Driving along Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive

Posted on March 8, 2021 by dinajohnston

A green heron was all alone with his reflection.

Some of the wintering ducks at the wildlife drive include a blue winged teal couple, a female northern shoveler and a grebe.

The coots seemed to be in couples all over the drive.

A glossy ibis in the bur marigolds.

Some of the smaller birds include a flicker and many blue gray gnatcatchers.

I got out of the car and was walking around watching the ducks when this kingfisher flew right by.

Shooting right into the sun, the marsh looked like it had a layer of gold on top. Those tiny black dots were coots which were all over the place. It really looked like winter on my drive in late December with all of the leaves off the trees and bushes here. The wildlife drive is just north of Orlando and is a little hike from my house so I don’t get here often. It’s been worth the drive recently since I was trying to stay off my hip due to hip bursitis at the end of last year.

Birds at Bok Tower Gardens

Posted on June 2, 2016 by dinajohnston

I don’t think this eastern towhee liked me watching him eat. He was eating bird seed that had fallen to the ground from the feeder.

The blue jays were hogging the feeder.

The carolina wren was checking things out.

The cardinal came and sat down beside me on the bench, waiting for his turn at the feeder.

A bird I don’t see very often, the Great Crested Flycatcher was high up in a tree and of course, I had to take this picture right into the sun.

Squirrels were also eating the fallen seed under the feeder.

The northern flickers had taken over an old pileated woodpecker nest. It was too early for babies when I was here in mid April.

Just a few of the birds I saw at Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida. Last year I had seen a lot of hummingbirds around the fire bushes by the old historic house. This year I headed straight for those bushes and all of this construction was going on in the gardens so no hummingbirds this year.

SkyWatch Friday

One last new bird for 2015

Posted on December 30, 2015 by dinajohnston

A Bell’s vireo had been sighted in a nearby park back in November. A what? I had not heard of it and I had never heard of one being here before. I was able to leave work a little early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so I stopped thinking it would be a needle in a haystack. I stopped at the picnic table it had been reported at and stood there for a while. I was about to leave after 20 minutes and was looking at my phone to check traffic on the way home. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and looked up and there it was. I snapped the few pictures above before it took off.

There was a pair of northern flickers in the parking lot.

The resident turtles were having a party.

3 new birds at Picture Canyon

Posted on October 26, 2015 by dinajohnston

White breasted nuthatch hanging upside down.

Northern Flicker posing on a branch.

My first Mountain Chickadee. The Carolina and Black Capped chickadees don’t have the white stripe over their eyes.

My first acorn woodpecker.

My first white crowned sparrow. Easy to spot with those two black stripes on his head. I’m not sure what the one above it is. Some other type of sparrow.

One of the views of the canyon as we started to notice the dark clouds heading our way.

One of my favorite places in Flagstaff was the little know Picture Canyon trail. I had read about it on some of the Arizona birding sites. It was free and we only saw one other person on the Tuesday we were there. Half way through the canyon we started to hear the thunder and did not want to be caught on the cliff so we moved pretty quickly back to the car. We got back just as it started to rain. I got 3 new birds from this canyon. I had also read there are some rare Lewis woodpeckers there but we could not find them.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing