outdoor photography

Northern Harrier Well, yesterday went a little better than predicted--the world didn't end, and I had a great time at the Zellwood/Mt. Dora Christmas Bird Count.  I was in the area around Lake Apopka--particularly to the north and east of it.  It was a cold (by Florida standards) and blustery day, but it was a great day for raptors.  We began the morning with a couple Barn Owls, and as morning broke, we also had Osprey, Bald Eagles, dozens of Northern Harrier and Red-tailed Hawks, many Red-shouldered Hawks, one Sharp-shinned Hawk, several American Kestrels, and one Merlin.  As the sun was setting, we found a couple more Barn Owls and at least one Short-eared Owl.  But the biggest highlight, though, was a Krider's sub-species of a Red-tailed Hawk. Red-tailed Hawk "Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk Merlin Sharp-shinned Hawk Barn Owl Ducks and water birds were also there.  We had 18 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and several Gadwall, Malla...

Royal Tern Yesterday morning I arrived in Cocoa at 5am for the Cocoa Christmas Bird Count.  This is my second year participating, and it's always a lot of fun.  We were out from about 6:30am to 6:30pm, counting all the birds we could find our area.  Easily the biggest highlights for me were seeing a White-winged Scoter, the first I've seen in Florida, and a Common Loon, the first for me this year in Florida. We saw about 18,000 scaup, and while most all of them were Lesser Scaup, I found one Greater Scaup in my photos among the rafts of Lessers. There were also huge numbers of Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls, American Robins and Yellow-rumped Warblers.  But we also saw several species that are unusual for that area, even though they're common elsewhere.  In particular, our group was excited to see Tufted Titmice and a couple House Finches.  Other highlights for me were seeing 4 Painted Buntings, 8 Horned Grebes, 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, 1 Northern H...