outdoor photography

Vesper Sparrow I love Vesper's Sparrows. They seem like Savannah Sparrows with an extra dash of class. This guy was hanging out with a bunch of Savannah Sparrows at my favorite little sparrow spot in Oviedo.

White-crowned Sparrow Yesterday I drove out to Lust Rd., which is a road that takes you very close to Lake Apopka.  It actually can take you all the way to the lake, but at one point it's fenced off, preventing you from entering the restoration area.  But the road near the fence is a pretty great place to look for sparrows.  Yesterday I found 5 species and photographed four: Savannah , White-crowned, Vesper, Field and Grasshopper Sparrows.  The Field Sparrow is the first I've seen in Orange Co., and only the second I've seen in Florida.  Vesper Sparrow Field Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow This is also the area where I found my first Western Tanager.  I see Blue-headed Vireos here frequently this time of year, but this is a species that seems rather adept at preventing me from getting good photos.  I usually end up with a cluttered background behind these birds whenever I get them in my sights.  Yesterday morning gave me my best photo...

Grasshopper Sparrow I love fall migration, don't get me wrong, but I get really excited when sparrows start coming in.  This past Saturday I found my first Savannah Sparrow at Merritt Island, and today I went to my favorite local spot for sparrows on a little street south of Lake Jesup.  It's just a fence line with dense vegetation around it and an open field on both sides.  But it's a great spot for sparrows. Today I found Swamp, Savannah, and Grasshopper Sparrows here.  The Grasshopper Sparrows were unusually cooperative. Shortly after I arrived I saw one perch a distance away on the top of a fence post along with a Savannah Sparrow.  Then a little later a couple flew pretty close to me; one perched on a fence post and another on a plant, and they posed for a few minutes.  Shortly after they left I saw two again in similar places.  Perhaps they're the same two.  They gave me my best photos of the species I have to date. I'm looking forward t...

White-crowned Sparrow I was traveling up to Alabama this morning, and so I left early to see what I could find at Payne's Prairie.  I walked the La Chua Trail; it was somewhat breezy out, so I suspect many sparrows were hiding, but I did get to find eight sparrow species: Field Sparrow (my first in Florida), White-crowned Sparrows (my first photos in Florida), a funny-looking Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow and several Eastern Towhee. White-crowned Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Chipping Sparrow This Song Sparrow looks odd to me Swamp Sparrow It was also fun to find several Sora and an American Bittern, an American Kestrel and a couple White-tailed Deer. I missed seeing the female Vermilion Flycatcher, the Groove-billed Ani, and the Fox Sparrow that has been seen nearby. American Bittern Sora American Kestrel White-tailed Deer

Lark Sparrow This past fall I've decided to concentrate my birding on sparrows in Florida.  We have three sparrows that are extremely common this time of year: Savannah, Chipping and Swamp Sparrows. I have seen and photographed these more times than I can count. Happily, Eastern Towhees can be found here all year round. But aside from these four, sparrows here can be somewhat of a challenge. Here's my progress so far.  I'm including photos of a couple sparrows (Lark and Bachman's) that I happened to find before this past fall. Bachman's Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow Nelson's Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Le Conte's Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow I see Song Sparrows very infrequently, and I've seen one White-crowned Sparrow and one Saltmarsh Sparrow, but I have no decent photographs of these species yet.  I'm still hoping to find a Fox, Henslow's, Field,White-throated and Seaside Sparrow in Florida. H...

Vesper Sparrow This morning I drove out to C.S. Lee Park, and I found about 3 Vesper Sparrows.  These sparrows are perhaps a little more plain than others, but I think they're pretty anyway. I love that bold white eye ring.  Also fun to see were about 80 American White Pelicans flying north in three flocks. Vesper Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Vesper Sparrow I don't care much for this shot below, but I think it's a pretty good ID shot in that it shows all the things I look for--a prominent white eye-ring, a plainish head (compared to Savannah Sparrow), and white on the outer tail feathers. Vesper Sparrow For fun, here's a shot of a few of the many American White Pelicans that flew over while I was there. American White Pelicans

Vesper Sparrow Vesper Sparrows are one of the plainer-looking sparrows I've seen here in Florida.  But a simple gray-brown sparrow is still pretty in my book.  These photos were all taken on the same day of the same bird posing for me at a fence next to an open field. They are superficially similar to Savannah Sparrows, but they have a plainer face with complete white eye ring and white outer tail feathers (partially obscured in these photos). Vesper Sparrow Vesper Sparrow

Canal St. Fence It doesn't look like much, but this little fence on Canal St just south of Lake Jesup is quickly becoming one of my favorite places for photographing sparrows and other perching birds.  This morning was one of my best sparrow photo days.  I was hoping to find a White-crowned Sparrow here, which I didn't find, but I did find many Savannah Sparrows, two Grasshopper Sparrows, one Vesper Sparrow and one Swamp Sparrow, and all but the Swamp Sparrow posed nicely for photos.  And if you stand in the right place, you can sometimes get photos of birds with the sun behind you and nothing behind the bird, giving you a clean background.  Oh, and this morning I also found an Eastern Phoebe perched quite nicely, and the photo below may be my all-time favorite phoebe photo. Vesper Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrow Eastern Phoebe

Savannah Sparrow It's amazing sometimes how good a relatively small area can be.  There's a field on Canal St. just south of Lake Jesup, and a fellow birder posted finding Vesper Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows there.  So off I went to find them.  It's a very pretty area, with Orange and Palm Tree groves on both sides of the street, and then there's this plain open field.  On the southern end of the field is a barbed wire fence surrounded by grasses and other vegetation.  When I arrived, the fence was just crawling with Savannah Sparrows.  I studied the sparrows here for a while, and I was able to pick out one Vesper Sparrow and two Grasshopper Sparrows (no White-crowned).  The lighting was pretty good, so I also had fun photographing some of the other birds along the fence line, in particular a Gray Catbird, Carolina Wren and Yellow-rumped Warbler.  The Vesper Sparrow is a lifer for me, and fittingly, my first photos of it were less than ...