Month: August 2022

Categories
Uncategorized

August Birds of Florida

8-31-2022
Kayaking near Lady Pearl I saw a number of manatees!  It is a long video but it shows what I see. The big flat part is their tail as they dive. This is my duck, my companion on the kayak, he is always looking out for me! 🙂

Body of the manatee.
Dorsal fin of a dolphin nearby.
Little Green
Juvenile Little Green, still has his baby feathers sticking up!
Ibis on a powerline.
Great Blue up river on the dam.
Snowy
Snowy have a black beak and yellow feet!
Flock of thirteen ducks which I see regularly.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
Juvenile Yellow Crowned, the yellow is not all in yet.
Egret by the dam.

Kayaking 8-28-2022

Dolphin sighting.
Sea Grape berries are starting to turn purple, when they are all purple they can be turned into jelly.
Brown Pelican
Taking off
On the wing
Laughing Gull
A Great Blue came and sat in the nest the Great Blue's had abandoned!
Female Anhinga
Osprey
Snowy Egret
Ducks
Duck on the wing
Cormorant, first one I have seen in two months.
My nemesis, the Kingfisher sat on her branch long enough to let me get her photo!!
It turned out that she was looking down at what I think was her mate down below! He flew before I saw him.
My friend's pig is growing! Look at that belly!!
This is one of several pile caps, so funny!
The wild conures know where the bird feeders are.
"Nature John" he calls himself.
Scott and his wife off for a "coffee" run.
Water hyacynth, a weed in fresh water, it does not survive in salt water though.
Sandwich Tern (the yellow on the tip of his beak looks like mustard, which is where he gets his name).
Anhinga
She looks bedraggled having just come out of the water!
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
Snowy
Snowy getting breakfast of the critters on the seawall.
Short-tailed Hawk
Little Blue Juvenile.
Little Green
A pair of juvenile Little Green Herons.
Egret
Ibis

After my bout with COVID I am back in the pink.

The first time in months that I have seen a Tri-Color!
Female Anhinga.
Snowy Egret.
Snowy
Yellow feet = Snowy
Sandwich Tern
Short-tailed Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Laughing Gull
Great Blue Heron
Egret
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
Little Green.
Juvenile Little Green
Osprey
Female
Male
Bob and his new Kayak.
Someone with three new kayaks being towed by a sailboat.
One of many manatees. I spent an hour watching and photographing manatees on Sunday.
Usually all you see of manatees is their nose coming up for air.
This huge manatee came up and looked around!
The tail of a manatee.
You will have to use your imagination on this one, my lens will not focus on anything closer than 10 feet. This is a photo of the mother manatee on the right, to the left is the baby and to the right out of the photo was junior. All three came right up to within a foot of my kayak, then dove right under it! The baby later came up to the right side of the kayak for a closer look, twice!!
On the top is one manatee, the middle is a huge manatee, and a third manatee is nuzzling the big one.
A guy on the ship Lady Pearl watching the manatees.
Lady Di came along and saw some of the manatees and dolphin.
A photo of a spider web about 30 feet inland from my kayak, I took the same photo with my P900 (this was with my D300). In the photo with the P900 you could not see the individual threads in the web. That is why I like my 15 year old D300. As I have said before, I have been very hard on this camera, I have had it in the oven twice to dry it out after a dunking, but it still goes on. a good review of it is at https://www.photographytalk.com/nikon-d300-review I have learned that spiders will roll up their web and then eat it. It then be used again!
A dolphin coming almost right at me.
At least five dolphins last Sunday.
A female Cardinal.
A juvenile Little Blue Heron, its new all blue feathers have not come in yet.
Egret watching for breakfast to swim by.
Egret with a Little Green on a concrete wall.
Detail of the Little Green.
Where did that long neck come from? He folds it up!
Osprey watching.
Female Osprey on the right (she has a "V" shaped set of brown feathers at her chest) and a male Osprey on the left. I have never seen two Osprey so close together before! They usually are reclusive.
Osprey diving for his breakfast.
The usual stance of the Osprey.
Portrait of a Snowy Egret.
Egret on the left, a Snowy Egret on the right, a good depiction of the relative size.
Female Anhinga.
The female Anhinga has a grey or buff neck and black with white trim the rest,
Ibis with a crab for breakfast.
Juvenile Ibis, his grey neck feathers will be replaced with white ones as he molts.
Older Ibis, his red growth under his chin (the wattle) signifies that he is ready to mate.
This photo shows the range of my lens, this is at 600mm and the same bird is at the right above taken at 150mm.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron.
Neck above is extended, this photo has his neck folded down.
Two hawks, the one on the left is all dark brown, the one on the right has a pure white brest.
Hawk on the wing.
Little Snowy on the left, Great Blue Heron on the right. Another good representation of the relative size.
It looks like the Great Blue is waiting for a fish from the boat, but the Great blue is several hundred feet away and the boat is close.
Categories
Uncategorized

July Birds of Florida

More July photos, no changes to the weather.

Brown Pelican.
Black Skimmer
White Chested Hawk
Oyster Catcher
Juvenile Little Blue Heron
Yellow Crowned Night Heron with breakfast of crab.
Egret on the wing.
Snowy
Great Blue Heron
Osprey with breakfast.
Duckling that comes to my kayak looking for a handout.
Little Green Heron
Photo of a Little Green Heron taken by Jim with his cell phone. The Little Green had landed right beside him.
Female Anhinga, she sits in the same mangrove bush every day.
Male Anhinga.

The dolphin was going back and forth chasing fish just in front of me, I hoped that he would not get any closer or I would be going for a swim!

July 3 to 10, weather about 84° every day with breezes ranging from none to 7 mph. People said that they did not want daily updates, so I decided to do this weekly.

A boat under the bridge with no identification?
Dolphin seen every few days. They chase fish for breakfast.
A friend's hunting dog, a very nice friendly dog.
Looks like the Gray Kingbird.
Anhinga
White-tailed Hawk. He was in the Great Blue Heron's abandoned nest this morning.
Brown Pelican
Mom and three new ducklings.
Ibis
Juvenile Ibis
Juvenile Little Blue Heron.
Snowy Egret
Egret
Egrets are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build.
Osprey
Juvenile Little Green Heron
I have seen the Black Skimmer multiple times, but when he passed15 feet in front of me doing 30 miles an hour, all I got was blurry mangrove!
Great Blue Heron

Saturday, July 2, 2022. Warm 80°, light breeze, sunny, water with one to two inch waves..

Dawn
Mother and baby dolphins.
Another dolphin, I also saw a manatee, but no photo.
Juvenile Little Green Heron, three babies and a parent were out running around on the docks and boats.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron in the shadows at dawn.
Very young Night Heron.
Another juvenile, just a hint of light feathers on his forehead, he may become a Yellow Crown, will not know until he grows up if he will be Yellow Crown or Black Crown.
Little Blue Heron, his baby white feathers are falling out and his adult blue feathers are coming in.
Snowy
Ducks on the wing.
Three Amigo's still together.
No Ibis at the oyster bar, just up a tree.
Dove
Osprey on mast.
Laughing Gull.
Anhinga in the mangroves.
Brown Pelican
My most recent stalk of bananas, 128 so far.

Friday, July 1, 2022. 89°, light breeze, 4 inch chop out of the SE. Sunny day.

Dawn
Yellow Crowned Night Heron at dawn on the oyster bar.
Ibis shaking the crab to fling off its arms. The secondary eyelid is closed to protect its eyes, humans have the remainder of that secondary eyelid, but it no longer functions.
Osprey on top of a mast.
Adult Little Green, there are three or more juveniles running all around too!
Brown Pelican
He has got one eye on me!
Black Skimmer, the water has cleared up and he is skimming everywhere, I saw him three times, but too far away most of the time.