outdoor photography

Lincoln's Sparrow Canal St, Feb 2013 I didn't intend to attempt a Seminole Co. big year this year.  I intended to do at least a little birding every day, and since I have a little time before work, I tended to stick to Seminole Co. on most work days, with an occasional venture into Orange County to visit Mead Gardens or Wekiwa Springs.  On the weekends, I wanted to chase birds within about an hour's drive of my home.  But as finances became tight and time became limited, I found myself concentrating more and more on Semnole County. Eventually I decided to see if I could hit 200 in the year, and then once I did, I just had to keep going. Philadelphia Vireo Central Winds Park, Oct 2013 I believe my county is under-birded compared to neighboring counties (Orange, Lake, Brevard, Volusia). Seminole Co is small and filled with suburbs. It's inland so there's no coastline, and there's surprisingly few places to look for shorebirds.  But something about that...

Lark Sparrow This past fall I've decided to concentrate my birding on sparrows in Florida.  We have three sparrows that are extremely common this time of year: Savannah, Chipping and Swamp Sparrows. I have seen and photographed these more times than I can count. Happily, Eastern Towhees can be found here all year round. But aside from these four, sparrows here can be somewhat of a challenge. Here's my progress so far.  I'm including photos of a couple sparrows (Lark and Bachman's) that I happened to find before this past fall. Bachman's Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow Nelson's Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Le Conte's Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow I see Song Sparrows very infrequently, and I've seen one White-crowned Sparrow and one Saltmarsh Sparrow, but I have no decent photographs of these species yet.  I'm still hoping to find a Fox, Henslow's, Field,White-throated and Seaside Sparrow in Florida. H...

Lincoln's Sparrow What a pretty bird!  My quest for fun sparrows took a nice step forward today when I found this Lincoln's Sparrow. It looks superficially like a Swamp Sparrow, but those black streaks on a buffy breast are unmistakable.  I love this bird. Lincoln's Sparrow