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...

Red-cockaded Woodpecker This morning I joined the Orange Audubon Society at the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area.  My biggest hope was to see a Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  It was wonderful to see two of them.  We also found a Summer Tanager, the first I've seen this year. Other highlights were many Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Chickadees, Pine Warblers, Eastern Towhees, about three Bachman's Sparrows, several Northern Bobwhites,  and a Crested Caracara. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker was a life bird for me. Red-cockaded Woodpecker Summer Tanager