outdoor photography

Common Myna Florida City Cracker Barrel I had a meeting in Miami last week, and I've never seen a Common Myna.  So I decided to drive a half-hour farther south than my meeting to visit the Cracker Barrel at the end of the Florida Turnpike. I'd been told that's pretty much a guaranteed spot to find them.  It took about 15 minutes before I saw about 15 of them on the power lines behind the Cracker Barrel. That was a lifer for me; well worth the extra hour of driving to locate the bird.  On my way back home, I dropped by some of my favorite South Florida birding locations to see what I might be able to add to my Florida year list. I ended the day with 8 new Florida year birds, including 2 lifers: one countable (Common Myna) and one not (Mitred Parakeet). I was slightly irritated that, on my way back through Miami, I stopped to get gas. Guess what bird I saw fly right by me? Common Myna. Figures. But I wouldn't have been able to get a photo of that bird like the one I g...

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...