outdoor photography

Dainty Sulphur On April 24, I visited Central Winds Park to look for migrants. It was really slow. So I decided to turn my attention to butterflies.  However, since they removed the butterfly garden, the park was pretty slow for butterflies as well. I did see a couple Red Admirals flying around, and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, but that was about it. Then I decided to go to the dog park next to see what might be there. I found a couple small butterflies around a little area with flowers, and I photographed both of them. One was a Red-banded Hairstreak; unfortunately, I couldn't quite get to the right angle for this guy, so he's facing a little bit away from me. The other was a Dainty Sulphur, and I got my best photos of this species nectaring on dogfruit.   Red-banded Hairstreak

Rambur's Forktail On April 18, I walked around Central Winds Park looking for birds and bugs. I didn't see many of either, but I did find a few bugs worth photographing, in particular a Rambur's Forktail and a very cool-looking spider, which I believe is  Leucauge argyra . Leucauge argyra

Spiderwort with Harvestman I wouldn't call Central Winds Park a great place to look for wildflowers. I've only noticed a few varieties there, but when the birding is slow, it's nice to have something pretty to photograph. I'm using my point and shoot camera here, the Canon Power Shotokan G7X, so the backgrounds are not quite as blurry as using an DSLR with a true macro lens. But I was able to get enough separation between the flower and the background that I didn't think this was too much of a distraction. Wild Petunia Spiderwort is everywhere right now in the garden. I these photos, there's some sort of harvestman on the flower--I guess he doesn't know he's not a true spider. Spiderworts are one of my favorite wildflowers, along with Wild Petunia. Common Beggarticks Along the path there is also plenty of Common Beggar ticks and some yellow flower I haven't identified for certain yet, but I'm pretty sure it's Pineland Nerve...

Loggerhead Shrike Yesterday I visited Central Winds Park hoping for migrants.  It was kind of a slow morning.  The cold front up north should have brought migrants down, but weather patterns seem to have held them from coming down to us.  So I had 9 warbler species, none of them worth writing  home about.  The most unusual bird was a Tennessee Warbler by the lake shore.  I had my first Eastern Phoebe of the Fall; before too long I suspect we'll be inundated with them. I heard a Greater Yellowlegs calling by the small pond, American Crow So I tried to see if I could get some decent photos.  I came home with one of my best photos of an American Crow, and a Loggerhead Shrike posed for photos as well. I also decided to play around with my Canon Poweshot G7 X. The more I use this camera, the more I like it. I'm preparing a review of the camera that I'm hoping to post soon.  Here are a few photos I took in the late morning. Cabbage Palm wi...

Northern Parula Central Winds is starting to get interesting. A couple days ago we had a Blue-winged Warbler there, and there's been between 8-10 species seen there each day.  There are lots of Northern Parula here, sometimes more than 20, and there have been a fair number of Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, Yellow-throated Warblers, and Black and White Warblers. Ovenbirds and Prothonotary Warblers have become regulars here in small numbers. Prothonotary Warbler Yellow Warbler Black-and-White Warbler Occasionally, we also have the pleasure of seeing a Northern Waterthrush or a Worm-eating Warbler, though they haven't been as cooperative for photos.  I'm including a couple photos here as simple ID shots. Worm-eating Warbler Northern Waterthrush We've also had one early Chestnut-sided Warbler come through. Hopefully a sign of good things to come.

Chipping Sparrow When I moved to Florida I was very new to birding, and I knew next to nothing about sparrows.  I remember going to take our dog Ella to a dog park. I didn't know at the time that right next to this dog park was the best place to find warblers in Seminole County, Central Winds Park.  Anyway, I remember walking from the dog park to Lake Jesup and seeing sparrows.  I had no idea what they were, but I took a couple photos (terrible ones with a point and shoot camera), and later determined they were Chipping Sparrows. Chipping Sparrow The odd thing is that since that first visit I've been to Central Winds (including the dog park area) 250 times and seen 152 speices in the park.  However, I haven't seen single sparrow since that first visit--no Savannah Sparrows, no Swamp Sparrows, nothing. Chipping Sparrow However, this week I've started seeing Chipping Sparrows here again.  And a couple have even been pretty cooperative.  Now it...

Painted Bunting It's not uncommon to see Painted Buntings during migration, and even throughout the winter, but for some reason I almost always see females. I see adult males around feeders pretty frequently too, but they don't seem to want to pose for photos away from feeders.  But this particular individual was very cooperative, and there were no feeders around. Painted Bunting Painted Bunting

American Crow For some reason, I have had a hard time getting a good photograph of an American Crow.  Part of the reason why is that it's notoriously difficult to distinguish them from Fish Crows if they're not calling. In fact, it's pretty much impossible.  So I have to see the bird call to know which species I'm photographing.  Well this one cooperated.  I wish it had found a perch instead of walking on a mown lawn, but I'll take it. Sometime ago I actually found out that there's one good field mark for telling the two species apart, though the field mark almost completely useless.  Fish Crows generally raise their throat feathers while calling, while American Crows do not.  Of course, if you're there to watch this happen, you're also likely hearing the bird call, and you can identify it by call instead of by this field mark. So the field mark is pretty much useless unless you're trying to identify a photo of a calling crow. Fish Crow

Tree Frog This past weekend I went out with my daughter to hide a geocache.  We were hunting around a butterfly garden and found this cute little treefrog.  Unfortunately, this one is missing an eye. I feel sorry for the frog, but I confess I'm also disappointed that its missing eye cost me a better photo. I took these photos with my point and shoot camera, Canon Powershot S100 HS.  I think it's a Squirrel Tree Frog, but I'm not sure.  Anyone out there know? Tree Frog

Ovenbird This morning I found an Ovenbird at Central Winds.  It was in pretty deep cover, but it was pretty close, so I decided to set my camera to 6400 ISO and take a bunch of shots, hoping a couple might be sharp.  Thankfully a couple did, and here are the couple photos that turned out. My shutter speed was only 1/60 sec or so, so I was a bit lucky I think. Ovenbird

Boat-tailed Grackle The other day I was checking the ball fields at Central Winds Park to see if there might be any unusual birds there.  No surprises, but I did see this striking Boat-tailed Grackle. In this part of Florida we have quite a luxury because Boat-tailed Grackles have brown eyes here.  This makes them rather easy to separate from Common Grackles, which have yellow eyes.

Black & White Warbler Ugh. I've been a terrible blogger lately. This is my first post in two weeks! However, Central Winds has become increasingly fun over the last couple weeks, with a larger variety of migrants coming through.  There are also fewer numbers of Northern Parula (sometimes I'd see about 50 or so in the park), so it's easier to pick out other species. The park has also given me some of my better photographs of some species, so I figured I'd share a collection of photos from the last two weeks (when I last posted). Yellow Warbler Yellow Warblers have been quite common here, and sometimes I've seen as many as 5.  But for some reason they have not been that cooperative for photos until a couple days ago.  One found a nice snack low enough for me to get a decent shot, finally. Black & White Warbler Prairie Warbler Prairie Warblers and Black and White Warblers have also been pretty common here, but the Black-and-whites have bee...

Blackburnian Warbler This morning I visited Central Winds Park. I'd seen some pretty nice eBird reports over the weekend, I was not disappointed.  Central Winds has been pretty slow so far this Fall, but this morning I found 11 species of warbler, including my top goal for the morning, a Blackburnian Warbler. Prothonotary Warbler Yellow Warbler I'm still waiting for thrushes and tanagers to make their appearances here, but they should be coming any day now.

Spicebush Swallowtail Central Winds Park I just discovered a new website that I think is pretty wonderful.  It's the butterfly equivalent of eBird, called e-butterfly.org (don't forget the dash). This site lets you enter your butterfly sightings, keep track of your life list, and see what else has been seen near you.  The site seems self-consciously patterned after eBird, so if you use eBird, learning this site should be pretty easy.  This site is brand new, so there's still a few kinks to be worked out, and there appear to be very few users of the site, especially in Florida.  I'm a novice at butterflies, and for the most part I only record butterflies I photograph while birding.  I'm still currently ranked third in the State of Florida for sightings in 2014 out of nine others.  You get the picture. However, my guess is that this site will take off just like eBird has, and when it does, it will be an even more valuable resource for birders and butter...