My lack of motivation encompasses birding, except for enjoying the daily entertainment our backyard birds (and squirrels) provide us with. When I try to sit outside in our screened lanai to read, I have a hard time ignoring the almost constant action!
The smaller birds are nearly all gone..the pine warblers, the goldfinches, and the chipping sparrows. I did see a Carolina wren a couple days ago, first one after many weeks. The blue jays, our one red-bellied woodpecker pair, and the No. cardinals are here year-round....(it HAS been one year since we moved into our house!) We also have too many mourning doves...minus one as of yesterday, thanks to the "sharp-shinned hawk" that I posted about previously...having now seen it up closer, I think it's a Cooper's hawk after all. (Sharp-shinned only winters here.) It scours our feeders regularly, unfortunately. We do have a newcomer, a brown thrasher! I had seen a few last spring in neighbors' yards but this is the first to hang out at our house...it seems to like the suet, which has become so popular it only lasts about 3 days! Yikes! Someone is snarfing under the coverage of night!
We recently took a day trip to the Orlando area with our new friends/neighbors, starting with a visit to Jay Blanchard Park, where there is a paved biking trail that starts along a canal. While our friends biked, we strolled part of the canal and enjoyed seeing many shore birds....plus a gator...I definitely got a really good dose of birding that day! .......
And ~ oh excitement! ~ a limpkin! A lifer! According to the Stokes field guide, found only in Florida....
There were some red-winged blackbirds around...that was a surprise since I haven't been seeing them anymore in our area....
Toto, weren't not in Kansas anymore...
Back near our resting spot...plenty of these little buggars in our own backyard...this one was looking for hand-outs...
As we headed back towards our car, an anhinga (immature or small/young male) came to shore right in front of us...look closely & you can see a string around its neck...
While attempting to get photos of a moseying little blue heron, we witnessed it capture and swallow a frog....whole...
Whaa fwaug-g-g?! Trying to look innocent....but what about the large lump in its throat? Oh yuck.
And the little blue heron continues hunting, like nothing happened...
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Our newest "family" member, the brown thrasher...not a hermit thrush. Has white wing tips, golden eyes, and a long tail. It's getting over its camera shyness...As you can see below, it manipulates its tail out of the way. Sometimes it appears to not even have a tail. Which reminds me, the tail-less mockingbird from last year is back and hanging in the back yard quite a bit now. Let's hope Mr. Cooper leaves it alone!
