This, That, and A Positive ID!

I thought I'd try to post about every 2 weeks, but HELLO! It's been a month since my last post. My bad?! Anyway, some new birds for the year's count have been sighted -- no photos dang it! -- and one, just this morning during my stroll around the 'hood, is also my first positive ID of….drum roll please… the Eastern bluebird! Oh yay! I've seen this "mystery" bird a few times over the past year-ish, but every time I saw it, it was an overcast day and I could not, no matter how hard I squinted, actually make out the color blue. ARG! Today, I saw BLUE! What other bird has the russet "bib" and white belly? I was like 99.9% sure it was the bluebird but me being me, I HAD to see that pretty blue top-side before claiming I'd sighted one.

Also, a couple days ago, also during my morning walk, I spotted not one but two pileated woodpeckers! I spotted one in a neighbor's pine tree last year, and one at the WA Oaks Gardens State Park as well. Gotta love that 'do! These two were near each other, about 2-3 houses apart, so am wondering if they were a pair. They were both hammering, or I'd never have seen them...

I just have to mention that I received a book in the mail the other day, from my 90 year old, dear dad. He sent me his copy of A Field Guide to Western Birds by Peterson. The point of my mentioning this is that this particular edition is copyrighted 1941; the newest edition is 2010. The book arrived the day after I'd spotted the two pileated woodpeckers…there was a small note tucked into the book like a bookmark…the page it was tucked into happens to be page 104, under the Pileated Woodpecker…!

Oh, also seen recently…the first batch of wild turkeys!

A thank you goes to Bob P. for helping me with the correct ID on my previous post…the small tern is a Forster's not the common tern, which isn't so common it turns out…at least not in FL...

Ok, on to some photos…mostly blurry due to taking them through a window…

The birds are eating us out of house and home…and, we now have a male downy woodpecker visiting the suet feeder! I saw him 1-2x last year, but he has been showing up occasionally this early spring on a fairly regular basis.  :-D

The pine warblers had been scarce lately, but seem to be making a come-back…they're here year-round technically at least…

I ran out of suet Wed., the day before I went grocery shopping, and after watching several birds at the empty feeder, I felt guilty enough to make my own suet, ha! The Carolina wrens sure seemed to like it…I even had two at once at the feeder. They are definitely becoming more brave at the feeders this year vs. last year when they were very skittish and scarce.

You know it's spring when the squirrels start pigging out on the maple tree seeds! And I mean PIG OUT…they don't quit until the seeds are all gone, just like the robins and the red berries. Last year, we worried whether the tree would still grow leaves…this front yard tree is still leafless but the back yard, larger maple has it's new leaves.


We have been to the beach since my last post…

Is it me or does this hunkered down pelican look like a feathered football?!

There was a large cluster of sea birds, including a few immature brown pelicans…this one has a leg band…

…Lots of laughing gulls, which are getting their solid black "helmets" back for summer…in case you're wondering why they're called laughing gulls, well just try hanging out for a few minutes with a flock of them…they don't shut up, and they sound kind of like they're laughing when they squawk at each other. Which is constantly. OY! Just another fun day at the beach!

Another Day at the Beach

As luck would have it, good friends of ours, R and L, have purchased a monster RV and are taking delight in "camping" at a beach-front park in our area. They live near Orlando, and like many Floridians, lease their house out to snow birds…so they've been taking 4-7 day trips to escape the hustle and bustle of a more urban life. And we've been visiting them during their stays…the weather was nasty (but hey, no snow!) during their 3rd and 2nd-to-last visits, but it was just warm enough weather a week ago, during their most recent visit, when we met them on the beach….I didn't go far at all to take some photos of the shore birds at hand...

A large, mixed cluster of sea birds were just chillin' less than 50 yards from where we planted ourselves, including these two royal terns and their hilarious 'dos…they never cease to amuse me…once summer plumage takes over the 'do will be a solid black cap up to the bill...

This little Forster's tern will also have a solid black cap come summer, but they only winter along the Florida coastlines...

The black skimmers were still in presence, in a larger number than my previous visit...

…Again, a lone willet among the larger gulls and terns…the willets seem to be tireless feeders at the ocean's edge, and this was the first time I saw one head up onto the sand, and seem to think to itself "Hmm, this looks like a good spot…"

…And then proceed to settle in for a good rest.

There were also the usual small number of ruddy turnstones (and sanderlings) skittering about, and the one brave rogue who came close to see if a snack would be tossed its way…this shot was taken from my beach chair...

And so was this shot, I admit…out of nowhere this brown pelican flapped down to the sand, stood in one spot checking things out…and then took off…you never now what will come along at a Florida beach…we saw Northern gannets diving into the ocean, too far out for photos…and the token osprey made its appearance, also not quite close enough…

Just another day at the beach!


Back at our humble cottage, today...

I believe this is an Eastern phoebe! A lifer! It visited the back yard briefly…no seeds for this one tho. The yellow-rumped warblers, however, are flocking all over the place and even visiting our feeders these days.

 I also discovered that the Carolina wrens aren't as scarce as I thought…they're just busy nibbling insects on the north side of the house.

G is for Gallinule, Gator, Girl, Gulls, Gimpie, Gannet

Ok, I'm a little pink-faced as I admit I forgot to post some stuff from December...so here I am back-tracking to early December, when our daughter was visiting and the three of us had headed down to the Ft. Lauderdale area. We stayed a couple days with my brother-in-law, whom we had lived with the first 6 months upon our arrival in Florida.

While there, the 3 of us and BIL's girlfriend Karen went to the Everglades Holiday Park, to take dtr. on an air boat ride.  We didn't realize we were walking onto the set of a reality show!  This is where "Gator Boys" is filmed.  No TV cameras that day...but we had an interesting, fun visit...despite the lack of any real time spent speeding fast in the boat....

During the air boat ride, we spotted some purple gallinules!  A lifer bird for me, very exciting as the gallinule is so colorful and not seen in very many states outside of Florida....this was my 2nd to last lifer sighted in 2012. Unfortunately I couldn't get any clear pics of one, ARG!

Er....we also spotted a couple alligators, which was expected...

Back on land, we checked out the Gator Boys' gator show, then I shelled out some cash so dtr. could hold a baby gator....awww, isn't it cute?

Not so cute that we minded snacking on one of its cousins...Karen bought us all a plate of gator bites, frog legs, and some unidentified fish, all breaded and deep fried...duh...

I'd already tried gator some time ago, but frog legs? If dtr. can do it, so can I....

they taste like mild fish...(not chicken!)

While snacking, we had a peacock hanging around, looking for hand-outs....don't bother rubbing your eyes, it IS a peacock!

In fact, we had a line at the table waiting for dropped crumbs...that's a boat-tailed grackle behind the peacock....

Mr. P went as far as posing pretty to try to encourage us to toss him some goodies...

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Ok, back at home.....

Update: I had this labeled as an American Pipit and a lifer...my first reaction had been that it was a female red-winged blackbird, but the vivid white eyebrow threw me off because the female blackbirds I'd seen while living in S Dakota had less prominent, beige eyebrows.  Fellow bird nerd Laurence let me know (thank you!) he believes it's a blackbird...so I went back over my two field guides and, looking at the beak, I would have to concur this is the female red-winged blackbird....darn it.  LOL. Oh well, that just means that my last lifer sighting for 2012 is the blurry Northern gannet!

Back to 2013.....barely....

Rube and I hit the beach a few days ago, soon as the up and down weather hit an "up"....

We saw the usual shore birds, like this sanderling amid some frothy sea foam...

Ok everyone, pop quiz.....what IS this?!  Choices: Red Knot (winter plumage), which I believe it is; Western sandpiper, which appears to have black not greenish legs; or least sandpiper, tho I'm pretty sure it's not that due to the size and darker winter plumage. The other similar birds either don't come to Florida or don't have greenish legs in winter or...I'm labeling it a red knot.  A lifer!

I just don't get it...how can the juvenile ring-billed gull be larger than the adult?!  Can anyone explain this?!  Or is there another immature gull that looks like the imm. RBG? ARG!!

This sweet little ruddy turnstone was resting on the orange shell chips that were scattered on the beach...

But it wasn't alone...this one-legged sanderling was sticking close by. Aww, what are friends for?!

(And yes, I'm sure it was one-legged, I saw it hop.)

I shot this very distant flyer out over the ocean, thinking it may be a wintering white pelican...but it's a Northern gannet!! Another lifer!

So, there's a long boardwalk from the parking lot to the beach in this one spot...along the boardwalk there's a sign with info about the burrowing gopher tortoise that lives in the dunes there, which is clearly being protected from beachgoers.  There was an older couple reading the sign when we came back over the walk towards the parking...I mumbled to myself, yea right, you and I will never see one tho.....crossing the parking lot, we saw 3 kids huddled together looking at something....and there was this tortoise trudging along, hell-bent on reaching the safety of the dunes.  A turtle lifer!

Heading back south along A1A, we stopped in the Marineland area (a town with a dolphin rehab center)...to check out a holding pond, where some big groupers were swimming around...at the far end was this lone little blue heron....

Outnumbered by a flock of brown pelicans....

On the lawn nearby, killdeer were making their eerie call...

And to cap the outing, further down the road Rube pulled over when an osprey flew over the car and I exclaimed, "It's got a fish!"  Luckily, the osprey landed on a nearby pole, still flopping fish in its claw, and I was able to get some decent shots.


** My bird species count for 2012 is a measly 83, so I'm hoping to see at least 100 in 2013.

Bokeelia ~ Pine Island

Another trip was made to the SW coast,

This time to check out Cape Coral...

C.C. is located on the E side of Charlotte Harbor...

What we saw we did not care for,

But we mosied on over to Pine Island

(The largest island on the W coast of FL)...

Bokeelia is on the N tip of the island,

At the mouth of Charlotte Harbor...

It is one of five communities on the island...

There are two piers; this one has a locked gate...

The other pier, you can walk out on part way...

At its gate you have to pay $8 to enter...

While we ate a seafood lunch at the rustic restaurant

Across the street from the piers,

Ru saw a fin out in the water between the piers...

We finished our lunch and went to watch

A porpoise! It was hunting,

And I couldn't get any photos besides of the fin...

...and the splash as it caught a fish,

After zipping at warp speed towards shore...

We did see the fish flip up into the air...

Nearby, and further back down the road, there are two huge osprey nests...

I was able to get photos of the osprey at the nest by the piers...

I did see an osprey in the nest, being fed by the one I photographed...

The osprey flew around nearby then landed on a nearby post...

...And another nearby post...

Here's a perspective shot of the nest...

A brown pelican between the piers.

The porpoise sighting was my first ! Very cool.

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A special thanks to Caroline for ID'ing the "duck" in my previous post (Feb. 21) as an Egyptian goose! I KNEW it was a legit bird, not a hybrid, but the memory was too hazy to roll off the tip of my tongue, and it wasn't in either of my two bird guides (where on earth did I see it then?)

Another aside...we have made the tough decision not to buy a home in Port Charlotte/No. Port,

Due to the communities mostly being on well/septic water, something we're both uncomfortable with.

I'm pretty disappointed, but we will push on and have another area to check out on the NE coast...

I soooo wanted to live on the SW coast but the water and Chinese drywall issues are putting the kabosh on that....

Caspersen Beach

Caspersen Beach is just south of Venice Beach,

in SW Florida,

and is #14 on the South section of

The Great Birding Trail...

Ru and I visited this week

While scouting houses and 'hoods in the area...

C. Beach has some rocky spots

And a narrow shoreline,

But it's a nice beach...

A snowy egret had taken it upon itself

To oversee one fisherman's endeavors...

Deciding, it seemed, that the one bitty fish gift wasn't enough,

Snowy E. did a little fishing of its own...

For a few moments it appeared to of

Grabbed up more than it could swallow...

...Hmmm.......

...Ok, here we go, down the hatch......

Relaxing back on a rock, after the snack......

There were also 2-3 of this bird floating about offshore....

Turns out it's a common loon! A lifer....

Too bad it's winter plumage....

A ring-billed gull and ruddy turnstone

Grappled over a dead fish....

Neither got far with it, but....

Eventually the turnstone strutted off in search of easier fare...

Also floating offshore, like the loons,

Were a couple brown pelicans.

Before reaching Caspersen Beach,

We took a quick look around at

Shamrock Park & Nature Ctr. nearby,

Didn't see anything...it's #13

On the South part of the Great Birding Trail.

We plan to get back there

And ride our bikes on the trail.