outdoor photography

Since May, I've been doing a lot of hiking at the Little Big Econ State Forest. The area is one of my favorite places to hike, especially in Central Florida. You can see major portions of the Econ River as well as some of the St. John's River, and there's a beautiful mix of pine flatwoods, marshy flood plains, and everything in between. During the summer the only birds here are breeding birds that I've photographed many times before, so I decided to bring my macro lens with me and focus on flowers, insects and other wildlife. The culmination of these efforts is a vastly expanded catalog of photos with a much greater diversity of species. I decided to celebrate this with a video slide show focusing on all the tracts and trails of the State Forest and Wildlife Management Area. I hope you enjoy it.

Village Indigobird Yesterday one of my friends found this exotic bird at his feeder. He called a few of us to come over and see this bird. We spent a good amount of time trying to turn it into a Pin-tailed Whydah, but there were several things that didn't sit well with that species. First, the bill was whitish with a tinge of pink, the legs were orange, and the bird appeared to be molting into an adult plumage that didn't match any whydah we could find. Turns out the best fit is an Indigobird. We recorded the bird singing, and the recordings appear to be a spot on match for recordings of Village Indigobird on xeno-canto. Here's the strange thing. I checked iNaturalist and eBird, and there are no records of any indigobird anywhere in the United States. So while it would be wrong to say this bird is "rare" because it's certainly an escaped/released pet, it's still pretty great to see one that apparently isn't a common pet in the United States. It wa...

Meadow Beauty I took a 7-mile walk around the Lower Wekiva River Preserve this morning. I wasn't able to take my normal route, though, since the trails were flooded in a couple places. So I ended up walking some areas that I'd never been to before. I ended up seeing a fair amount that I don't normally see,  so it looks like I need to add more variety to my hikes here. Butterfly Pea Ever since May, I've been hiking with my macro lens instead of my 400 mm lens. I'm trying to concentrate on learning my butterflies and dragonflies, while also photographing other bugs and wildflowers I see. The change has been fun and very enjoyable, though I suspect when migration starts again, I'll go back to my old ways. Rose Rush I had a wonderful time with the wildflowers I'd seen. The Meadow Beauty and Butterfly Pea were the first I've photographed. I've photographed Rose Rush before, but it looked more blue. I've photographed Tarflower severa...

Bell's Vireo Over the weekend, a friend of mine found a Bell's Vireo at my favorite sparrow spot in Seminole County. Apparently, it flew into his field of view while he was looking for sparrows. I wish I could be so lucky. This species belongs in Texas and winters along the Pacific Coast in Mexico and Central America. But occasionally one shows up in Florida, and on even rarer occasions, it will winter here.  That's a special treat for me, especially in my home county.

On Saturday, I visited Hal Scott Preserve to look for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. I found two, which was really nice to see. I also saw several Carolina Satyrs, and I got my best photos of the species. I then went to Tosohatchee, where I saw lots of interesting bugs. I'm playing with the video capabilities of my new Canon 7D mark ii with fluid head, so I put my photos in the above video using ProShow Producer. I also added the photos from the slideshow below. Red-cockaded Woodpecker Hal Scott Carolina Satyr Hal Scott Lilac Tasselflower Hal Scott Pine Hal Scott Oak Toad Tosohatchee Oak Toad Tosohatchee Crambini Moth Tosohatchee Long-headed Toothpick Grasshopper Tosohatchee Common Green Darner (Teneral) Tosohatchee

This morning I decided to hike a little bit of Orlando Wetlands Park. My main goal was to try taking some video with my new Canon EOS 7D mark II and Manfrotto MVH500AH fluid head. The head works beautifully, and the 7Dm2 took wonderful video, though the autofocus seems to make a clicking sound while I'm recording. Good practice is to use an external mic for audio anyway, so I'm not too concerned. I put together a short video of some of the footage I collected today. It's nothing special, but I kind of like it, especially since it's the first video I've taken with the camera. But note to self. I need to get rid of the noisiness.

Bald Eagle This past Saturday I walked to the St. John's River from the end of Brumley Rd. It's an eight mile walk to get there and back. On the way, a juvenile Bald Eagle flew right by me, and I thought it would be fun to try out the autofocus system on my new Canon 7D mark II. I registered my C3 setting to Shutter priority mode at 1/1250 sec with the autofocus system set on all focusing points (I may change this later). The camera functioned beautifully and just about all my photos came out sharp. I'm incredibly impressed with how this camera performs. Bald Eagle Bald Eagle Bald Eagle Bald Eagle

Gull-billed Terns I decided to wander around Orlando Wetlands Park this morning and found a wonderful surprise. Two Gull-billed Terns were parked together right next to the main trail. I've never been happy with my photos of this species before, and I think today's photographs were my favorite. Gull-billed Tern Gull-billed Tern Gull-billed Tern Gull-billed Tern Ducks are increasing in numbers with every visit. This morning there were bunches of both Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, lots of Northern Pintail, one Northern Shoveler, one Wigeon, a Gadwall, many Ring-necked Ducks, and a few Lesser Scaup, not to mention Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks everywhere.

Baird's Sandpiper Two days ago, one of my friends found a Baird's Sandpiper at Orlando Wetlands Park, and several of us saw it yesterday (and it's still being seen today). I drove out to it during my lunch break and came back to the office all excited. Of course, my friends at work thought I was nerding out over a bird that "looks just like any other sandpiper."  The bird was on Wetlands Blvd between Limpkin and Bobcat Rds.  It was very kind to us because it was hanging out with both a Pectoral Sandpiper and a Least Sandpiper, so we could compare sizes. It's a beautiful bird. Baird's Sandpiper There were only a few other shorebirds there: about 12 Least Sandpipers, 1 Pectoral, 1 Semipalmated, 4 Limpkin and 6 Lesser Yellowlegs. Baird's Sandpiper Baird's Sandpiper

Lavinia sp. Orbweaver A couple weeks ago I visited the wildlife drive at Lake Apopka. I decided to use my macro lens and see if I could go my whole time just photographing insects and spiders. I made it all the way until the sod fields near the end of the drive, when I had to put my 400 mm lens back on. Black and Yellow Argiope I saw two species of spiders, a Black and Yellow Argiope and a Larinia species orbweaver. These were probably the most challenging to photograph. The Lavinia sp. was pretty small, and it had become quite windy, so just getting a sharp photo was a bit of a challenge. I photographed two odes, a Rambur's Forktail and an Eastern Amberwing. Rambur's Forktail Eastern Amberwing I also had some fun photos of butterflies and moths, in particular, a Southern Skipperling, a Fiery Skipper, and a Yellow-collared Scape Moth. The scape moth was probably the most fun find of the morning for me. Yellow-collared Scape Moth Fiery Skipper ...

Carolina Spreadwing After having such a wonderful time this past Saturday at Lake Proctor looking for butterflies and dragonflies, I thought I'd try a different park with a similar habitat. Geneva Wilderness Area is a little closer, but it has three ponds with similar habitat. So I decided I'd check those ponds before work. They are surrounded by pines with grassy fields near them, and from what I'm learning that's a pretty good type of place to look for dragonflies. Cherry Bluet I didn't see nearly as many dragonflies as on Saturday, but I did get about 15 species, and two of them were new to me: Carolina Spreadwing and Cherry Bluet. There were several species that were at Lake Proctor as well: Banded Pennant, Golden-winged Skimmer, Halloween Pennant, Little Blue Dragonlet, Atlantic Bluet, and Rambur's Forktail. Atlantic Bluet (can't entirely rule out Familiar Bluet) Citrine Forktail Rambur's Forktail Banded Pennant L...