Birds Camping With Me – Part 1
.
This is a two-part series, sharing a gallery of birds, all captured within the campground we stayed at last month in Port Charlotte.
Part 1 is for the smaller ones. More on the cute and adorable side.
.
Blue Jay
Killdeer
Pied-billed Grebe
Mourning Dove
Palm Warbler (Western)
Killdeer
.
Birds Camping With Me – Part 2 will be the larger, majestic birds. 🙂
.
Babcock/Webb WMA, Punta Gorda
.
On a tip from a fellow blogger (thanks, Wally!), I researched the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area in Punta Gorda, about 30 miles south from where we were camping last month.
With more than 65,000 acres of intermixed pine flatwoods and freshwater marsh, along with hardwood hammocks and dry prairie, I found Babcock/Webb WMA had plenty to offer!
.
Great Blue Heron “With A View”
.
I was most excited in hopes of seeing and photographing the federally listed endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker that lived in clusters 4-5 miles deep within. Accessed by one of the dirt roads, their cavity trees are clearly marked with white-painted rings to easily locate them for quiet observations.
Alas, I was not lucky. Controlled hunting season had just started five days prior, and I found the start of that access road closed to visitors.
I was still able to drive on a paved road along the freshwater lake and marshes for its five-mile length and back.
.
Babcock/Webb WMA
.
Here’s what I did get to enjoy and photograph. 🙂
.
Tricolored Heron
Northern Mockingbird
Osprey
Hairy Woodpecker
Tricolored Heron
Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker
Turkey Vulture
White Peacock
Great Egret
Little Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
American Alligator
Sandhill Cranes
.
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” –Vincent Van Gogh
.
Little Blue Herons
Hello! My oh my, where has the time gone? Since my last post, we returned home for the Thanksgiving holiday, and there’s been so much to do, I haven’t had any time to blog nor read blogs. A new laptop was waiting for my return (yay!), but the transfer and incompatibility with some of my old programs has caused major headaches and lots of down time. Ugh.
So, finally, I think I’m back up and running for the most part. I hope everyone is continuing to do well during these still difficult times. To stay safe, we ended up canceling our big Thanksgiving family dinner and opted for a quiet one.
I didn’t have a chance to do any birding since arriving home, so I’m going to continue to share photos from last month in Florida.
These are Little Blue Herons. As an adult, they are a dark slate-blue with a purple/maroon head. However, as a juvenile, they are entirely white. They transform during their immature molting stage looking like a patchwork of white and blue. Little Blue Herons are excellent stalkers!
Little Blue Heron (immature in beginning stages of molting)
Little Blue Heron (juvenile)
Little Blue Heron (adult)
Little Blue Heron (adult)
Little Blue Heron (adult)
Little Blue Heron (adult)
Little Blue Heron (adult)
Little Blue Heron (juvenile)
Gray Gallery
.
They may be gray in coloring, but their beauty is still striking. Here’s a gallery of five gray birds I recently shot in Port Charlotte while out and about.
.
Loggerhead Shrike
Gray Catbird
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Phoebe
.
.
Red-bellied Woodpeckers
.
I heard a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers calling to each other from our camp site, and found the male at the top of a palm tree frond spike.
.
Red-bellied Woodpecker (male)
.
I heard the female in the old pine tree. It took a bit but I finally found his gal.
.
Red-bellied Woodpecker (female)
.
Both sexes have the red belly. The actual difference between the two, the male has a red crown and nape, the female has the red nape only.
.
Anhingas
.
The Anhinga is a waterbird found in the southeast United States.
However, unlike most waterbirds, the Anhinga doesn’t have waterproof feathers.
But this isn’t a disadvantage for them. Anhingas’ wet feathers and dense bones help them slowly submerge their bodies under the water so they can stalk fish with their dagger-like bill.
.
Anhinga
.
Anhinga drying its feathers
.
Anhingas have two nicknames, “water turkey” for its turkey-like tail and “snake bird” for its long, snake-like neck, both of which they hold partially out of the water while swimming with the rest of their body partly or mostly submerged.
.
Anhinga swimming (nicknamed “water turkey” or “snake bird”)
.
Anhinga swimming (nicknamed “water turkey” or “snake bird”)
.
How about a few head-shots?
Anhinga
.
Anhinga
.
Anhinga
.
Did you notice the Anhinga’s beautiful maroon-red eye?
.
Anhinga
.
How about a close-up of their feet?
.
Anhinga’s golden feet
.
Anhinga preening
.
I hope you enjoyed getting up close and personal with the Anhinga!
.
Anhinga looking happy!
.
Red-shouldered Hawk
.
I’ve seen this Red-shouldered Hawk almost daily from our camp site, either flying by or diving down and then gone. A few days ago when it landed in a tree along the river boardwalk very near me, my camera and I went for a walk.
.
Red-shouldered Hawk
.
The hawk would look at me on occasion but was more focused on the ground below.
At one point, the hawk began lifting its head up and down, with long neck stretches, regurgitating and then expelling a small pellet fragment.
.
Red-shouldered Hawk regurgitating
.
Out pops the ‘pellet’
.
A lot of work for such a little one
.
Owls are not the only birds that expel pellets/meal fragments from their digestive system. Raptors also do this. For the larger birds, sometimes the pellet can be quite large.
The Red-shouldered Hawk went back to its watch on the ground below. I could tell something had caught its eye.
Suddenly it dove to the mangroves below and flew back up to another tree. I got lucky with a flight shot!
.
Red-shouldered Hawk
.
Red-shouldered Hawk with his meal
.
I could tell through my lens the hawk had caught a lizard. But s/he was more concerned with me, so I left it to its meal. I did not want to spook the hawk to take flight, and jeopardize it not continuing its daily return.
And guess what, I saw it yesterday, sitting on the boardwalk railing, eating another meal. 😊
.
Series: Take A Moment and Enjoy A Sunset
.
Here are three photos of a dramatic sunset from a couple weeks ago. Enjoy!
.
Sunset over Myakka River
.
Sunset over Myakka River
.
Sunset over Myakka River
.
.
Snowy Egret
.
Always pure and elegant looking, here is the showy Snowy Egret.
.
Snowy Egret foraging
.
Snowy Egret closeup
.
Snowy Egret in habitat
.
Don’t you just love those ‘golden slippers’?!!
.
Sandwich Terns
.
Trying to capture diving pelicans, a couple of terns kept entering the picture. So I photographed them too. Always good to practice!
At photo download, I got a few good photos of the terns. Looking a little closer to ID the tern species, I noticed their black beak had a yellow tip. That’s new to me, I thought.
Welcome to my bird lifer list #218 Sandwich Tern!
.
Sandwich Tern
.
Sandwich Tern
.
Sandwich Terns live along the marine coasts of southeastern United States and the Caribbean.
.
Sandwich Tern
.
You just never know when a new lifer will pop up! 😉
.
.
