The Rookery - Part 2

…But first, I have to announce that the swallow-tail kites are back for the summer! I've seen 3, but no photos yet…always seen soaring high overhead...

Ok, being able to see the spoonbills and their hatchlings may have been the icing on the cake for my visit to the St. Augustine rookery, but "the cake" would be getting home, cropping photos, and discovering that I'd been looking at a reddish egret - white morph, without realizing it! Easy to ID due to the pink base of the black bill...

Update: This is actually a snowy egret, darn it! I was corrected by someone on Facebook when I posted the photo there…I Googled images of the snowy and sure enough, this is most likely a snowy with breeding colors, though the pink can also be red or orange…the bill size makes me think snowy...

…There were a few little blue herons…this one has bright blue eggs in the nest in front of it...

…And there were some snowy egrets…these appeared to be two adults...

I was excited to see a few cattle egrets, but couldn't get any good photos…was esp. excited to be able to see them in breeding plumage at a closer range...

…More to come!

Spring Shift & Jay Blanchard Park

    Here in central Florida, we're well into the spring season, and just starting to see hints of the hotter summer months not far ahead. It has been 7 months since Ru and I finished our 4 month job in Hawaii, and we are quite slow to get ourselves truly settled in. But we are making slow progress little by little. We weren't here last summer, so I am try to prep mentally for the hot humid yuckiness of June - Sept. Yea right, as if! I'll be staying indoors 99% of the time!

    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! .......

Right off, a common moorhen near the canal's shore, puttering about...

There was also a mucky adult white ibis on the canal's edge....

Along with 4-5 immature white ibises.....

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....

We came to a spot where two swallow-tailed kites were circling around overhead...I managed an okay shot, which is a small miracle, as bad as I am at shooting moving "targets"...this was the first time I've seen them so close up. We saw some at quite a distance in S Florida last year.

We were sitting on a bench, watching a great blue heron flying low over the canal....

Peek-a-boo! The gator we'd seen several yards back, was still within sight on the opposite edge of the canal...As the heron flew over the gator, the gator lunged half-heartedly at the heron, totally missed...
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...

*  *  *  *  *

Back on the home front, here's the Cooper's hawk with the remains of its catch, below the feeders...ok there's only a wing, did it honestly eat the whole body, bones and all?! I discovered the miscreant upon return from a leisure bicycle ride....

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!

"Peanutbutter and... raisins?! Where's the chocolate?!"

On Ollie's Pond ~ Four Lifers

While on the SW coast last week,

we discovered, by sheer chance,

Ollie's Pond in Port Charlotte...

The pond covers 40 acres

And is only a few miles from PC Harbor...

There's a path around the pond,

And I eagerly took a stroll along one side...

Several little blue herons were feeding...

At some distance, towards the center of the pond,

Greater yellowlegs were also feeding...

(A lifer! I've seen lesser yellowlegs)

There were several Ibises,

This one posing as a statue...

White ibises and glossy ibises were feeding together,

While a pack of hooded mergansers (lifers!) cruised by...

I couldn't quite get a good photo...

Probably 'cause I was all nerves I was so excited ;o)

I was standing in shadow in a line of small trees,

Along side two Brits...

As I went back to the trail and walked a few feet,

Something red zipped by at eye level.....

! ! !

The No. Cardinal was at the top of my lifer wish list,

And I was close to tears I was so overcome...

But did manage to calm down and take photos.

The English couple joined me...

Mr. C posed for at least 10 min. ...

Also flitting in the trees along the path was this yellow-rumped warbler...

Another lifer in the trees, a red-bellied woodpecker!

A bit frustrating not to be able to get a better shot....

Snowy egrets enjoy the pond too...

Trees around the pond have long strands of Spanish moss...

A view of Ollie's Pond....

Not far from Ollie's Pond,

we found a cute little "welcome" frog....

On the front side of a house...

Not just ANY house, mind you...

But OUR soon-to-be new home!

We love, love the Port Charlotte area

And can't wait to be living there.

Swamp Creatures

Florida has what's called The Great Florida Birding Trail...

I haven't visited any of the sites on the trail yet...

(Thanks for the good tip, Bob!)...

But nature parks are in abundance...

And we've visited a couple in the past week...

 

So far the parks have been well-maintained,

And small, like Tree Tops Park.

We walked to the end of the boardwalk,

And after we walked away, this

Little Blue Heron landed by the covered sitting area,

So I crept back to get photos.

It posed nicely...

 

Swamp lilies were growing in the...swamp...

Kind of shocking to see lilies in this setting!

 

These berries are truly this color...

The beautyberry...common...

And stunning...

 

A distant common moorhen was paddling about in the swamp...

 

A great egret was carefully fishing...

A very common bird in FL...

 

Many white peacock butterflies were flitting, also common here...

...And a floating red-bellied turtle was hanging out.