspian Terns. Little Blue Heron Caspian Tern Caspian Tern Osprey Here are the birds we saw during our visit: Blue-winged Teal X Northern Shoveler 2 Canvasback 5 Redhead 2 Ring-necked Duck 4 Lesser Scaup 4 Hooded Merganser 5 Pied-billed Grebe X Wood Stork 1 Double-crested...