outdoor photography

"Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk On Friday I went to Marl Bed Flats, which is my favorite place to look for shorebirds and ducks in Seminole County--well, let's be honest. Marl Bed Flats and Central Winds are my two favorite places to bird in Seminole County.  Marl Bed Flats has been pretty much flooded since October, and it's it's only become passable in the past month or so.  Even now it's wet--you need wading boots to get anywhere good. "Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk But the upper slough (where it's more shallow) is just filled with birds--hundreds of birds: ibises, herons and egrets, ducks (mostly Blue-winged Teal and Shovelers), and shorebirds (mostly yellowlegs, snipe and killdeer). "Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk The biggest surprise came when I heard a Red-tailed Hawk behind me. I went to look at it, and it was flying relatively low over the trees and towards me. It was all white on its undersides.  So I decided to ...

Herring Gull At Fort De Soto this past Saturday I had a very fun time watching a Herring Gull with its prey.  It would fly up about 30 ft in the air, drop its prey and then come down and inspect it. I saw it do this about 5-7 times before I had to move one. He was working pretty hard at getting his morsel out, but I suspect it will take him a long time, since all he had to drop his prize on was compacted sand. Herring Gull I've read that crows and gulls both exhibit this behavior, but I've never  been able to photograph it before.  If I had more time, it would have been fun to  watch this for a while longer to see if he was able to extract his prize. Herring Gull

Reddish Egret I told myself when I arrived at Fort De Soto that I wasn't going to do it. When I realized I'd forgotten to charge my camera batteries, and I had one battery dead and another one blinking "I'm going to die soon," I strengthened my resolve not to do it.   But I did. I photographed a Reddish Egret.  It was begging me, honestly. It was standing in pretty water in pretty light, and I tried walking by, I really did.  But it must have used it's jedi mind trick on me--"this is the bird you're looking for."  I knelt down, turned on my camera fired off about 10 shots, turned my camera back off to save my battery, and walked away. It seems like there's always a couple of these beautiful herons at North Beach. You're pretty likely to see both the light and dark morphs, and I have a billion photographs of them, along with other photos taken on my coast. I didn't need this photo at all, but I confess I kinda like it.  ...

American Oystercatcher The first time I saw one of these birds I thought I was going a little crazy.  I mean, it's hard to see how there's a need for a bird to look like this.  But I'm really glad they do.  I visited Fort De Soto last weekend, and you're almost guaranteed to see them at North Beach there, and on Saturday I saw 6--four at North Beach and two at the boat ramp.  The birds at the boat ramp were far more cooperative, so that's where these photos came from. American Oystercatcher Unfortunately, these birds were standing on solid concrete.  That was almost enough for me to skip photographing them. However, I normally crouch down as low as I can, and I thought if I did, I might be able to minimize the how man-made the ground looked. There was some debris near the birds as well, and I thought that might add to a more natural feel. American Oystercatcher One of these birds has an eye issue. It looks to have a blown out eye. I don't know to...

Palm Warbler Central Winds Park We have the pleasure of finding Palm Warblers in Florida throughout the Winter and Spring.  Most of them are the "western" subspecies, and they are rather drab in their winter plumage.  But a few are the "eastern" subspecies.  These birds sport a fair amount more yellow, even up into the supercilium stripe. These are a special treat for me.  I typically see them in the drier habitats, rather than marshes and other wetlands.   Palm Warbler Marl Bed Flats I'm also told that the western and eastern subspecies actually cross paths during migration.  The yellow "eastern" birds typically migrate farther west, while the more drab "western" birds head east into Florida.  This accounts for why we see so few "eastern" birds on the east coast of Florida. Palm Warbler Lake Apopka Palm Warbler Marl Bed Flats

Ash-throated Flycatcher Last Saturday I decided to visit Lake Apopka for the morning.  I'm participating in a competition this year called a Twelve Day BigYear.  It's a pretty fun competition--the idea is that you pick one day each month in a county (I chose Orange Co), and then find as many birds as you can in those twelve days.  It takes some planning, and to some extent the key is to find as many rarities as you can and hope the more common birds will be seen as well.  I'd love to get 200 species on the year, but that might be a bit over reaching. We'll see.  I started my January day with 92 species, mostly around Lake Apopka. Ash-throated Flycatcher Taking Off The biggest rarity was a White-faced Ibis.  It was found during the CBC in December, and thankfully it was still there.  I chose Lake Apopka just so that I could find that bird again.  It also fun to find an Ash-throated Flycatcher.  They were my best photos of the morning...

You Tube Slide Show of My Favorite Bird Photos from 2014 (a work in progress) It's been a pretty great year for birding for me.  I'm especially happy with my results for Seminole County (details for this will be in a future post), but I had my best birding year yet.  And I also had a few trips up north (Boston, Philly), one to California, and one to Mexico. These were not birding trips, but they still allowed me to get several more lifers than I would have had otherwise. Glaucous Guill Lifers are harder to come by now that I have well over 300 species in the state of Florida, but that's okay, I'm not complaining.  It makes the challenge all the more fun.  Here's my list of lifers from 2014: Western Tanager:    Lake Apopka North Shore Restoration Area, FL (01 Jan 2014)   Common Eider: Jetty Park, FL (04 Jan 2014) Western Gull: San Diego, CA (17 Mar 2014) California Towhee: San Diego, CA (17 Mar 2014) Lesser Goldfinch: San Diego, CA (...