Last week ended with a fantastic day photographing scissor-tailed flycatchers. These migrants travel all the way around the Gulf of America from Oklahoma and Texas to spend the winter here. They like open areas like farmland. We found them around the strawberry fields southeast of Tampa.
They are beautiful birds that are fun to watch as they fly from perches to snag insects out the air. Their long-forked tails make them incredibly agile. They can twist and turn performing quite a show when chasing bugs.
Over the past couple of years there have been numerous sightings even though they remain quite rare in this area.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher with a Long Tail Sitting in a Tree
For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
The area marshes have become vacation destinations for many migratory birds. Again, this year we have been so fortunate to see yellow-headed blackbirds and bronzed cowbirds, among the many species enjoying their temporary stays.
Another bird that has managed to work its way into the area from the southeastern part of the state is the grey-headed swamp hen. It’s a relative to the brilliant-colored purple gallinule. The swamp hens are also very colorful. They are actually native to Asia but found their way to south Florida about 30 years ago.
Grey-headed Swamphen Looking Out from the Reeds
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
One bird that has become a favorite of photographers is a reddish egret. They are acrobatic feeders. There is one that people search for at Fort DeSoto Park in St. Petersburg. If you find a group of people in the tidal flats, you can generally figure that a reddish egret is the focus of their attention. They typically favor the pools along the beaches created by the receding tide where fish get trapped.
Recently we found one that was fishing shallow inland waters. He was alongside a large flock of white pelicans.
Reddish Egret Watching for Fish
For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
One of the most cherished birds to photograph in Florida is the roseate spoonbill. The beautiful pink colors are always stunning to see. People from around the world visit Florida on photography tours just to see the spoonbills.
They are particularly colorful this time of year as breeding season is underway.
Roseate Spoonbill Looking for Food in a Shallow Pond
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
One of my favorite birds to photograph is the burrowing owl. They are absolutely adorable. The past few years we’ve had to travel 90 minutes to Cape Coral, FL to find them. The city of Cape Coral has become a sanctuary city for the owls.
Burrowing Owl Stretching His Right Wing
But this year, thanks to a tip from fellow photographers and bird watchers, we were able to find a nesting pair much closer to home. It was exciting to see these little birds of prey move north. Unfortunately, loss of habitat has reduced their population over the years to the point of being threatened or even endangered in certain areas.
Burrowing Owl on the Ground By His Nest
For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
The young great horned owls are growing quickly. Last week we checked in on our favorite family and they are still doing great. On Friday we visited an eagle nest for the first time in several months and to our surprise, the eagles had been displaced by great horned owls. In fact, their lone owlet is close to leaving the nest. I’ll post updates as the youngsters grow up.
Great Horned Owl Female with Her Chick on the Nest
Last week I had the pleasure of joining a group of some of the top birders in Manatee County, Florida for a field trip to Port Manatee. The trip was hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers due to a number of highly restricted areas. The fields and ponds consist of silt dredged from the shipping canals in Tampa Bay. The silt must be drained before it can be used for fill dirt, so it doesn’t settle at the building site. It’s a very interesting process that creates several small shallow lakes. But the silt can be dangerous. It looks dried and cracked but just under the surface it is still wet and behaves like quicksand.
There are many species of ducks and shore birds that are attracted to the ponds. Ducks we saw included lesser scaup, redheads, ruddy ducks, buffleheads, northern shovelers, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, ring-necked ducks, hooded mergansers and red-breasted mergansers.
We also saw several varieties of shore birds, but my favorite was an American avocet. It was my first time seeing an avocet. They are close relatives to the black-necked stilt. Like the stilts, they have very long legs and long bills to slide through the water sifting for small shrimp and snails. Most of the birds were beyond the range for good photos but just seeing so many different species made it a great day. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my good friend Art Nadelman for getting us connected with the group.
Two American Avocets Walking through Shallow Water
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
Yesterday turned out to be a great day to capture some photos of a female great horned owl guarding her nest. Great horned owls usually find the absolute worst spot in a tree for a successful photograph. It seems like they always want to sit on the darkest branches facing away from the sun amongst the sticks and Spanish moss which means lousy photo opportunities. But yesterday we caught a break. A female was sitting outside her nest filled with two new chicks watching over the area. Best of all, she was out in the open with good lighting!
Great Horned Owl Female Resting on a Branch by Her Nest
We watched her and her mate all summer but lost track of them a couple of months ago. Two weeks ago, we were trying to locate them and heard a call coming from a tree but simply couldn’t find them. As it turns out, she was calling from her nest which was located in a crotch of a pine tree and covered with Spanish moss. She was completely hidden from view. What a joy to finally see her and her two new babies.
Bald eagles have gotten very active as the mating season has begun. This always offers some good photo opportunities. The birds are active hunting for food and nesting materials. We are fortunate to have a pair that built a nest a few years ago that is very easy to photograph.
A few pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
Yesterday we endured a 2+ hour ride with hopes of finding some beautiful scissortail flycatchers. But the flycatchers apparently decided to move to a different undisclosed location. So instead of photographing flycatchers, we had the pleasure of watching and capturing some images of 3 snail kites.
Female Snail Kite Hovering Over the Water
These are amazing birds that glide across shallow waters hunting for huge apple snails. They are about the size of a crow. They are native to central and south America but are only found in Florida in the US. The snail kites in Florida are now listed as endangered because of habitat loss.
Female Snail Kite Sits on Top of a Sign Ready to Eat Her Meal
For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
This past Friday we visited Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL. It was a great day for photos. We saw several beautiful wood ducks and mallards. There were a few ring-necked ducks that have arrived from their northern summer homes. The lake is famous for its flock of mute swans and black swans. For anyone visiting central Florida, I would highly recommend a stop at Lake Morton.
Mute Swan Swims Toward the Shore
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
On Wednesday I had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of another endangered species. The whooping crane was near extinction in the 1940s with fewer than 30 birds alive. Today there are still only about 800 of these beautiful birds remaining in North America. There have been substantial efforts to increase their population over the years, but those efforts have not been a rousing success. A group of non-migratory cranes were introduced to central Florida in the early 1990s. Those releases ended in 2004. We believe the pair of cranes that we photographed may be from the original group. A project to teach cranes to migrate from Wisconsin to Florida using ultralight aircraft began in 2001 but due to numerous failures, the program ended in 2016.
While we were observing the cranes, we witnessed an interesting event. A lone sandhill crane landed next to the pair of whooping cranes. The sandhill was definitely not welcome. The whooping cranes got very agitated and began calling loudly. But the sandhill, which we assumed to be a juvenile, continued to graze. The whooping cranes suddenly chased the sandhill with the male whooping crane grabbing a mouthful of tail feathers from the sandhill. The male cornered the sandhill at the back of the property and then walked away. The sandhill didn’t move for several minutes.
Two Whooping Cranes Warn a Sandhill Crane
The sandhill crane and whooping crane are the only 2 species of cranes in North America so to see both species in the same location was amazing. Seeing them together also revealed how much larger the whooping cranes are than the sandhill cranes.
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
