Carillon Wetlands

Female anhinga panting in the heat. This one has pretty colors on her face.

My first brown thrasher. They're suppose to be fairly common but I haven't seen one before. It was getting dark and even with a flash I had a hard time getting this bird.

Alien duck!  (Baby moorhen)

Another alien duck in the shadows right before dark.

More alligator food.

There's a small wetlands park in the middle of an office park very near where I work. There are two small lakes, one is surrounded by office buildings and has a boardwalk around it. The other is surrounded by townhomes and has a walking path around it. I had heard there were bitterns there so I stopped by after work last week. I didn't find the bitterns but I found a few other things. Right before dark I found a moorhen with a baby. They are the funniest looking babies. Yes, both lakes have alligators so that rabbit better watch out!

New babies at Gatorland and a sad story.

I think this snowy egret was born the day before I was there. It was huddled under mom.

Baby anhinga looking up at mom. This was the first time I have seen a baby anhinga. There were 3 babies on this nest.

Baby great egret peaking over the branches.

Warning - my sad story starts with this bottom picture. There were 3 baby snowy egrets on this tiny nest when I first got to the bird rookery at Gatorland. Later in the morning I was watching this particular nest. One baby looked much younger than the other two, maybe by a few days. I then realized that the mom was holding the smallest baby by the foot. It then dawned on me that the mom was pushing the baby out of the nest. The baby didn't fall right away. It's other foot seemed to have gotten caught on a branch. In the picture the back baby was watching the other one fall. You can barely see the little legs sticking up on the far left. There were a few other photographers watching at that point. I've read about how parents or other siblings will kick out the runt if there isn't enough food or room on the nest but to see it happen was strange. The nest was too far away from the boardwalk for anyone to reach and alligators were waiting down below in the water. To make matters worse, I had heard that morning that a lot of babies were lost in the big storm that had moved through Orlando the week before. Even though the day ended on a sad note, there's still lots of babies being born there every day.

Birds at Chesnut Park (& a woodpecker video too)

Male anhinga sitting in his usual spot on the lake.

Tufted titmouse looking down at me. I see a lot of these at Chesnut Park.

My first black and white warbler.

The woods seem to be full of pileated woodpeckers.

I was standing on the boardwalk taking pictures of the above pileated woodpecker when I had a thought "I should take a video of him banging away." The nice thing about my new camera (Nikon D7000) is that it's really easy to flip the switch and record. I hadn't really spent any time doing that yet. After I took the video and got home I realized I was holding the camera portrait to get a long shot of the woodpecker and in the video the woodpecker is not set up right. I can't figure out a way to rotate a video. I'm assuming there's not one unless I had some high tech video editing program. Hopefully, next time I'll get it right. If you have the sound, on the howling you hear at the very beginning is another woodpecker calling to the one in the video. They get really loud in the woods.

Big Gulp!

My quick stop at Kapok Park did result in watching the above male anhinga gulp down his big catch. The pictures are not as sharp as I would have liked. The anhinga was across the lake from me so they are highly cropped. He kept turning his back on me as well. I think he couldn't figure out what to do with it at first. He banged it on the branch for a while. I didn't get pictures of him flipping it from off his beak into his mouth. I don't even remember seeing him do it. One minute the fish was speared on his beak and then it was going down his throat. I hope that lasted him for a while. He didn't move after that so I walked around the park.

Lots of birds at Kapok Park

Juvenile blue heron walking around in the dead reeds.

Anhinga's got lunch.

Pied grebe is shaking off the water.

Warbler posing on a branch.

Grackles and cowbirds (below) are always on the boardwalk.

There was a pretty decent variety of birds at Kapok Park in Clearwater for a Sunday afternoon. I only had a few hours and didn't want to go to far away so I stopped off at the park to walk around. There wasn't anything unusual at the park. The highlight of the visit was the above anhinga getting a fish. 

Chesnut Park birds and animals.

I was walking along the boardwalk and heard a scream. I backed up thinking "that's a hawk close by". I look all around and found the above screaming right above my head.

All of a sudden he notices me. He looks at me like "where'd you come from" and took off.

I found this male anhinga posing on a stump. I like the way his white feathers stick out on his head.

I found this green heron poking around in the reeds.

My goal every time I go to Chesnut Park it to get pictures of the wild deer that live there. This is all I got. I saw it right as it was dashing under the boardwalk and ran deep in the woods. My husband said "Why do you keep taking pictures of deer butts?" Cause that's all I keep seeing. One of these days though...

This small alligator seemed to be smiling at me. Alligators are like dolphins in that they seem to both have a permanent smile on their faces.

Christmas Morning At Harns Marsh Preserve

It was a very foggy and chilly morning at Harns Marsh Preserve on Christmas Day 2010.

The sunrise above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

That didn't deter me from an attempt to have a very rewarding time observing the wildlife which I did.

The first active flight observed was that of Roseate Spoonbill from the area where Limpkin are sometimes seen while always heard.

The Roseate Spoonbill above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

The vultures were seen across the lake on the ground perhaps in their attempt to stay warmer while they're typically observed in the trees at first light.

A juvenile Great Blue Heron was very docile seemingly waiting for the sun to warm its bones.

The Great Blue Heron juvenile above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

Limpkin were observed in flight more so than I had observed at Harns Marsh before.

This species has a tendency to stay very low to the ground even while in flight.

The Cattle Egret above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

Snail Kite were active in their search of Apple Snails shortly before the fog burned off.

Osprey were again observed hunting successfully for their prey.

The Glossy Ibis above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

What would become a remarkable observation for me was an inbound flight of a solitary Sandhill Crane that landed directly in front of me from the north.

As I observed this bird in amazement, two more cranes were walking toward me along the marsh's frontage road and emerged from the fog a short while later.

The Snadhill Crane above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

Before the Sandhill Cranes arrived, a small flock of Cattle Egret appeared to become active from their slumber.

It was at this time that I was chiding myself for failing to bring the flash and Better Beamer.

The Snadhill Crane above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

Always have them at the ready in case they're needed if you have them.

It was a special occasion to meet Hemant Kishan again at the preserve.

Hemant Kishan above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

Hemant, a prolific American Birding Association contributor, was intently observing an American Bittern that he sighted at relatively close range.

He was kind enough to point my camera in the direction of the bird at one point as the bird was so well camouflaged in the reeds.

The American Bittern above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

Hemant mentioned his interest in Celery Fields which he believes best visited in September.

It was interesting to observe a scuffle between a pair of Anhinga while the Tree Swallows seemed to be in lesser numbers than usual.

The Anhinga with Pied-billed Grebe above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

The same pair of Great Egret observed a couple of weeks earlier offered their same repose in nearly the exact same spot I had last seen them.

Since my visit to Harns Marsh Preserve this week, I have read that the Crested Caracara is often seen in flight in the presence of vultures.

The Limpkin above was photographed at Harns Marsh Preserve in December 2010.

When I visit the preserve again, my first objective will be to scan the trees where the vultures are typically resting before they fly off to take advantage of the thermals in the absence of wind.

Chesnut Park November visit.

Two anhingas were fighting over something. I took this picture into the sun. They eventually took off following each other.

The usual blue-gray gnatcatcher. One of the tinies birds around.

I have no idea what this is. Looks like a type of warbler but the yellow on the sides is throwing me off. I couldn't find anything with yellow there.

I think this is a yellow palm warbler in non-breeding colors. Seen testing out the crumbs on the road.

No post about a Florida park would be complete without an alligator in it. There are tons at Chesnut Park. This one seemed to look up and smile at me. And yes, I took this with my zoom lens.

Celery Field variety of birds - Skywatch Friday

I parked along side of the road at the celery fields in Sarasota and the above was circling overhead.  Having a "turkey" vulture circle around you is almost like celebrating Thanksgiving. I don't think turkey vultures get the credit they deserve for being "cool" birds. They look great when they are flying high up in the sky. They look creepy when there's a group of them hanging out on the side of the road.  I did have a good visit to the celery fields the week of Thanksgiving and I'm going to try and get back before Christmas.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

This red shouldered hawk couple sat on the light fixture the entire time I was there.

Any id on this would be great. At first I thought it was a palm warbler which are common here but there's no hint of yellow.  Could it be a hermit thrush? That's the closest I could find on Whatbird.com.

Flock of anhingas flying by.

Grackle can't read.

The above is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a greater or lesser. They look alike.

I finally see a kildeer and didn't even know it. The sun was going down and I wanted to get a picture of the shorebirds sleeping. I didn't see the kildeer in the upper left corner until later when I uploaded the pictures. The picture is extremely cropped. I can't believe that little bird snuck into my picture and didn't let me know he was there. There was a small flock of shorebirds together and he must have been hiding in them.