Circle B Bar Part 3 - White Pelicans

White pelicans overhead.



The sky was full of white pelicans.


Solo flight.

White pelicans flying in the fog.

Pelicans far away on the other side of the lake at Circle B Bar. This was taken with my 500mm and severly cropped so they were staying away from humans.

One of the best things right now to see at Circle B are the white pelicans that have migrated there. Some say there are thousands there for the winter. These birds have come from east of the Rocky Mountains from Illinois to as far north as Canada for the winter. They tend to stay away from humans unlike the brown pelicans which can beg for food. They also do not plunge dive for their food like the brown pelicans do. They swim around for their food and scoop water and fish into their pouch and are usually in lakes or ponds. (Although I have heard there is flock hanging out at Fort Desoto right now.) They are so beautiful when they are flying. They seem to glide instead of rapid flapping. Sunday morning at Circle B they were flying over our heads in large groups from one lake to another. A couple of hours later they were flying in the opposite direction. Even in the fog it was amazing to see.

Circle B Bar Part 2 - Bird variety

Spoonbills, ibis and storks taking a morning nap.


Glossy ibis


Sandhill crane from far away.


Eagle soaring overhead. He was really high up.

Red tailed hawk hiding in the moss.

Great blue heron having breakfast.

More Sunday morning pictures from the Circle B Bar flickr meet-up above. It amazes me how many different types of birds you can see there just walking around. I'm sure there are others I didn't see. There is so much activity in the morning. The bird marsh had it's usual spoonbills, storks and ibis hanging around in it. There were osprey, hawks and eagles constantly flying overhead.

Here's a list of birds that I saw there: spoonbills, whistling ducks, storks, great egrets, great blue heron, warbler, white pelicans, blue winged teal ducks, hawk, eagles, sandhill cranes, grackle, red winged blackbirds, moorhens, cormorants, vultures, caspian terns, ring billed gulls, sparrows, glossy ibis, white ibis, osprey, kingfisher, woodpeckers and grebes.

Circle B Bar Part 1 - Fog

Spiderwebs in the fog.

Fog at Circle B Bar Reserve. You could still see all of the amazing yellow flowers everywhere.

Black bellied whistling ducks stomping around in the mud during the fog. This was one parent (orange beak) with 2 immature ones. They don't get their orange beak until later.

Great egret scratching in the fog.

Hiding in the fog - spoonbill, stork and black bellied whistling duck.

Spoonbill flying overhead in the fog.

This Sunday morning I went to a flickr meet-up at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. There were about 22 other photographers there. When I got there it was very foggy. At first I was bummed that it was so foggy but when I started walking out to the trail I noticed how everything was covered with spiderwebs. You could really see them because the moisture from the fog was on them. It almost looked like there was snow everywhere (except for the 80 degrees). I met up with everyone out at the bird pond. Most of the birds were sleeping (which is what we should have been doing). It was a challenge for me to get any shots of anything. I was able to get some of the above which shows wildlife a little differently.

There were so many different types of birds there. It's such an amazing place. The fog eventually lifted and I took so many pictures that morning. I'm breaking up this visit into several parts. Keep an eye out for Part 2.

It's A Small World After All

The birding was extraordinary at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach again late this afternoon.

The Willet above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

It was great that I met Frank from Montreal whom I had photographed at Little Estero Lagoon nearly a year ago. Doden's visit here as well has me believe that the preserve is no longer the unknown venue it has been.

After surveying the scene from the parking area, there was not a bird to be seen to the west, but heavy concentrations of them to the east. I made a trek toward the east channel as I had perhaps not in ten months.

The White Ibis above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

There were four large groups of birds seen. The groups were dominant in numbers overall by the Black Skimmer. There also were large groups of Willet and Sanderling. The other expected shore birds were for the most part seen.

My expectations of the visit to the beach were again to improve my quality of BIFs, or birds in flight. There was a lot of opportunity to do that under near perfect conditions.

The Laughing Gull above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

The sun was nearly set as Frank appeared to have given up on the birding opportunity shooting with the D300. I was able to coax him to stay. It was then I realized who he was.

I told him every change in my camera settings in the final 15 minutes we had to photograph the action that became especially alive under very low light conditions. Perhaps we can compare the images of our equivalent brands of gear sometime.

The Royal Tern above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

Minutes after sunset, I was shooting at 5000 ISO as I let Frank know. He didn't speak positively of his experience with high ISO with the D300 he's been using this past year noting excessive noise, but I let him know that he had given up on the shooting opportunity way too early.

The last species observed was the Great Blue Heron that flew in under extremely low light and was impossible to photograph at that time.

Roosevelt Wetlands

Tricolored heron braving the wind.

Immature blue heron. They are completely white their first 6-12 months and then start to turn blue.


My first northern mockingbird picture. This is the state bird. Florida Audubon has petitioned the state to change the state bird to the Florida scrub jay.

I took this picture into the sun and this is how it turned out without any editing. Looks like an Alfred Hitchcock picture.

My first female red-winged blackbird picture. I had to look this one up. Only the males have red on their wings.

Saturday I stopped by the Roosevelt Wetlands in Pinellas Park. It's a small lake that backs up to the back of the waste plant. There are always tons of birds there busy eating and swimming around. The cold and rain of Friday night must have driven them into hiding because early Saturday morning there weren't too many birds there. I did manage to find the few above. There were also 2 opsrey there. One was flying around but never tried to get any fish. The other was sitting on the empty nest post in the middle of the lake. Maybe this spring there will be babies.

Christmas lights

I haven't put too many Christmas decorations in the house but I did manage to put some really tacky ones outside the house. I wanted to make sure we blended into the neighborhood. Lights on the palm trees and lights in the bushes did the trick. This season I wanted to work on my holiday light photography. I started by taking a few pictures in our front yard. My plan for next weekend is to get out and see some of the big light displays in the Tampa bay area.

Bunche Beach Revisited II

With the confluence of a day off from work and what appeared to be a possibly great day for photography and birding, I made my way to a favored Gulf of Mexico venue known as Bunche Beach Preserve at San Carlos Bay in Fort Myers, Florida on Tuesday of this past week.

The Brown Pelican and Sandwich Tern above were photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

On the early morning drive to this stunning venue for such endeavors, the air was still and laden with a heavy fog. The temperature upon arriving at the preserve was 73 degrees Fahrenheit.

The sun had already been up for nearly an hour as I parked the car and began my preferred walk west from the parking area.

The Sandwich Tern above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

There was bird activity immediately observed as is not always the case at the preserve. It was a very good sign that the day would be special.

In addition to the wildlife, the fog was offering an opportunity for some interesting photographs where the horizon was muted.

The Sandwich Tern above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

The birding turned out to be more rewarding than I was anticipating although there were a few regulars of the preserve that I didn't see.

There was, however, my first sighting of the Merlin. This bird species is extraordinary in its flying skills. It reminded me of the Peregrine Falcon.

The Merlin above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

I caught first sight of the bird out of the corner of my eye as it made a very low overflight and scattered all of the shorebirds I was observing. I watched the Merlin nearly disappear out of sight in what appeared an instant. This is an extremely fast predator.

It was my great fortune to photograph it perched along the shoreline before I left the preserve. This had allowed me to hit the books and identify the species with certainty upon my return home.

The Black Skimmer above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

The Brown Pelican was without question the species in greatest numbers observed. It was very interesting to watch upwards of 50 of them as they followed schools of fish in the bay at a close range I had not experienced before.

It's needless to advise you, if you have been keeping up with my reports, that I was in the water. I was quite surprised at how cold the water felt since my last visit to the bay a few months earlier. It required some time to adjust to comfortably.

The Brown Pelican above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

Within an hour of entering the water, I was stunned by the presence of at least a pair of Bottlenose Dolphins passing by at a rage I would place at less than 60 feet. The depth of the water was very shallow at two feet. Certainly not a deterrence to them in what was likely a feeding frenzy as it was for the pelicans.

I found myself at that point looking around me in the very clear water for fish that may be swimming around me, but fortunately there were none.

The Bottlenose Dolphin above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

Discussing this experience with a few people after the fact, I got mixed opinions between avoiding and attracting the dolphins getting closer than that. I'm in the camp of keeping a greater distance.

Shortly after seeing the dolphins, the fog began to burn off and a breeze from the south picked up. I never made it past the west channel before the tide had made its inevitable return to higher ground.

The Bottlenose Dolphin above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

While I have often observed the Wood Stork overhead in the local area this past month, primarily closer to Interstate 75, my most exciting observation of it was as I was making a late afternoon trip to Bunche Beach Preserve the following day.

A stork was flying parallel to the highway approaching the preserve at my eye level along the rain water channel on the side of the road. And then, two Red-shouldered Hawks made a perpendicular flight across the highway very near the entrance to the preserve in what appeared to be courting behavior.

The Laughing Gull above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

Observing the bay at the preserve upon my arrival, the water level was evidently much higher at that point in the day as very little of the flats were exposed. It allowed for a large number of Black Skimmers to be very close to the shoreline not too far from the parking area.

Within the flock of skimmers, I also observed the Sandwich Tern, Forster's Tern, Laughing Gull, and a solitary 1st winter Ring-billed Gull which were concentrated very closely together.

The Black Skimmer with Marbled Godwit and Willet above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

I'm always captivated by the Ring-billed Gull in flight. It has a very distinctive appeal.

The lighting was exceptionally good with minimal clouds and the sun low to the horizon. There was also a favorable wind from the southeast or thereabouts allowing for some improved flight opportunities in the photography of the birds.

The Sandwich Tern above were photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

I was able to fire the shutter of the camera with abandon until a pair of fisherman and the rising water level had the birds again on the move to a much more distant range.

As a reminder, it's my recommendation that this venue normally be visited at the lowest tide possible.

The Black Skimmer above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

I'm beginning to see more photographers take advantage of this very special place. It's regrettable that they often do not have the patience required for birding.

There was evidence of snail's pace activity in the construction of the new facilities at Bunche Beach Preserve.

The Royal Tern above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

I regret I won't have the time to time to look at all the images taken this week closely, but am including a few here and in more subject specific photo galleries before I make what is my next anticipated trip to observe and document the often overlooked beauty of our surroundings.