Loggerheaded Shrike. Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island NWR

When all my flights going home to the blizzard hitting Maine got canceled for two days running, I rescheduled for late in the day on Wednesday, hoping against hope that the weather would be cleared out, and the airlines somewhat caught up. That meant that I did not have to be in Orlando until 2PM. I planned, after many days in the field and lots of images captured, to spend the time in my hotel room resting and catching up…but when the sun came up on a relatively calm day, I could not resist packing up, checking out, and spending my final hours in Florida back out on Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island. I had time for two loops of Blackpoint, and it was well worth the effort. On my second loop, still being ahead of schedule by almost an hour, I parked at the rest area and walked out as far as the observation tower on the Cruickshank Trail, messing about with my new digiscoping rig, and generally having fun. This Loggerheaded Shrike graced the trail with its presence…and it sat while I photographed it with the Sony HX400V (here) and while I set up and digiscoped it. What a bird!

Sony HX400V at just over 1000mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.