{"id":97949,"date":"2024-05-13T21:40:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T01:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flgcc.com\/?p=97949"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:29:05","slug":"peculiar-spring-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/13\/peculiar-spring-season\/florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Peculiar Spring Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been over 6 weeks since my last post. We always anticipate the winter and spring seasons to be some of the best times for wildlife photography here in Florida. Many birds migrate here, while many more migrate through our area in April and early May. But this year has been oddly quiet in several of the usual hotspots. We didn\u2019t observe the numbers of waterfowl this year and the spring migration for several songbird species seemed almost non-existent. A little research may have revealed one of the reasons for the changes. According to weather experts, we are experiencing our first \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o\u201d climate pattern in 5 years. We\u2019ll have to wait for our next \u201cLa Ni\u00f1a\u201d season to see if there is any connection. For whatever reasons, 2024 turned out to be somewhat disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American
American Oystercatcher Flies Over the Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the downturn, there were some highlights. We managed to find a flock of green-winged teal that made a small lake near St. Petersburg their winter home and provided some great photo opportunities. The number of our local wood ducks appears to be on the rise. It was also a good year for painted buntings visiting our feeder. There were days when we would see 3 males along with a female. We had never seen more than 2 males in the past. For the first time, hummingbirds were at our feeders all winter. We found a bird called Chuck-will\u2019s-widow. It\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen one. They are part of the same family as whip-poor-wills and nighthawks and look very similar. This bird was sitting on her nest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chuck
Chuck-will’s-widow Sitting on Her Nest<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we head toward summer, the wildlife environment changes. Different migrants arrive, while others become more active and visible. It\u2019s the time of year for magnificent kites. Thankfully, it seems like some of the catastrophic habitat damage caused by hurricane Ian in 2022 is recovering. We went to south Florida last week to check on snail kites. I\u2019ll be posting another update on that trip shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Male
Male Wood Duck is About to Land in the Reeds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More photos have been uploaded to the Other Birds<\/strong><\/a>, Pelicans and Shore Birds<\/strong><\/a>, and Wood Ducks<\/strong><\/a> galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been over 6 weeks since my last post. We always anticipate the winter and spring seasons to be some of the best times for wildlife photography here in Florida. Many birds migrate here, while many more migrate through our area in April and early May. But this year has been oddly quiet in several…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2743],"tags":[2774],"class_list":["post-97949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","tag-nature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/240417-4-wood-duck-male-gets-ready-to-land.jpg?ver","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110024,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97949\/revisions\/110024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}