outdoor photography

Beautiful Hammock While on my trip to South Florida, my father and I visited Matheson Hammock Park in Miami-Dade County.  It's a beautiful park.  We visited once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  One of our target birds was a White-crowned Pigeon, and this seemed to be the best place to find one, but we struck out.  However, we did see our first Yellow-chevroned Parakeets (perhaps soon to be countable) in the morning, and in the afternoon, I was able to get some of my best photos of Least Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers. Least Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Plover Semipalmated Plover The shorebirds were in an asphalt parking lot in a shallow pool of water, but when I got down low enough the reflections on the water made the setting look more natural. Matheson Hammock Park Matheson Hammock Park It's a very pretty park, though, and I'd love to return again.  I spent a little time exercising my Canon Powershot G7...

Sunrise over Miami Canon Powershot G7 X Sunday I went with some friends on a pelagic trip out to Miami.  I've never birded  in Miami-Dade County before, so I was hoping for some lifers.  We went out on Roberto Torres' boat, the Xenia V, out of the Black Point Marina, and he was fantastic.  He has a great boat, he knows what he's doing, and he's a birder who's as interested in the birds as we are.  It's a great combination. You can see his summary of our trip here . Royal Terns Near the Jetty We had west winds all day, though, so birds were sparse.  We didn't see a single shearwater the whole day, and we saw only a handful of Sooty Terns--no Bridled Terns, noddies or tropicbirds.  We did see a few jaegers though: one Pomarine Jaeger, one Long-tailed Jaeger, one other jaeger flying with it that was likely also a Long-tailed Jaeger (though we didn't get a good enough look to rule out Parasitic Jaeger definitively). White-crowned P...

Sandwich Tern I went to Lighthouse Point Park at Ponce Inlet.  I was hoping to find one of the Razorbills that had been seen there recently, but no luck for me today.  It was still a pretty good morning, though.  Lots of gulls and terns were there: Sandwich, Royal and Forster's Terns, plus Ring-billed, Laughing, Herring, Great Black-backed, one Lesser Black-backed Gull and at least 100 Black Skimmers.  I found 14 Black Scoters flying off shore.  I also found about 35 Red Knots in two different flocks, and one was injured and by itself near the jetty. The injured Red Knot could not walk--it had to hop on one leg, and I don't think I could fly, so I reported it to the Seabird Rehabilitation Sanctuary, and hopefully it will be found and cared for.  There were about 17 Northern Gannet off shore, and one Magnificent Frigatebird flew over the jetty as I was walking back to the car. Black Skimmer Black Skimmer Black Skimmer Black Skimmer B...