Posts in Category: Florida
Florida! Painted
Painted Bunting: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — Another top of anyone’s list birds from this area of Florida has to be the Painted Bunting…arguably the most colorful of North American birds. Fortunately for us, there are almost always a few coming to the feeders behind the Visitor Center at the Refuge. This year there are at least 3 males and half a dozen females…perhaps more than that, but three males is the most I saw at the same time so we will go with that. If you have been to the Visitor Center to see the Buntings you know where the feeders are is pretty dark and surrounded by dense undergrowth, so I was happy to get what I got! OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Rosy!
Roseate Spoonbill: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titisville, Florida, January 2024 — This is my first trip to Florida since covid…I am doing workshops at the resurrected Space Coast Bird and Nature Festival…but before that I had been coming to the Space Coast every year for 15 years…so I came this year with kind of a “most wanted” list in mind…at least in the back of my mind. And I am happy to say that I clicked off almost all of them, or at least a first approximation, on my very first day here. Of course the Roseate Spoonbill in breeding plumage has to be on anyone’s most wanted list. This is a male in his full finery. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida Scrub Jay
Today, as I pretty much “shelter in place”, we will pop back down to Florida, from January’s trip to the Space Coast Birding Festival, to pick up this shot of two Florida Scrub Jays working the sandy trail at the Helen and Allen Cruickshank Sanctuary in Rockledge. (USA). Busy, busy, Jays are always busy. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. We are not in lock-down yet here in Maine, but I am keeping close to home. I hope to set up in the back yard today to get some shots of birds coming to the feeders. 🙂
Ruddy Turnstones
We return to Florida and the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville. On my last day there, my daughter Sally and I did a loop around Black Point Wildlife Drive and then the short loop of Gator Creek, where we found a small flock of Rudy Turnstones, which we pulled over to watch in two different spots as they moved along the waterfront. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA.
Limpkins on the vine…
Two Limpkins walking up a tangle of vines at Chain of Lakes State Park in Titusville, Florida, USA. Not an angle, in my experience, that you get on Limpkins very often. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Juvenile Bald Eagle, Florida
A rather scruffy looking Bald Eagle on a power pylon on the way to Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida, USA. I pulled the car over on the verge and walked past the pole for these shots. This appears to be a 3rd or 4th year juvenile, depending on how you sequence the plumage stages of the Bald Eagle…whether you put full adult plumage at 4 or 5 or even 6 years. However you do it, this bird is still at least a year shy of full adult. The head is getting on towards mostly white, and the bill is all yellow, but it still has the dark terminal tail band. (I had, of course, to look up the sequencing this morning…and the sources I found were not all that consistent. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Perfect pinkness.
The perfect pinkness of Roseate Spoonbills again. These two were among a flock of 30 birds that flew into the channel beside the road at Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida, USA. Overcast day so the pinks really burn. The Roseates were particularly intense this year in Florida. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Great Egret’s undeniable grace
Great Egret, Orlando Wetlands Scenic Park, Christmas, Florida, USA. This bird was tucked back in under the shade of a cluster of palms in the marsh, early in the morning. Egrets are elegant birds for the most part, and though the Great Egret is not delicate by any means, it manages to often show a particular grace. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Snowy Egret in the frame…
Snowy Egret in the frame and yelling about it, at Orlando Wetlands Scenic Park in Christmas, Florida, USA. Sometimes it is the surrounds that make the photo, even the wildlife photo. Here I like the strong diagonal branch with its texture and the way the out of focus palms in the background section the frame. I put the bird, which is in an interesting pose, on the left rule of thirds “power line” (even though it is facing out-of-frame), with its head at the upper left “power point” so your eye is drawn to the subject, but within the whole composition. Facing out of frame gives the shot some extra tension. Did I think all that through in the field. No, of course not. I do have my rule of thirds grid turned on in the Sony, and I do pay some attention to it in the field, but mostly I just liked what I saw in the viewfinder and shot the image. The composition stuff might explain why I like it…but I liked it before I knew why. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Glossy Ibis being, well, glossy!
Glossy Ibis preening at Orlando Wetlands Scenic Park in Christmas, Florida, USA, shows off all the iridescence of its plumage…undoubtedly how it got its name. 🙂 It is opportunities like this that keep birders and just regular folk who enjoy nature coming to park. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.