Lots of birds in the Zooming slide show this month – from the Whooping Crane Festival in south Texas as well as Josey Ranch (Carrollton TX), the Springfield Botanical Gardens (Springfield MO) and Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (near Sherman TX). I find myself picking images that show bird behavior rather than portraits.
There are spring flowers in this collection as well…more of those coming in April!
Enjoy the March 2024 slide show!
We signed up for a shorebird identification field trip for the third afternoon of the Whooping Crane Festival. We got on the bus after lunch and, it turned out, spent the whole session at Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center…which was fine with us since we had wanted to return there. We spent less time with the guide and just enjoyed all the birds at the place. There is a lot to see; the boardwalk makes it easy to see birds without disturbing them. The shallows are a popular place for them to feel secure enough to rest and bathe…and snack.
American white pelicans – in a big group or singles.
The common gallinule was near the alligator (again). I decided to take close up views of the feet (very long toes).
A black necked stilt wondered along through other species…looking aloof.
The green-winged teals were bathing…preening.
Grackles were bathing and preening too….or making raucous noise in the reeds and glaring at my camera.
A pied-billed grebe wandered near the reeds…hiding in plain sight as usual. Once I noticed the bird, I took a series of pictures as it found lunch.
A northern shoveler snoozed…another perched on a post in the water.
Ibis preened and stretched their wings.
I took a series of images of a bird in the shallows…thoroughly cleaning its feathers. It takes a series of contortions. The bird appeared to be enjoying the water!
A blue-winged teal showed the blue on its wing when it bathed.
Now for some group pictures. They are good for size comparison and ID practice. The first has 2 black-necked stilts and a male northern shoveler.
The second had a black-necked stilt and 4 American avocets.
The smaller birds were easily startled and would explode up into air…circle and return very close to where they were before the panic.
There were neotropic cormorants seemingly content to just sit in the sun.
There was a tricolored heron that seemed to be posing for pictures. I couldn’t resist!
The alligator did not move at all in the several hours we were there!
Overall – the place lived up to my expectations; we could have done it on our own rather than with the bus/guide. I am beginning to understand better that we have learned enough about birding to leave more free time to during festivals…or go early/stay late.
The last field trip of the festival would be the next morning at Fennessey Ranch.
October was a great month for getting out and about. The weather cooperated. There were birds and butterflies and colorful leaves…some flowers and frogs…even a sunrise. I had a lot of pictures to choose from for this zooming post! I use the feature on my camera for most of my pictures…to get the image framed the way I want…avoiding the need to crop. Enjoy the October slide show!
And Happy Halloween! A restaurant we went to recently had a clever Halloween decoration in one of their small bushes! I didn’t have to zoom for this picture…just stood on the sidewalk and took the picture with my cell phone!
Last weekend, we took a day trip to Smith Island arranged by Delmarva Birding. We departed from Somers Cove Marina in Crisfeld, MD about 8 AM.
The day was sunny a very breezy. The temperature was chilly enough that we appreciated the plastic that blocked the wind for us while we were on the boat crossing Tangier Sound toward Ewell. We past Glenn Martin National Wildlife Refuge along the way…lots of pelicans and cormorants.
Goat Island is across from Ewell…and the goat seem interested in boats coming into the marina.
We browsed the Smith Island Cultural Center then walked down Smith Island Road to look at birds in the wetlands there. There were small birds which I didn’t manage to photograph and ducks that were far enough away that they were silhouettes. A Great Egret was close to the road we were walking down.
So was a Tricolored Heron. The bird must have been in one of its favorite spots for fishing since it ignored our group and continued its activity.
Back on the boat we headed around to Tylerton where we had lunch (island made crab cakes and Smith Island Cake) at Drum Point Market. The bathroom had black-eye-susans painted on the walls!
We walked around afterwards seeing the stained-glass windows of the church, heron shutters, and the ‘welcome’ painted on a building.
Several houses had pomegranates as part of their landscaping.
Then we were back on the boat…and more birding. There was a group of Double-crested Cormorants with one in the center…wings spread. I couldn’t resist taking slightly different angles of the birds clustered around that one!
There were some Caspian and Royal Terns on a beach. I think most of the terns in my pictures are Royal Terns.
I’ve saved all the pelican pictures for part II of this blog post…coming out on Sunday!
We didn’t see as many herons at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (see previous post here) as we have in years past. Maybe they were hunkered down in the rain or way from the wind. It was not ideal weather while we were there. The one we did see was not as common as some of the others: a tricolored heron.
It is distinguished from the Little Blue Heron by its white underparts and white on its neck. And it’s smaller than the Great Blue Heron.
This bird was feeding in a waterway with high banks…somewhat protected from the wind. I was pleased with the way the feathers were ruffled and smoothed as I watched the bird move about – oblivious to us in our car (used as a blind).
Continuing the third day of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival…today’s post is still based in the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area…observing birds around the lakes rather than woodpeckers.
On bird that was new-to-me was the Limpkin. It’s a crane relative and lives in the Americas. Their diet is mollusks – dominated by apple snails.
Here’s a sequence of one walking.
Another bird that I had not seen before and that also eats apple snails is the Snail Kite. I was hunting on the same lake as the limpkin and it found a snail – took the snail to a post in the water to eat.
There were empty snail shells in the water so both birds were probably getting enough to eat. Most of the shells were the larger apple snail which is invasive to Florida but both birds can apparently eat them as easily as they do the native species.
There were three kinds of white birds around: the juvenile Little Blue Herons,
(which grow up to have gray-blue adult plumage with some red on their neck and heads),
The Snowy Egret with its black legs and yellow feet,
And a Great Egret which was the largest of the three.
There was a Great Egret in a tree near where we had a picnic lunch. Evidently he gets fed nearby and is named Pete.
There were two other herons beside the Little Blue: Tricolored Heron and
A Great Blue Heron in the tall grass.
Nearby there was a Sandhill Crane barely visible in the grass and its mate standing nearby. I took a picture of the one that was standing. Evidently sandhill cranes seen as pairs in Florida are resident; they don’t migrate. There are cranes that come for the winter but don’t breed in Florida and they generally stay in larger groups.
There were Anhinga around sunning themselves or preening. They are easier to photograph out of the water.
The Common Gallinule has very large feet. To make it easier for them to walk on vegetation in the water.
There were a lot of insects that the bird was finding on the grasses near the water.
A near relative – the Purple Gallinule – was doing the same thing.
There was a juvenile nearby. I liked the way the light changes the colors of the bird. It was like the color of peacocks and morpho butterflies…changing color with every slight variation in light. They too have big feet.
I saw a Pied-billed Grebe just as it turned away…got one picture.
A Glossy Ibis was also enjoying the lakeshore…finding food.
It was a good day for water birds. There were even more (white pelicans, some ducks) but they were too far out on the lakes to get reasonable pictures. I was pleased to see three new-to-me birds: snail kite, limpkin, and purple gallinule.
Our second stop was the South Padre Island Convention Center. There are boardwalks on one side of the building for birds (and other wildlife) viewing. My best pictures there were: black-necked stilt,
An alligator that was still at first but then headed toward the shore…stalking
A Common Gallinule that was making its way close to the shore (fortunately it wandered further upslope…no drama),
And a Green heron.
We walked to an area where there was a small area of planted vegetation. The small birds there were too hard to photography in the vegetation, but there were quite a few monarchs roosting…a little rest before continuing their migration.
We continued around the convention center buildings. There was a Little Blue Heron on an abutment,
A pelican almost too far out in the water (I didn’t notice the grebe until I looked at the image on the larger screen of my computer),
A Great Egret (not the black legs and feet),
And a Reddish Egret.
At the front of the convention center, I took some pictures of the facades. These must hold up to coastal storms.
There were mud flats on the other side of the convention center….mostly drying since the tide was out. There were White Pelicans,
Black Skimmers (in the foreground), and
A strutting Tricolor Heron.
As we walked back to the bus, there were some White Ibis walking across the parking lot with us. The underside of the bill was different than I expected!
Closer to the bus were some laughing gulls in the parking lot. One seemed to yawn….a good ‘last’ picture for this segment of the field trip.
We stopped at Estero Llano Grande State Park after our walk around Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. The day was still relatively cold and getting damper…but there were still birds active. A Snowy Egret was actively searching for lunch.
We also saw Blue Winged Teal. The males are easier to identify than the females!
A Scarlet Tanager posed on a lamp post across the water. It was far enough way that I had to maximize the zoom on my camera – not the best picture but clearly a scarlet tanager.
A Tricolored Heron was fishing the pond
As were the White-Faced Ibis.
By now the Northern Shovelers
And American Coots have become familiar to me.
The Least Grebes were a little too far away for a good picture in the dim light of the cloudy day…but their silhouette is distinctive.
We were a little damp, cold and hungry by the time we made a short hike. We decided to find someplace for a late lunch and discovered The Smoking Oak in Mercedes, Texas. Great barbeque!
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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