outdoor photography

Ruby-crowned Kinglet The other day I went to Secret Lake Park on my way into work. It's pretty little park, and I've not found a whole lot of wonderful things there, but it just seems like it's the kind of place that should turn up something good from time to time.  So I walked around the park a little, and I heard the familiar chatter of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  These are beautiful birds, and I find them tough to photograph--small and active, they never seem to want to sit still for a photo. Ruby-crowned Kinglet Well, this one was flitting around the edges of a tree, and just happened to pop into a couple places that made for some of my better photos of the species.  They are going to start leaving us pretty soon, and I've taken no good photos of them this winter, so it was nice of this individual to cooperate with me a little. Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Florida Red Belly Turtle Yesterday afternoon I dropped by Secret Lake Park for a few minutes to check on breeding birds.  The last time I was here the place was hopping with activity, and I was able to log breeding evidence for Brown Thrashers, Common Grackles, Osprey, and Common Gallinules.  Yesterday was much quieter, though the begging Ospreys and Common Grackles were still making a racket.  It was fun to find other types of animals, though.  A Florida Redbelly Turtle posed for me, as did a couple species of dragonfly.  I don't know my dragonflies well at all.  I'm pretty sure one was a male Eastern Pondhawk; the other I was unable to identify, but the great people at BugGuide.net identified it as a Slaty Skimmer. Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta) Ospreys are there in abundance.  I confess I get pretty tired of photographing them, and often I just ignore them, but it was a slow birding d...

Common Gallinule On my way home from work today I dropped by Secret Lake Park (which I just recently discovered about 2 weeks ago, so I guess it lives up to its name).  I was hoping to find some evidence of breeding birds.  It was fun to see Common Grackles begging their mothers for food and a couple Brown Thrashers collecting food to bring back to a nest, but even more fun was a family of five Common Gallinules--two adults with three little ones.  One of them waded out into the water a little, and I thought it made for a pretty cute photo.