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.

Coyote On April 19, I got up early and drove to the Kilbee Tract of the Little Big Econ WMA. I was hoping to find shorebirds, and my biggest hope was to find an Upland Sandpiper, which I've never seen before. There's plenty of dry grass there, and it just seems like the perfect place to find one. I got there before sunrise walked the 1.3 mile road to the flats. The first thing I noticed was a Coyote sitting among the cattle. When it saw me, it stood up, looked at me, and then trotted off. That was my first photo of a Coyote. Long-billed Dowitcher Long-billed Dowitcher Once out there, I was a bit surprised at how few shorebirds there were. There were three Long-billed Dowitchers along the Econ River, as well as a few Least Sandpipers and yellowlegs, but not much else. Then as I walked a little farther south I saw a very small pond that was nearly full of shorebirds--mostly yellowlegs, but a few Black-necked Stilts and a Black-bellied Plover. I was still pretty ...

Sprague's Pipit Yesterday I met up in the early morning with a couple of my friends to explore the Little Big Econ WMA. Our biggest hope was to find the Vermilion Flycatcher that has been hanging out along the Econ River. We found that bird without much trouble, though it was very early in the morning, and we had terrible light (so I'm not sharing a photo).  From there we decided to walk northeast to see if we might pick up some nice sparrows. We didn't have high hopes, since it was rather windy, but we did pick up a Grasshopper Sparrow and a Le Conte's Sparrow.  The Le Conte's Sparrow was pretty amazing.  It flushed and flew into a clump of grass right in front of us. Then it crawled out of its hiding place and sat exposed for about 10 seconds while we fired off as many photographs as we could, then ducked under cover.  It did the same thing again, allowing us to get even more shots. Unfortunately it was always facing away from me, but at one point it turned it...

Vermilion Flycatcher A few days ago, a Vermilion Flycatcher was found along the Little Big Econ River, very close to where it meets with the St. Johns River. This morning I decided to walk the Kilbee Tract of the Little Big Econ WMA to see if I could find it. It was a pretty easy walk to get to the spot.  This particular individual is a female, and I have no photos of females. This bird was also my first for Seminole County. It's such a fantastic bird. Vermilion Flycatcher After finding the flycatcher I decided to walk the shore of the Little Big Econ to look at the St. Johns. Unfortunately, there's a fence prohibiting you from doing that. However, just walking the grassy and muddy areas next to the Econ was pretty wonderful. There were 23 Black-bellied Plovers, 4 Long-billed Dowitchers and an assortment of both species of yellowlegs.  Other highlights were about 30 American Pipits and a "Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk. Vermilion Flycatcher You can see ...

Rose of Plymouth Brumley Rd Trailhead The Little Big Econ State forest is a fairly large stretch of forest with many trailheads that allow you to see quite a variety of habitats and a diversity of wildlife that I have just recently come to appreciate.  These locations have some of the best birding within Seminole County. Thanks to the wonder of eBird "patches," I can tell you that so far I've seen 145 bird species among these trails and parks, though I've only given much attention to them this year. I've divided my treatment of the SF into two headings: west and east.  As you can see in the map below, there are two main sections of the SF connected by a thin strip along the northern shore of the Econ River. Click Image for PDF view I've visited four trailheads in the state forest.  Snowhill Rd bisects the two main areas. West of Snowhill Rd are the Barr St and Jones East (mountain bike) trailheads, as well as an equestrian trailhead I've not tr...