outdoor photography

Ash-throated Flycatcher Last Saturday I decided to visit Lake Apopka for the morning.  I'm participating in a competition this year called a Twelve Day BigYear.  It's a pretty fun competition--the idea is that you pick one day each month in a county (I chose Orange Co), and then find as many birds as you can in those twelve days.  It takes some planning, and to some extent the key is to find as many rarities as you can and hope the more common birds will be seen as well.  I'd love to get 200 species on the year, but that might be a bit over reaching. We'll see.  I started my January day with 92 species, mostly around Lake Apopka. Ash-throated Flycatcher Taking Off The biggest rarity was a White-faced Ibis.  It was found during the CBC in December, and thankfully it was still there.  I chose Lake Apopka just so that I could find that bird again.  It also fun to find an Ash-throated Flycatcher.  They were my best photos of the morning...

Forster's Tern A couple weeks ago I was at the marina on Lake Monroe looking for (and not finding) a Royal Tern that had been seen there earlier. So I occupied my time photographing other terns.  I shared photos of Caspian Terns in another post, but there were also Forster's Terns patrolling the marina area. Most of them still had light heads and dark eye patches, but this one has progressed pretty far toward breeding plumage. So I concentrated on this particular individual, with a nearly all black cap and a deeply forked tail (at least on one side). Forster's Tern If you're not familiar with Forster's Terns, here's one in it's basic/winter plumage. As you can see, their looks change a bit this time of year. Forster's Tern By the way, the Royal Tern did show up there a few days later, though it did not cooperate very well for photos. It spent it's time on the seawall east of the marina, too distant (and too cluttered) for good photos...

Forster's Tern This morning I dropped by Overlook Park.  It's aptly named, since that's pretty much all you can do there. It's basically a fishing pier, a parking area, and a few trees, but on either side of the park there are a couple inlets.  During the winter months, you can often see Bonaparte's Gulls and Forster's Terns flying into these inlets looking for food.  This morning there were about 3 Forster's Terns taking turns doing this.  It's a great photographic opportunity because you have the chance to photograph them with green trees blurred behind them rather than the more typical blue sky.  For me, any picture of a bird in flight is better with green behind it, but that's just my taste. Forster's Tern

Black-legged Kittiwake I had plans to find a Seaside Sparrow this morning, but those were foiled by the weather.  The morning was foggy, rainy, and windy where I was going to look.  So I had a last minute change of plans.  I drove down to the Skyway Fishing Pier and found the Black-legged Kittiwake that has been seen there--a lifer for me. Black-legged Kittiwake Then I went to Fort De Soto, which is only about 25 minutes away.  I love this place.  On the way I saw a Nanday Parakeet, and once in the park, it was fun to see a mixed flock of gulls and shorebirds, and also this Red-breasted Merganser. Also seen here were Royal, Forster's and Sandwich Terns, a couple American Oystercatchers, and many Willets and Marbled Godwits. Red-breasted Merganser Marbled Godwit Willet Forster's Tern American Oystercatcher Then I found a Long-billed Curlew actively feeding on crabs. I think I remember reading that one was seen here, but I'd forgotten...

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...

Forster's Tern I took my daughter to the lighthouse park at Ponce Inlet for an afternoon at the beach today.  I went as a dad, not a photographer, but that didn't stop me from taking my camera with me.  There was a flock of gulls and terns there, and my daughter thought it would be fun to go see them.  So I photographed Forster's Terns, Sandwich Terns and Royal Terns.  There were also several Brown Pelicans there, and lots of Sanderlings.  But the biggest birding moment was finding three Northern Gannets. I set a goal at the beginning of the year to find 250 birds in Florida this year, and the Northern Gannet was my 250th find this year.  So that was a pretty great moment for me. Sandwich Tern Sandwich Tern Royal Tern Brown Pelican Snowy Egret Northern Gannet Osprey Sanderling

Forster's Tern Forster's Terns are one my favorite birds.  My six-year old daughter is sitting next to me as I write this, and I asked her what she thinks of the bird.  She says it's white and black with gray on the wings, and she likes its red feet.  She likes the way it flies, and she likes the bill and the black around the eyes. She says she loves this bird, but she also tells me that she likes Bald Eagles better. Forster's Tern

Forster's Tern A couple weeks ago at Merritt Island, I had the opportunity to photograph a few Forster's Terns in flight.  They can be very tough to catch!  Normally when shooting birds I select only the center focusing point so that I can be more likely to get the bird in focus.  But when I'm shooting birds in flight against a plain blue background, I frequently change my focusing mode to include all focusing points.  The reason is simple: there really are only two places the camera will focus--on the bird or on the background, and the more focusing points I enable, the more likely I will get the bird in focus. Forster's Tern