outdoor photography

Sedge Wren Every year in March I make a trip from my home in Central Florida to a conference in Dothan, Alabama. It's a perfect opportunity for me to get up early and visit Payne's Prairie, La Chua Trail just south of Gainesville. So Friday morning I left before 6am to arrive at La Chua Trail before 8:30am.  I was hoping for some fun sparrows, but it's getting a little late in the year, I think, and it was a little windy. But I did get my best photos of White-crowned Sparrows in Florida, as well as a few others. White-crowned  Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Savannah Sparrow There were also plenty of wading birds. One Snowy Egret was particularly photogenic, and an American Bittern came out in the open to at least get to see most of him, even though surrounded by grasses.  There were several Black-crowned Night Herons here too, some immature.  The immature below I found quite interesting. It kept its head raised and neck extended the whole time I watched i...

Marsh Wren Wrens do not top the list of birds that are difficult to identify, but for newer birders they can present a challenge. With practice they can be identified by their calls and songs alone--they're vocal enough that they can frequently be detected and identified without being seen.  But at first glance, they tend to look similar--little brownish birds that like to stick up their tails in the air.  We have four wrens species that are commonly found in Central Florida, and with a little bit of practice, they can easily be distinguished from each other by looking at their eye stripe and a couple other field marks. We'll look at each of our wren species in order of the prominence of their eye stripe. Marsh Wren Marsh Wren (note dark cap, bold eye stripe, and dark back) Marsh Wrens are winter visitors to Central Florida, and they very common in our cattail marshes from October through April.  They have an extremely prominent eye-stripe with a dark crown an...

Sedge Wren Yesterday morning a friend and I went to Marl Bed Flats. It was a little slower than I thought it would be, I'm guessing because it was a windy, cloudy morning.  Sedge Wrens were plentiful there, and the House Wrens were especially vocal.  Even with the wind there were lots of Savannah Sparrows around. We also had one Orange-crowned Warbler and many Palm Warblers, including one "yellow/eastern" race, but we saw only one Yellow-rumped Warbler and heard only one Common Yellowthroat. Sedge Wren House Wren There were also many blackbirds around, and we were lucky enough to have an Eastern Meadowlark fly right by us. I think this is my only presentable photo of an Eastern Meadowlark in flight. Eastern Meadowlark And Phoebes were calling everywhere.  A couple were quite photogenic; one perched right next to the past and allowed us to get some photos with nice, clean backgrounds. Eastern Phoebe One of the biggest highlights for me was seeing t...

Sedge Wren This past Saturday I went to the Shiloh area of Merritt Island looking for a  Scissor-tailed Flycatcher . I arrived just as the sun was rising, and there were many sparrows and wrens active by the gravel road just before and at the parking lot.  I was able to photograph a couple Sedge Wrens.  All my photographs of these two birds were taken at around ISO 2000, and thankfully some of them were sharp.  These are my first sharp photos of this rather secretive bird. Sedge Wrens can look similar to Marsh Wrens, but Sedge Wrens have a relatively indistinct eye-stripe and a streaked crown, plus an overall lighter appearance. Sedge Wren