outdoor photography

Ruby-crowned Kinglet A few days ago, I also had a chance to see several Ruby-crowned Kinglets. One stayed nice and low for me, and occasionally it would come out into the open for some photos.  Eventually it popped up on to a higher branch and began preening.  After a couple minutes, perhaps, it stretched its wings and flew off. I'm pretty sure these are my best Ruby-crowned Kinglet photos. they are so energetic, it's difficult sometimes to find them sitting still for photos. I don't think we're going to have them much longer, so I'm glad this one was cooperative. Ruby-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Stretching

White-eyed Vireo A few days ago I visited the Econ River Wilderness Area, and a White-eyed Vireo popped up on top of a bush and started singing. Over the next few minutes, he and another gave me some good looks. White-eyed Vireos are our most common vireos, but I still enjoy photographing them. White-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo  

Pine Warbler with Pine Needles 1/26/2014 One of my favorite places to photograph Pine Warblers is the Econ River Wilderness Area. About a year and a half ago, I took my favorite photos of the species here.  They are the kind of photos I'd like to have for most species--I call them bird-on-a-stick photos.  These are the kinds of photos you see in field guides, etc. You see most of the bird, often in profile, and the background is completely blurred with no detail whatsoever.  I love these images, partly for their beauty, and partly for how difficult they are to achieve, especially with birds that like to perch in messy branches.  With today's software, you can often remove these branches, but I don't do much of this.  I'd rather spend my time taking pictures than messing with them. Here's one of my favorite images from my visit to this park in 2012. Pine Warbler On-a-Stick 6/9/2012 Over the last couple weeks, Pine Warblers have begun singing all over th...

Cooper's Hawk This morning I took a little walk around the Econ River Wilderness Area.  My biggest hope was to find a chickadee.  No luck there, but it was still a pretty fun morning.  Most of the normal birds were there, and both a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a Tufted Titmouse were willing to pose for photos.  The best find of the morning, though, was a Cooper's Hawk. This is only the second Cooper's Hawk I've seen in the park, and I believe it gave me my first presentable photos of the species in Seminole County.  Most my Cooper's Hawk photos that I've kept have been taken at Mead Gardens in Orange Co. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Tufted Titmouse

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker These guys are pretty common hear in the winter time, but they always elude my camera.  Well, I have many photos of this species, but hardly any of them are any good.  Today, one was working on a tree, in decent light, and it didn't seem to mind me being there.  I fired off a bunch of shots of this bird, and a few were presentable. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Eastern Towhee First Year? Female, October 2013 Yesterday I had a chance to visit Econ River WA for about an hour. As usual, Eastern Towhees were calling all over the park.  But I also had some good up-close looks at  a male and a female associating with each other. The male was a typical Florida "white-eyed" bird (the eyes actually look straw-yellow to me), but the female had eyes so dark that they seemed to blend into the bird's head. I thought this might be migrant--the northern "red-eyed" sub-species. I took a few shots of the bird and then asked my non-colorblind family members to tell me the eye-color.  Apparently, the eyes are neither yellow nor red, but brown. After inquiring about this I learned that younger birds have darker eyes, so this female may well be a first-year "white-eyed" bird. I went back and checked some of my photos of a juvenile that I took back in June of 2012; sure enough, the eyes are dark. Eastern Towhee Juvenil...

Roseate Skimmer Yesterday afternoon I dropped by the Econ River Wilderness Area.  I had a meeting nearby, and I thought I'd go there early to check it out.  I wasn't expecting to find a lot there, but I was surprised at how few birds I found.  I ended up devoting most of my attention to the many dragonflies that were there.  I photographed four species, and two of them were new to me: a Roseate Skimmer and Bar-winged Skimmer. Bar-winged Skimmer Slaty Skimmer Needham's Skimmer

Econ River Wilderness Area Trails The Econ River Wilderness Area is another of my favorite places ot visit in Seminole County.  It's only about 10 minutes from my home, so I can visit there on a whim, which is nice.  The wilderness area covers about  240 acres that extends from Old Lockwood Rd to the Econ River just north of UCF.  There are approximately 3 miles of trails that will take you from pine flatwoods and and sandhill habitats into hard wood and river swamp environments closer to the river. The trails are pretty poorly marked, but if you know your east from the west, it's not much of a problem.  The area is very long from east to west and narrow from north to south, so as long as you know you're heading east, you're going to make it to the river, and as long as you're heading west, you're going to make it to the parking lot. There's one little pond on the property that is visible from Old Lockwood Rd.  There's a trail that will take you ...

Loblolly Bay On Sunday I visited the Econ River Wilderness Area, and I found a tree with these beautiful flowers. Using this photo of the flower, I did some research online,and I found out that it's a Loblolly Bay. These are beautiful evergreen trees found in sandhills and bay swamp edges.

Common Nighthawks This is the last day of June Challenge (seeing as many birds as you can in one county during the month of June).  I decided to spend the last evening of the challenge at the Econ River Wilderness Area.  Last year, I found a Common Nighthawk there, and I was hoping to get a repeat performance.  I was pleasantly surprised, not only to find two, but also to see them copulating. I first heard the male as it was flying toward me, and once I found it above the trees, it put on a display and then landed on the female. After these photos, the two flew off together. It was a dark, cloudy, and rainy day today (I half expected to get caught in a downpour), so the sky was really cloudy and ugly. These photos are not as beautiful as I would like, but this is something I don't get to see every day, and I thought they would be fun to share anyway. Common Nighthawks Common Nighthawks

Econ River Wilderness Area This morning I got up early and went to the Econ River Wilderness Area, hoping to see or hear a Common Nighthawk.  No luck there, but the early morning foggy light was really nice, so I took the above photo of some trees in the fog.  And on the way back to the car, a singing Eastern Towhee became very photogenic.  For some reason, I get my best towhee pictures at the Econ River WA. Eastern Towhee Eastern Towhee Eastern Towhee

Brown-headed Nuthatch This past Sunday my daughter and I went to the Econ River WA for a little bit before church.  There were several Brown-headed Nuthatches there, and they were quite vocal. Of course, they are always most fun when they crawl head first down a tree limb. I was hoping my daughter would enjoy their "squeaker-toy" call, but she paid them no attention.  But I did get this photo before I decided I should catch up with her.  She did have fun finding pretty yellow flowers along the side of the trail, so it was fun for both of us.

Savannah Sparrow at Marl Bed Flats When I first moved to Central Florida, the first places I visited for nature and bird photography were in Brevard and Orange Counties.  I didn't know of any good places to visit in Seminole County where I live.  Every new place I found was in another county. But last year I began discovering my home.  It turns out that, while Seminole Co may not have quite the same variety of birds that its surrounding counties my have, if you know where to go, you can actually do pretty well here.  And there are some places in the county that are quite beautiful for nature photography and  landscapes.  So I thought it would be good to collect my favorite birding and photography locations within Seminole County and share them. Econ River Area My favorite places in eastern Seminole Count are located near the Econ River.  I began discovering places around here in June of last year.  It was so fun to begin finding pine fores...