Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk
I slowly approached a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk from behind while it intently scanned around the grounds below its perch.
Red-shouldered Hawk (juvenile)
I circled to its left and was noticed.
Red-shouldered Hawk (juvenile)
A closer look at the hawk as it focused on me.
Red-shouldered Hawk close-up (juvenile)
Apparently I wasn’t a concern, as the Red-shouldered Hawk returned to watching the grounds below.
Getting comfortable enough to lift and rest a leg! 🙂
Red-shouldered Hawk (juvenile)
What the Red-shouldered Hawk was hunting I didn’t stay to find out, but it was most likely a lizard.
I will say, the young hawk looked quite comfortable sitting there, making me think this was a successful hunting perch; and s/he was just waiting for the day’s next meal to come by.
Double-crested Cormorant Goes Fishing
I watched this Double-crested Cormorant surface with fish, one after another, for 30 minutes.
Double-crested Cormorant
It became a fun challenge, anticipating where s/he’d pop up with a possible fish.
And there were a lot of fish, I’d never seen a cormorant catch so many so quickly.
I missed many of them either completely or out-of-focus, but here’s four of the cormorant’s nice catches and my lucky shots.
Double-crested Cormorant
Cormorants can be flashy with their toss & flip to swallow the fish, but this one would just do a quick gulp.
No time for dramatics, there were more fish to be had!
As much as I tried, here’s the only sequence I lucked out on with that quick gulp.
Got the fish!
Quick turn and…..
Gulp!
Double-crested Cormorant
That belly had to be quite full! 😉
Fox Squirrel
For sure they get a bad rap for raiding bird feeders, but I can’t help but think how cute squirrels are when you photograph them, especially this Momma Fox Squirrel who I watched off and on for a few days when she’d appear for a meal break from her nest (which its location I never did figure out).
Fox Squirrel (female)
Fox Squirrel (female)
Interesting fact: Fox squirrels possess flexible joints in their ankles, allowing them to turn their feet 180 degrees so they can scale up and down trees with ease.
Common Gallinule
The Common Gallinule is a unique looking bird with it’s long toes (allowing it to walk on vegetation), red facial shield, and their “candy corn” looking beak.
Common Gallinule
Common Gallinule
As with other birds, the functionality of the facial shield appears to relate to protection of the Gallinule’s face while feeding in or moving through dense vegetation, as well as courtship display and territorial defense.
According to Hawaiian mythology, the Gallinule brought fire from the volcano gods to the Hawaiian people and its white forehead was scorched in the process. The Common Gallinule’s Hawaiian name is “Alae Ula” which means “burnt forehead.”
Great Blue Heron – The Fisherman
A Great Blue Heron looking proud of its catch.
“Look what I caught!”
Flower Power – Hibiscus
I hope this brightens your visit with me today!
Hibiscus
Herons of North America
We have six heron species in the United States. While in Florida where they vast in numbers, I was able to photograph five of them with little difficulty, and I’m still going through my photos.
The one that eluded me during those three months was the adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron. So I’ve included a photo courtesy of Eric Lipton to show for comparisons.
I thought a great way to share more heron photos would be to see them side-by-side in one post.
Do you know them by sight?
Great Blue Heron, 38-54″ tall
Tricolored Heron, 23-28″ tall
Little Blue Heron, 22-29″ tall
Black-crowned Night Heron, 22-26″ tall
Green Heron, 16-18″ tall
Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 21-28″ tall, photo courtesy of Evan Lipton, Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Sharing some shots in their habitats…..
Green Heron
Little Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Great Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
As with many young birds, it gets a little trickier with some of the heron juveniles, especially the juvenile Little Blue Heron that is surprisingly all white. I actually heard people ID it as a Snowy Egret on several occasions. You can see the similarities (and differences) in the right photo below.
Adult Little Blue Heron following a juvenile Little Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron (right) compared alongside a Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron adult, juvenile and Snowy Egret comparison
Herons are fun to photograph and a favorite among many. (And I still have heron photos to go through, so more to come I’m sure. 🙂 )
Palm Fronds Abstract
I love palm trees and took photos of many when in Florida this past winter.
For some reason, this next type of vision appealed to me. It was this photo that made the ‘cut’ for what I was looking for, processed in B&W.
And now a little more fun with the photo.
Roseate Spoonbill Gallery
Sharing a few more photos of the gorgeous Roseate Spoonbill I was fortunate to see this past February/March in the Everglades of southwest Florida.
Roseate Spoonbills
Looks like this photo has a good storyline! 😉
Birds of Gray
I gathered more photos of these four gray birds here and there these past few months.
So here’s their best photo from the balance, sharing a gallery together. The Northern Mockingbird got lucky with two photos.
Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
“Gray is the queen of colors, because she makes everyone else look good.”
— Helen Van Wyk (1930-1994) Artist, Teacher and host of PBS’s “Welcome To My Studio” television show.
Bay Photos by Donna 