outdoor photography

Downy Woodpecker I decided to visit Oakland Nature Preserve for the first time in February after someone reported a Golden-crowned Kinglet there. There were actually 3 of them there, and they stayed round there for more than month. The park is wonderful. There's a very nice boardwalk that takes you to the southern shore of Lake Apopka, and the first time I was there, I found about 11 species of wintering warblers there--an almost unheard of total for the winter.  I decided that day that I needed to visit more often this Spring. Brown Thrasher So this morning I visited hoping to find migrating warblers. I walked the boardwalk and then some of the trails that take you through the pines. I was surprised at how slow it was. I tallied just three warbler species on the morning: Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat and Pine Warbler. There were lots of birds around, but warblers were really scarce. The biggest boardwalk highlight was a calling Yellow-billed Cuckoo, though even t...

Downy Woodpecker A couple weeks ago I visited the Jones East trailhead of the Little Big Econ State Forest. My intention was to confirm the breeding of Bachman's Sparrows in on area of the park where I'd seen them before and then head north to the Econ River and look for Night-Herons, Prothonotary Warblers, and other birds that may be breeding by the river. I struck out on all counts. The Bachman's Sparrows appear to be gone, and I found no interesting birds by the river. Red-footed Cannibalfly So I photographed some bugs. I finally have photos of a robber fly, in this case, a Red-footed Cannibalfly. They're pretty amazing creatures. Then I photographed a Halloween Pennant. They're one of my favorites. dragonflies. Halloween Pennant Here's my eBird checklist , and here's a map of my walk.

Ebony Jewelwing It's been forever since I posted on my blog--terribly long.  I had my camera equipment stolen in early March, which took me a bit out of commission, but I have most of it back now, so I'm back in the swing of things, though I haven't done any blog posts at all in April.  Anyway, yesterday my father and I decided to visit Lake Mills Park.  I've only been there a couple times, and I've never had any luck there. However, a friend of mine found a Summer Tanager there a couple days ago, and I need that for my year list, so we gave it one more try. Downy Woodpecker The most obvious thing to check out there is the walk from the parking area to the lake.  This is the only area I'd explored before, and perhaps that's why I haven't been too successful there. There were surprisingly few birds there, though there were lots of Northern Parula in the trees.  It was fun to see a Bald Eagle, a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret flying over the ...

Prothonotary Warbler June Challenge is officially over. During last year's June Challenge, I logged 80 species for Seminole County; this year I ended up with 96, including a Graylag Goose, which is not the FOS list. I was hoping to hit 100 species, but I really didn't expect that to be possible.  I was away in MD and VA for a week, and even if I were here the whole month, I thought I'd have to get pretty lucky to hit the century mark.  So I'm extremely happy with 96.  I added 17 species that I didn't find last year, so I'm pretty happy about that too. Downy Woodpecker I've shown pictures of most of these birds in previous posts from this month, though for this post I used photos of these birds in different poses, so they aren't the exact same images. Limpkin Bald Eagle Red-shouldered Hawk Crested Caracara Eastern Meadowlark Carolina Chickadee In the list below, I put an asterisk (*) by birds I didn't see la...

Black-and-white Warbler He's shaking the moth he caught This morning my father and I went to Mead Gardens to look for migrants.  It was all in all a pretty good morning.  The biggest highlight was seeing a Hooded Warbler, ending a drought that's lasted over a year.  But we found 10 warblers in all this morning: Worm-eating Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler and Prairie Warbler. Black-throated Blue Warbler finally one that's mostly sharp Downy Woodpeckers  

Downy Woodpeckers A few weeks ago I had a great morning at Mead Gardens, and these two Downy Woodpeckers were a big reason why.  One is a fledgling and the other its mother, and they were fluttering about from tree to tree.  The mom was collecting food for the fledgling, which was trying its best to learn the fine art of drumming.  At one point, it was really fun to watch the fledgling try, and then the parent come by to work on the same location to finish the task for the fledgling. Downy Woodpeckers Downy Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker

Florida Soft Shell Turtle Yesterday morning I went to Central Winds Park, and I'm finally getting around to posting the photos from the morning.  It rained overnight, so I was hopeful that I'd find some new species there.  There were lots of birds there, but sadly no species that I haven't seen earlier this year.  Of course, that doesn't mean I didn't have fun. A Florida Softshell Turtle was out in the sand.  I also went down to the water and watched several Osprey and Bald Eagles fishing (most too far away for photos), and a Snowy Egret walked right by me.  It was severely backlit, so I decided to to photograph him as a silhouette.  As I was leaving, a Downy Woodpecker gave me a very nice pose. Snowy Egret Downy Woodpecker Osprey The Osprey that came down close enough for a photo, but missed the fish... figures.

Northern Cardinal This morning I dropped by Mead Gardens.  We've had a mild spring, but today things got down right hot.  I was only there about an hour, and it was slow, but it was also enjoyable (in the shade).  I found a Northern Cardinal with nesting material, but it was the Great Crested Flycatchers that stole the show.  They were very active, sadly in the shady areas (but then again it was cooler there), but they were still fun to watch.  I photographed one with a Lubber Grasshopper in its mouth.  This surprised me, since my understanding is that these grasshoppers are toxic to birds.  Loggerhead Shrikes impale them and wait a while before eating them.  Sorry for the horrible picture of the flycatcher eating the grasshopper, but I thought the behavior was worth showing it. Eastern Lubber Grasshopper Great Crested Flycatcher Great Crested Flycatcher Great Crested Flycatcher with what appears to be a Lubber Grasshopper ...