outdoor photography

Herring Gull At Fort De Soto this past Saturday I had a very fun time watching a Herring Gull with its prey.  It would fly up about 30 ft in the air, drop its prey and then come down and inspect it. I saw it do this about 5-7 times before I had to move one. He was working pretty hard at getting his morsel out, but I suspect it will take him a long time, since all he had to drop his prize on was compacted sand. Herring Gull I've read that crows and gulls both exhibit this behavior, but I've never  been able to photograph it before.  If I had more time, it would have been fun to  watch this for a while longer to see if he was able to extract his prize. Herring Gull

Northern Gannet I returned to Lighthouse Point Park at Ponce Inlet again in the hopes of finding a Razorbill. We found one far off the jetty.  My father, who's in town for Christmas, located it in his scope, and I was able to locate it briefly with my binoculars.  It was very far away (I probably would not have been able to identify it with my binoculars), the winds were strong and the waves were high, and the Razorbill appeared to be spending a lot of time "flying" under water.  So no photos of the Razorbill, but later this week we're hoping to go to the gulf where people have been getting pretty good photos of Razorbills. Black Skimmer Black Skimmers, though, were a very different story. There were many there, and a couple were actively bathing and skimming by the shore, making me very happy.  Gulls were numerous too, though not like the last time I came came here.  We found only Herring, Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls, plus Royal and Sandwich Terns...