outdoor photography

Gold Rim Butterfly On April 14th, Jeff and I visited Mead Gardens. We were hoping to find Zebra Longwing and Great Purple Hairstreak.  Birding was slow, though we did get a Worm-eating Warbler at the entrance to the boardwalk nearest the stream. The butterfly garden had a couple duskywing skippers and several Monarchs. But then a Gold Rim Butterfly showed up and stole the show. This is a swallowtail without a swallow tail, and I'd love to photograph all of the ones that occur in Florida (I still need Pipevine Swallowtail).  This was easily the highlight of the morning. Interestingly, we went to Leu Gardens after Mead and saw another one there. I guess they may be common in butterfly gardens, but these are the first I've seen. Monarch Monarch

Canon Powershot G7X I've been using my Canon G7X for about a month now.  Obviously given my interest in bird photography, I didn't buy it to be my primary camera. However, I always like to take a second camera with me for photos of landscapes, flowers and other non-birds in nature. Bringing a second DSLR or changing lenses is not really an option, so this camera seemed to fit the bill. So far I have been very impressed with it.  I haven't done any formal tests, but it seems like noise levels are not appreciably different from my Canon 7D, and the lens is nice and sharp, even at 1:1 on my computer.  All my landscape shots have been shot hand held. Here are a few that I like best. Mead Gardens Mead Gardens Sunrise Over Miami Ocean View For macro and flower photography, the Canon G7X has done quite well so far. With a smaller sensor, this camera will not give you the kind of blurry backgrounds you'd expect to get out of a DSLR, but it's a gigantic...

Peninsula Cooter For a while now I've been trying to learn my turtles.  There aren't too many species to see here, but they all look so similar to me it's hard to tell them apart.  But these Peninsula Cooters are frequently seen at Mead Gardens, and they often sit in beautiful settings. Peninsula Cooter Peninsula Cooter

Magnolia Warbler It was another very fun day at Mead Gardens.  A bunch of us were there for the birdwalk with the Orange Audubon Society.  It's always a great time; this time there were probably more than 50 people there, but it didn't seem all that crowded.  The star of the show this morning was a beautiful Magnolia Warbler in breeding plumage.  We don't get that many of these; this one was occasionally cooperative for photos, but you had to be ready. Hesitate a second and he was off to another branch. Magnolia Warbler In all I believe 13 species of warblers were seen by the time I left: Ovenbird 4 Worm-eating Warbler 3 Northern Waterthrush 1 Black-and-white Warbler 10 Prothonotary Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 4 American Redstart 15 Northern Parula 4 Magnolia Warbler 1 Blackpoll Warbler 12 Black-throated Blue Warbler 8 Palm Warbler (Western) 2 Prairie Warbler 2 Worm-eating Warbler The Prothonotary Warbler was in the t...

Blue-winged Warbler The last couple days at Mead Gardens have been fantastic.  Yesterday morning I had 9 warbler species, and with the weather we had last night I thought it might be good to try again this morning; after I left someone found a Blue-winged Warbler in the park, so I returned to find him.  In all I had 15 species on the day in the park: Ovenbird 2  Worm-eating Warbler 3  Northern Waterthrush 1  Blue-winged Warbler 1 Black-and-White Warbler 6 Common Yellowthroat 1  Hooded Warbler 1  American Redstart 3 Cape May Warbler 1  Northern Parula 2 Blackpoll Warbler 1  Black-throated Blue Warbler 6 Palm Warlber 1 Prairie Warbler 1 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 It was also fun to find a Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo and a Red-eyed Vireo.  All in all a pretty fun morning. Blue-winged Warbler Hooded Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler

Red-headed Woodpecker During lunch today I had to get a crown replaced on one of my teeth.  Not fun at all.  But my dentist's office is right near Mead Gardens, so after my crown was placed I decided to briefly walk through the park.  If you don't stop too much, you can see most of the park inside of a half-hour or so.  There were three birds I was hoping to see, and thankfully I found them all.  First, Northern Parula are coming back here to breed, and I wanted to get one on my Orange County list for this year; one was singing practically as I got out of the car. Second, I wanted a Hermit Thrush; there are a few places here that are good for finding them, and I've missed them a couple times before this year, but this time one did oblige me with a brief look (though it was always behind tree limbs, so I couldn't get a clean view for photos).  Then I walked over to one of the places a Red-headed Woodpecker has been seen.  It was right out on a tree ...

Red-headed Woodpecker Mead Gardens has been exceptionally slow all fall with very few warblers stopping by. But I still like to visit from time to time, especially during the Orange Adubon Society Birdwalks.  So yesterday morning I joined the group that was there and had  a great time.  The biggest highlight was seeing a couple Red-headed Woodpeckers.  These are the first I've seen in the park; they've been here for a couple weeks now--extremely unusual for this species.  At least one of them has excavated a hole in the park, and we watched it actively gathering acorns and caching them away.  Hopefully that means it's planning to stick around for a while.  In all we found six species of woodpecker on the property: Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and Pileated Woodpecker. Red-headed Woodpecker We also had many House Wrens and a Scarlet Tanager. Warblers were tougher to...

Eastern Kingbird the first I've seen in the park Today I joined the Orange Audubon Society's bird walk for Mead Gardens.  Normally this time of year, the park is just hopping with migrants.  I checked the eBird reports from last year at this time, and there were some really nice sightings in the park.  However, this fall has been extremely slow, so I've only visited a couple times.  I hoped for some surprises this morning, but I think this was the slowest September day at Mead that I can remember.  We had five species of warbler: Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Prairie Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, and Northern Parula.  We had a few Red-eyed Vireos to liven things up a bit, and several of us had the chance to see a couple Baltimore Orioles.  Those that stayed past 11:00 am were rewarded with nice views of three Eastern Kingbirds.  Those were the first I've seen in the park, so that's something.  There were still the normal ...

Tufted Titmouse This morning I met a friend of mine at Mead Gardens.  We a very nice time there, though there weren't many birds to speak of there.  We saw or heard five species of warbler: Ovenbird, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, and a Black and White Warbler.  We also had fun watching a Great Egret preening, a couple Great Blue Herons were in the stream and lake shore.  A Cooper's Hawk also made an appearance by the lake shore, swooping down over a couple White Ibises. Great Egret Since there weren't a lot of birds, we turned our attention to other wildlife.  We saw a couple non-native species, including a Brown Anole and a Red-eared Slider. Brown Anole Red-eared Slider But there were also many Eastern Pondhawk dragonflies there, including this beautiful female. And a Rat Snake fell out a tree near us; I have to say, this is probably the prettiest snake I've ever seen. Eastern Pondhawk Rat Snake

Wood Duck Yesterday my father and I went to Mead Gardens hoping to find migrants.  It was strangely and eerily quiet, though.  Resident and breeding birds were there in abundance--Wood Ducks were there, which is always nice; Carolina Wrens were seemingly everywhere, and in a couple places you could see fledglings.  Northern Parulas and Common Yellowthroats were frequently heard and seen.  But it was a while before we actually saw birds that were just passing through.  We saw one Northern Waterthrush, one Black-throated Blue Warbler and one American Redstart.  So we turned out attention to some other fine friends.   A Box Turtle was out in beautiful colors and a Crab-like Spiny Orbweaver spun a web where we could frustrate ourselves trying to get a picture in a slight breeze.  As we were leaving a friend told me that a White-winged Dove was over by the feeders, so we marched back to get photos of this interesting species.  White-winged Dov...