Saturday, February 27, 2016

Florida (Part 4)

Another post at last...

These are some pictures from various places, and one of the highlights of the trip, Florida Scrub Jay.
Without further ado... photos:

These few are just from the resort, there was a pond there with some birds..

Pied-billed Grebe

Double-crested Cormorant

Muscovy Duck
White Ibis

young White Ibis
 We drove around a bit just looking for birds, we found a few hawks, which we had seen previously on the trip, but didn't get photos.
Red-shouldered Hawk
 We went back to Canaveral Island, and at a nature center there, and we heard there were painted buntings there. So we went to the feeders there and before long a few Painting Buntings showed up.
Painted Bunting

Alligator 
Alligator
 A very strange thing for us, is that there were just orange trees there...
Orange
 Here's a tiny snake.
Snake
 There were a lot of brown lizards, but we found a few green lizards to.

Strange looking spider 

Painted Bunting

Painted Bunting

Alligator
 We then headed to where we heard the Scrub Jays were often seen, also on Cape Canaveral. On the way we saw this Osprey eating a fish.
Osprey
 It was actually quite easy to find the Jays, they are very rare but common to see in one specific spot. These birds are endemic to Florida, which means they only live in Florida.
Florida Scrub Jay

Florida Scrub Jay

Florida Scrub Jay
Florida Scrub Jay

Florida Scrub Jay
This was an amazing highlight for the trip, a very rare bird, and a amazing one too.

And that's the end of the post... Stay tuned for another one.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Weekly What Bird Thursday

Sorry for missing a bunch, but here it is.

Can you guess this week's birds?
Leave your guess in the comments
Last times was a Bald Eagle


Other What Bird Wednesday posts:
Bird Boy's
JC's
Cat's and the Birds

Monday, February 22, 2016

Quick Winter Update

Birding has been pretty slow this winter after Florida.

Seeing a few birds around the feeders, the usual Common Redpolls, Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, but we've also been seeing the less common (and beautiful) Pine Grosbeaks, and even less common, Dark-eyed Junco. They are quite uncommon in the winter, we saw two at our feeders.

A few photos from the winter:




Common Redpoll

Pine Grosbeak 
Pine Grosbeak 

Black-capped Chickadee

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Florida (Part 3) - Black Point Wildlife Loop

 This whole post is at Black Point Wildlife drive, an excellent bird hotspot, especially for herons. We found this spot when we were exploring Cape Canaveral. It's about a 12 km loop, winding through marshy habitat (with palm trees! which is really bizarre for us). I'll try to be sparing on words, and liberal on photos.
Right at the entrance of the loop there was a marshy expanse with plenty of heron lifers. Roseate Spoonbill was a highlight. We spent a few minutes at the entrance photographing them. Reddish Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Tricoloured Herons, Glossy Ibises, White Ibises were all right there.

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill

Little Blue Heron
 We went at a very slow pace as we winded along the thin path, and we had the doors of the van open on either side so we could view the birds better. They weren't very perturbed by us so we could get nice photos and views.
Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets were the most common, but there was an abundance of all the other types as well. It's funny how when you see the first one it's "WOW! Awesome! Amazing!!" and after you see a few dozen around every corner it's "Hm, there's ten, there's a few over there, there's about a dozen there." And that's the way it was.
Great Egret
 Anhinga's seemed to like to dry their feathers right beside the road, which offered great close up viewings and photography.
Anhinga

And of course, what would Florida be without gators? This is the first alligator we saw in Florida, it was quite a small one.
Alligator

Glossy Ibis
 Reddish Egrets were also in great abundance, either they or Tricoloured Herons were the most common under Great Egret and Snowy Egret (discounting White Ibis, which were the most common everywhere.
This egret beside the road provided a great photoshoot, dunking in the water and striking excellent poses.
Reddish Egret

Reddish Egret

Reddish Egret

Reddish Egret
 And switch off to the short lens to get some landscape photos. A 300mm nonadjustable telephoto lens isn't the best for that. In this photo there is a Little Blue Heron far in the back, two Snowy Egrets a bit closer, and a Tricoloured Heron and Hooded Mergansers in the foreground.

Palm Tree!!

You can get a feel for what the habitat was like in this photo:

A cool looking tree
 And clip the telephoto lens back on for the bird photos.
Snowy Egret

Great Egret
 I love this photo for how blue the cormorant's eye is.
Double-crested Cormorant

Anhinga

Brown Anole
 Wood Storks weren't as common as some of the others, but common enough. They are such cool birds!
Wood Stork

Pied-billed Grebe

Tricoloured Heron
 Here is a little lookout shelter thingy with a Reddish Egret on top of it.

Osprey

The path
 These little birds were sneaking along the ditches on either side of the road. At first I couldn't tell what they were until I got a better look at them, a Common Gallinule! There is also a American Coot behind it, perfect for comparison.
Common Gallinule
 Then we came to this place which was a bit different from the other habitat, a bit of a mud flat. There were shorebirds such as Dunlin, Semipalmated Plover and Black-bellied Plover

There were a few of these, bushes full of Snowy Egrets. The egret in the center of this one is actually a Great Egret though.
Snowy Egrets

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill
 A perfect pose:
Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron

Blue Winged Teal
 Another Alligator

This Snowy Egret on this drainage thing didn't get too much attention from us, because just then we spotted a Green Heron!
Snowy Egret
 Another lifer! These are really cool birds, quite a bit smaller than the other herons.
Green Heron

Green Heron

And another extremely long post has drawn to an end. I hope you enjoyed it as much as me. Stay tuned for the next post!

And if you thought this wasn't enough photos at this spot (which I doubt) we went back later, and got some more!