Tag: vultures

More people than birds.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

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A common yellowthroat hiding in the bushes.

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A Carolina wren singing away in the morning.

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A bittern hiding in the swamp. Shout out to Peter and Capt. Jake for finding this guy. Don, where were you?  You missed out on this one.

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A black vulture and a turkey vulture hanging out together.

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One of the many “Osprey” trees along Alligator Alley trail.

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The baby great blue heron is almost grown up.

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The parent was still watching over him.

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The baby was still getting excited when the parents came to visit.  He was still getting fed by them.

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I’m starting to see dragonflies everywhere.

A quick visit to Circle B Bar Reserve in mid-March. I think there were more people than birds on the trails. It’s that time of the year when big groups of bird watchers descend on the park. They move a lot slower and I’m sure they see a lot more birds than I do. Most of the time they are seeing they with binoculars or scopes so I usually can’t get a shot of what they are looking at. I usually try to keep moving. It all started with getting exercise so I try to get in a good long walk on the weekends.Seeing the wildlife is a bonus.

Skywatch Friday

Big birds high up in trees.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

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Synchronized preening vultures.

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One of the parents from very far away. Last year this nest lost both babies. I never heard what had happened.  I have heard there are two again this year.

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Looks like a couple to me. I think the one on the left is a female. I’ve read they have a brown fleck necklace around the chest.

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First time I’ve seen a kestrel at this park.

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Woodpecker inside a palm tree.

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Cutest critters at the park.

I had not been to Honeymoon Island in a long time. I went to see all of the usuals but it was still too early to be able to see babies yet. If they were there, they were still to small to see from the nest. I found the owl nest but the parent had been sleeping on the nest all morning. I heard here were eagle babies but they were still too small to see from as far away as we could get (over 500 feet is roped off at this park from the trail).  No osprey babies yet as well. This was the end of January so another trip in early March is in the plan. After several days of rain, it was nice to get out and walk in the sun.

Skywatch Friday

My first yellow-headed blackbird and some boring other birds

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography11 Comments

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A horrible picture of my first sighting of a yellow-headed blackbird. Birders had been posting about seeing this fairly rare bird here in a neighbor almost an hour from my house for a few weeks. He had only been sighted late in the day so I finally headed out there on a recent Sunday afternoon while hubby was watching football. I looked around for an hour and didn’t see him so I left and ran over to Medard Park which is close by for a quick walk over the boardwalk. I headed back to the pond to look for the rare bird again and after looking for almost 2 hours, he showed up right before dark. And, he was right in the middle of a pond so this is extremely cropped.

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On my way into Medard Park, I see a few vultures eating an armadillo.

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I think this is a caspian tern, just coming out of the water.

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This anhinga was catching bait fish right below the boardwalk. Since I had my fixed lens I couldn’t zoom in and this was all I got of her. The fish looks nice and tasty!

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Due to the overabundance of apple snails, the park is full of limpkins.

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Great blue heron shaking off some water.

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This alligator was laying in the pond in the neighborhood where I saw the yellow-headed blackbird. How’d you like to walk your dog around that thing? Yes, people were out walking their dogs around the pond while I was there.

So this is what I do when Hubby is watching football (or playing golf). Drive around town looking for birds. It was too nice an afternoon to be indoors doing chores (which is what I should have been doing). The chores usually wait until a weeknight after work when it’s dark anyway.

LorikArt

A new park with tons of water birds.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography19 Comments

Great blue heron flies right over my head.

This purple gallinule looks like a juvenile. His head isn’t quite dark enough yet.

Alligator was dragging a chunk of leaves around with him. He was swimming close to the boardwalk.

View from the top of the tower. It’s a small boardwalk but packed with birds. It was a nice quiet morning. Only myself and one fisherman to the boardwalk for most of the morning.

The boat ramp was covered with vultures.

They were all over the parking lot. There were signs there that said “Not responsible for the damage caused by vultures to your car”. So what do you do? Do you park under a tree hoping that would cover the car? Or do you park out in the open thinking the vultures would be in the trees? I didn’t have any problems the short time I was there. This problem is probably from people feeding them.

The new park I visited, Medard Park, in east Hillsborough is like a tiny oasis out in the middle of nowhere. I passed strawberry farms, old orange groves  and horse stables on the way there. This park is now known for having snail kites nesting there. They were pretty easy to find along with tons of other birds. The lake was full of great blue herons, limpkins, great egrets, cormorants, and moorhens. I kept seeing a kingfisher wizzing by but he never landed anyway near. Near the tower there were warblers, woodpeckers and blue gray gnatchatchers in the trees. I think I may have to make this park a regular stop this winter. Can’t wait to see what ducks show up to spend the winter here.

YourSundayBest  LorikArt