outdoor photography

Red-cockaded Woodpecker This year I decided to try my hand at a little competition, called a 12 day big year.  You pick one day per month for 2014 and count as many species that you can find within those 12 days within the State of Florida.  I decided to join January 30th, giving me one day to get my January totals in, and it rained that day.  Then in February, I picked a day when I needed to be home by a little after lunch.  So I began the year woefully behind the leaders.  Not that it would matter much, since even on my best days I can't do a lot of traveling, and there are some very experienced birders in the competition. I'm not really in it to win it; it's just a fun little competition to participate in. I enjoy the atmosphere of friendly competition embodied by the competition. But yesterday was a pretty great day.  I totaled 103 species on the day and added 27 to my total for the year, giving me 131 so far.  I started out at Three Lakes Wild...

Mute Swan A couple weeks ago, I was in Lakeland, FL and saw several Mute Swans in Lake Morton. Make no mistake about it, these are beautiful creatures and a picture of grace. As a photographer, I was delighted to see them and photograph them. I mean, is it possible to take a bad photo of such a beautiful bird? Mute Swan Mute Swan On the other hand, Mute Swans were introduced into the U.S. over a hundred years ago as decorative birds in parks and estates, but escaped swans have now formed breeding populations that are growing in the U.S. They are a non-native, invasive species, and their population growth threatens the habitat for native species of waterfowl. For instance, in the Chesapeake Bay, Mute Swans are depleting submerged aquatic vegetation beds, and this hinders efforts to restore native species that depend on submerged aquatic vegetation. They also compete with other native species for food and resources. Trumpeter Swans Fortunately, we do have two native ...