outdoor photography

Black & White Warbler Ugh. I've been a terrible blogger lately. This is my first post in two weeks! However, Central Winds has become increasingly fun over the last couple weeks, with a larger variety of migrants coming through.  There are also fewer numbers of Northern Parula (sometimes I'd see about 50 or so in the park), so it's easier to pick out other species. The park has also given me some of my better photographs of some species, so I figured I'd share a collection of photos from the last two weeks (when I last posted). Yellow Warbler Yellow Warblers have been quite common here, and sometimes I've seen as many as 5.  But for some reason they have not been that cooperative for photos until a couple days ago.  One found a nice snack low enough for me to get a decent shot, finally. Black & White Warbler Prairie Warbler Prairie Warblers and Black and White Warblers have also been pretty common here, but the Black-and-whites have bee...

Cooper's Hawk This morning I took a little walk around the Econ River Wilderness Area.  My biggest hope was to find a chickadee.  No luck there, but it was still a pretty fun morning.  Most of the normal birds were there, and both a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a Tufted Titmouse were willing to pose for photos.  The best find of the morning, though, was a Cooper's Hawk. This is only the second Cooper's Hawk I've seen in the park, and I believe it gave me my first presentable photos of the species in Seminole County.  Most my Cooper's Hawk photos that I've kept have been taken at Mead Gardens in Orange Co. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse This morning I met a friend of mine at Mead Gardens.  We a very nice time there, though there weren't many birds to speak of there.  We saw or heard five species of warbler: Ovenbird, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, and a Black and White Warbler.  We also had fun watching a Great Egret preening, a couple Great Blue Herons were in the stream and lake shore.  A Cooper's Hawk also made an appearance by the lake shore, swooping down over a couple White Ibises. Great Egret Since there weren't a lot of birds, we turned our attention to other wildlife.  We saw a couple non-native species, including a Brown Anole and a Red-eared Slider. Brown Anole Red-eared Slider But there were also many Eastern Pondhawk dragonflies there, including this beautiful female. And a Rat Snake fell out a tree near us; I have to say, this is probably the prettiest snake I've ever seen. Eastern Pondhawk Rat Snake

Canada Warbler This morning I went to Mead Gardens to participate in the Orange Audubon Society's bird walk.  They put one together every spring and fall during migration times.  I only had about 45 minutes to be with them, but about 5 minutes of my time there made it entirely worth while.  We found a Canada Warbler--a beautiful male.  Most of us had a pretty good look at it, but it was pretty far away, so my photo isn't as great as I would like (the head's a little blurry).  But it's a life bird for me, and it may well be years before I see one again. Great Egret I picked up my son and we went to Central Winds so he could exercise (he's preparing for a 5k race next week).  I walked around the park to see what I could find.  We found nothing extraordinary.  The best find was a Chestnut-sided Warbler.  Other warblers we saw were Ovenbird, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler,...

Tufted Titmouse This morning I was going to do some work in Oviedo, so I thought I'd drop by Geneva Wilderness Area before work.  I had noticed that birding data between July and October is pretty much non existent during this time, and I wanted to get a sense for what may be found there.  I wasn't expecting much, figuring that Geneva might not be visited too much during this time for a reason. Brown-headed Nuthatch Initially things were slow, seeing only White-eyed Vireos and Eastern Bluebirds.  But when I arrived at the chapel and ponds area, things began to change.  I was hoping to find shorebirds or something interesting by the shores of the ponds, but they were empty except for a few Wood Ducks.  However, I began to hear activity all around me, mostly coming from Tufted Titmice and then from Brown-headed Nuthatches.  It seemed like the titmice and nuthatches worked up all the other birds in the area into a frenzy, and birds were everywhere. ...

Limpkin This morning I had to drop off my pool pump to a repair shop, but I got to the shop before they opened.  I was near a lake in Maitland called Lake Lilly, so I decided to walk around the lake to see what I might find until the shop opened at 8am.  For me, the biggest highlights were the Limpkin at the shore and the Tufted Titmice that were in the trees around the lake.  I watched the Limpkin open a shell and extract its meat, and the titmice were very good at putting on a nice little show in the trees. Limpkin Tufted Titmouse Tufted Titmouse But the lake also capitalized in cuteness this morning.  The lake had many Muscovy Ducks with many cute little ducklings, and there was a nice little bunny there that let me get pretty close to take its portrait.  I figured with all this cuteness, I'd let the all-time expert on cuteness, in my six-year old daughter, give her thoughts on what follows. Muscovy Duckling Julianna likes its black a...