outdoor photography

Common Gallinule On my way home from work today I dropped by Secret Lake Park (which I just recently discovered about 2 weeks ago, so I guess it lives up to its name).  I was hoping to find some evidence of breeding birds.  It was fun to see Common Grackles begging their mothers for food and a couple Brown Thrashers collecting food to bring back to a nest, but even more fun was a family of five Common Gallinules--two adults with three little ones.  One of them waded out into the water a little, and I thought it made for a pretty cute photo.

Great Blue Heron Yesterday morning a friend and I headed out towards St. Petersburg, FL.  We got a late start, but we decided to go to Circle B Bar on the way to see what we might find. It was a pretty good morning, though not as fantastic as it was when I was here last in November. Highlights for me were seeing several Limpkin, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and Roseate Spoonbills. We saw a Sandhill Crane sitting on a nest, but we didn't want to watch it for very long.  I saw very few ducks; in fact, I only saw Blue-winged Teal, and the American Bitterns we were hoping to see eluded us.Others there told us that there was a Bobcat that was chased off by several River Otters before we were able to see the Bobcat. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Roseate Spoonbill Common Gallinule or Moorhen Anhinga Red-bellied Woodpecker Here is a list of species I found between about 9:30am and 12:15pm yesterday morning. Blue-winged Teal X Pied-billed Grebe 5 Double-crested Corm...