outdoor photography

Common Yellowthroat Earlier this year I "discovered" a new place for birding in Seminole County.  For a couple years now, I've been looking for a way to get to the St. John's River at Puzzle Lake from Seminole County. Strangely, I've birded Brumley Rd several times but I've never gone to very end of the road, so I've never seen this trailhead. And to my knowledge, no other birders have taken these trails to the St. John's River before.  So in February of this year, I decided this would be my new adventure for Seminole County.  I walked from the trailhead to the St. John's River and back. I've done so six times now, and already I've racked up 116 bird species along the trail and at the river [ field reports ]. The Trails Here's a map of the route I took on my second trip on March 7, 2015.  I'm showing this map because it allows you to see two ways to get out to the flats and back.  Since this trip, I've walked out to the S...

Snowy Egret  Every June in Florida we have the opportunity to participate in a friendly competition called June Challenge. The competition is designed to encourage people to get out there and do some birding during a hot summer month when many birders take a break. Migration is over, and there's often not much new to find, so the competition keeps us out and birding.  Pick a county, any county, and find as many birds as you can in that county during the month of June. The only caveat is they have to be seen; heard only doesn't count. This is my third year participating, and I was very pleased with my June Challenge results.  Every year I've done a little better. In 2012 I found 80 species; in 2013 I found 95; this year I found 104, not including two species I heard but never saw (White-winged Dove and Red-headed Woodpecker). I found 12 species I hadn't seen last year, and I missed out on three I had seen last year (White-winged Dove, Canada Goose, Black Skimmer). ...

Glaucous Gull A few days ago I drove up to Daytona Beach in the afternoon to look for gulls.  An Iceland Gull and a Glaucous Gull had been seen the day before, and we were hoping to find them.  The Iceland Gull eluded us, but the Glaucous Gull was very easy to find near a headless Herring Gull.  This bird has come much farther south than it should have, but I'm not complaining. Glaucous Gull Well, there were other birds there too, though not as many as there were a few weeks ago, when it was estimated that 60,000 gulls were lining the shoreline every evening.  I suspect that when we were there, there were well less than 5,000 gulls along the 1.5 mile stretch of beach that we walked. Lesser Black-backed Gull Ring-billed Gull And there were even a few shorebirds around, mostly Willets, Black-bellied Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, and Sanderlings. Willet  

Ruddy Turnstone Yesterday morning I took my daughter and my parents to Ponce Inlet for some fun at the beach. Since I was primarily being a dad, I didn't do much birding, but I did bring my camera and I did scan the horizon some to see what may be flying by.  I was hoping to get lucky and start my year with some gannets, scoters, and other fun birds, but all I found was a few Northern Gannet.  But I sill had fun walking the beach with my daughter photographing the birds near shore. Sandwich and Royal Terns Ring-billed Gull Brown Pelican Royal Tern At one point my daughter and I walked out onto the jetty, and I kept my eye out for a Purple Sandpiper. I didn't find one, but I did find two more birds, this time two Royal Terns, with fishing line dangling from them. In the photo below, it looks like the fishing line is actually attached to the fish in is mouth, but the the other one was hooked near the belly. That makes four birds in the last two visits. ...

Merlin This morning I went out to the Canaveral National Seashore hoping to find another Razorbill and a Surf Scoter. I found neither, but sometimes you can have a great day even when you find nothing you hoped for.  We first dropped a couple of the "vistas" on the way to the seashore, and we saw a couple Ruddy Ducks and what I now believe was an Iceland Gull--rare for Florida.    We then stopped at parking lot 7 and found nothing unusual--some Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, lots of Royal Terns, and several birds so far out that they couldn't be identified even with a 60x scope.  We then drove up to parking lot 12 and found the photographic highlight of the morning--a Merlin in a tree eating what appears to be a Ruddy Turnstone. On the way home we dropped by Parish Park (just east of the Max Brewer bridge) and found a Bonaparte's Gull with some Sanderlings. Ruddy Duck Ring-billed Gull Royal Tern Bonaparte's Gull Sanderling Sander...

Ring-billed Gull A couple weeks ago I was at Merritt Island, and right by the causeway there were dozens of gulls, most of them Ring-billed. I don't normally spend a lot of time photographing gulls, especially at Merritt Island.  There's so many other interesting birds on the island that I want to be able to see.  But this morning it was hard to resist them. Ring-billed Gull Ring-billed Gull

Laughing Gull (minding his own business) This past Saturday, during the Christmas Bird Count near Cocoa Beach, I witnessed a rare event of bird bullying.  Yes, a Laughing Gull was minding his own business, perched on top of his post, posing diligently for his photographs.  Then a Ring-Billed Gull, without provocation, bullied this poor, defenseless gull off his perch, forcing him to move about 3-5 feet over to the next post.  Now why couldn't the Ring-Billed Gull just land on that post?  Would it have killed him to fly 5 feet farther to not bother the Laughing Gull and my photo shoot?  How was this gull raised?  This just uncalled for behavior, and I have it documented in photos. Ring-Billed Gull (unprovoked, he forces the Laughing Gull to move) I'm sorry you have to witness this This Laughing Gull is not amused Eventually, the Laughing Gull left in shame the Ring-Billed Gull has quite a smug look about him if you ask me