It was a rather large lake, several hundred yards long and about a hundred yards across. And, it was nearly filled with redheads! There were so many, it was hard to take it all in. What you see in the image above was the same across nearly the entire surface of the lake.

Here’s a view of a pair who obliged us by swimming much closer to the camera.

We could easily have driven right by and never even noticed this. But, I’m glad we did! It was a nice way to start a nice day at the beach!

Over the weekend at our house, you could hear the hustle and bustle of housecleaning, as we performed the annual deconstruction of the holiday decorations. As we were busy indoors, the birds took the hint outside, and we had a waiting line at the birdbath. Here, a Boat-Tailed Grackle stares incredulously at an invading Starling, who seems to be giving the all-clear to his brethren (“Come on in, the water’s fine!”).

Here’s hoping you had an enjoyable holiday season, and that you have a prosperous and peaceful New Year in 2013.

I’ve been chasing birds with my cameras for longer than I’d care to admit, and for one reason or another, I just never seemed to have a camera handy when I saw pileated woodpeckers. They are relatively common in Florida, and very striking with their “Woody Woodpecker” red crest. It’s just that every time I see one, I’m without a camera.

So, when I spotted this young specimen on a recent Saturday, as I was preparing to mow the grass, I thought, “by the time I go inside and grab my camera, he’ll be gone.” I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I grabbed camera, lens and tripod, and came back outside, and there he was, taking a bath in a rain puddle on my neighbor’s roof. After a good long soaking, with much thrashing and wiggling, it was off to the nearest palm tree – for a prolonged round of preening. I was able to take pictures of this cooperative fellow for quite some time!

While the light wasn’t the best, I wasn’t complaining. I got my pileated woodpecker photographs, and I’m glad that when he came knocking at the tree next door, I was still optimistic enough to take the time to run for my camera.

Just in case.

I started this year with an impromptu family visit with my wife Carol and granddaughter Ava to one of my local favorite spots, Sawgrass Lake Park – a nature preserve located smack dab in the middle of Saint Petersburg. The park has boardwalk trails, a viewing tower overlooking a good size lake, and several waterways (actually canals) surrounding the park. But from a photographer’s perspective, what is has is birds. Sometimes not so many, occasionally a lot. On New Year’s Day, we were fortunate to find a lot! With water levels down, the birds were congregated near the canals and lake, and there were good photos awaiting.

We started out seeing a rather large flock of wood storks, some basking in the grass on the side of the canal and a few foraging in the shallows. With the sun low in the evening sky, and the view of the storks facing fiercely into the sun, it was challenging, but I was able to get some good backlit photos.

Moving on, we spotted a huge variety of water fowl, including several young roseate spoonbills, egrets and herons of all varieties, and even some mallards and marsh hens. But the prize for me was spotting a limpkin wading in the shade of the footbridge, dredging for clams along the water’s edge. Limpkins are local and rare to fairly common in parts of Florida, but aren’t very common in this part of the Tampa Bay area. I was able to get several good photos of him, although I was regretting not having brought my speed light and better beamer flash extender!

All in all it was a good day! For more photos of the birds we spotted, be sure to check my photo stream on Flickr.

mh++

I started at the north end of the North Beach, and walking through the pines near the water, I spotted some interesting shore birds, including this Black-Bellied Plover:

Onward I went, and after much searching, I finally located the Australian pine with the dozing mother owl. I was able to get relatively close and take quite a few pictures:

Suddenly, looking at a branch several feet below the mother, I spotted the fledgling. He was out of the nest, but huddling within a sheltered part of the tree making it difficult to get a clear photo. He was getting large, maybe 2/3 the size of the mother, but he still had a quite fuzzy head:

All in all, a successful afternoon, and some good pictures to go along with it!

The tone was set for excitement as we spotted an 8-point buck near the park entrance. Deer that size are rare in Florida! We proceeded into the sanctuary, cameras ready and with bated breath. Alas, two natural occurrences prevented the day form being everything it promised: due to the cold Florida winter, there had been no wood stork nesting activity in the Sanctuary this year, and due to the unusually wet winter, there was a lot of water everywhere – so instead of the birds congregating in the center of the swamp, there were very few wading birds in sight.

We did manage to see a variety of birds, images below; the list we spotted included pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, swallow-tailed kite, red-shouldered hawk, turkey vulture, Carolina wren, catbird, great blue heron, and a few great egrets.

This Carolina wren serenaded us beautifully from the treetops, then dropped to eye level to pose for a few images:

We spotted several young red-shouldered hawks, and even got to watch one as he stalked, then captured and devoured a small frog:

On the way back, Michael White and I also stopped at the Venice Rookery, where we watched quite a few pairs of great blue herons, great egrets, and anhinga tending to their young. Herons and Egrets in breeding plumage are a beautiful sight to see!

We had a gleeful time watching the antics, and then he stopped directly in front of us, stared, and proceeded to shake himself vigorously. Click! I was able to catch these shots. The light was fading, so there is a good bit of motion blur, but I still like the shots!

These images were processed in Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS5. I’d like to give Lightroom 3 a shot at the noise, but I haven’t had time to install the beta version yet.

Tune in tomorrow for some travel photos!

Here are a couple of shots of the spoonbills; I’ll post some of the egret tomorrow.

Beautiful birds, aren’t they? These were processed in Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS5, with a tiny bit of help from Topaz Adjust (just an accent). Enjoy!

Over the past couple of months, I’ve presented a relatively complete overview of the heron family. It’s finally time to move on! This week we will take a look at the Ibis family, a very recognizable and culturally important bird, known throughout the world for its large curved bill.

Ibis are a group of long legged wading birds, and in the United States we have a few native species, as well as some wanderers from South America. We’ll cover them all here, starting with our cover bird, shown here, the White Ibis.

White ibis are common in Florida and much of the southeastern united states, ranging from the seashore to the interior wetlands. They can be found in the deepest wilderness and swamps, seeking crustaceans and fish, and can be found grazing in Mr. Smith’s lawn next door, looking for insects and other goodies.

Adult white ibis are nearly all white, with black just on their wingtips. The black tips may be difficult to notice when they are wading or grazing, but are unmistakable in flight. The white ibis has an orange to pink colored bill, long and curved, and legs of a similar color to the bill. The curved bill and black wingtips make for an easy identification, allowing you to distinguish the white ibis from the white egret varieties we’ve reviewed here in past articles.

The juvenile white ibis starts out looking similar to the adult, but is mostly brown. As they mature, the brown fades to white over the first year or so of their life.

According to Wikipedia, ‘The mascot of the University of Miami is an American White Ibis. The ibis was selected as the school mascot because of its legendary bravery during hurricanes. The ibis is the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane hits and the first to reappear once the storm has passed. Miami’s sports teams are nicknamed "The Hurricanes"’.

Ibis were treated very specially in ancient Egypt, where they were associated with the god Thoth (the local ibis in that region is actually called the “Sacred Ibis”) and ibis were bred, sacrificed and even mummified in vast numbers in religious ceremonies.

White ibis are social creatures, and are often found in groups, even mixing regularly with other wading birds.

Cousin to the white ibis is the Glossy Ibis. Found in the same range as the white ibis, but decidedly less common, the glossy shares the body profile of the white ibis, but with a completely different color palette. The glossy ibis has a more bronze colored body, brownish flecked head and neck, and a light blue, almost white line around the face. The bill and legs are much darker than the white ibis, so it is easy to tell a glossy ibis from a juvenile white ibis – once you know!

Similar to the glossy ibis is the white-faced ibis. Found rarely throughout the midwest, the white faced looks very much like the glossy, but with pink legs and pink around the base of the bill. inside the white face line.

Finally, we have the scarlet ibis. Once again sharing the same overall shape as the white ibis, the scarlet has a neon color that is more like a flamingo than an ibis. A wanderer from South America, most of the birds in the wild are actually escapees from zoos and wildlife preserves. In the wild, some of these have started to interbreed with the white ibis, resulting in a range of colors from white to pink to red.

I photographed this colorful character at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, FL:

There you have a brief overview of the ibis family… I hope you enjoyed the imagery. Now, get out there, find some local ibis flocks, and get better acquainted with this cultural icon!

Night herons come in two varieties, the Black-Crowned Night Heron and the Yellow Crowned Night Heron. As their name would imply, both are primarily nocturnal feeders, although it is not uncommon to find them out and about in the daytime as well.

We’ll start with the Black-Crowned Night Heron. Small and stocky, these are some of the smallest herons, with a full-grown length of only 24-25” (64 cm). Found throughout much of the US and into parts of Canada, these birds are locally common but, due to their nocturnal habits and their tendency to prefer wet swamps and woods, may be less likely to be seen or noticed by the casual observer.

Note the rather thick bill, and the dark, almost black, crown and back. The wispy white plume, found in mature birds, is longest and most dramatic in the breeding season (early spring through summer).

The juvenile is brown with white speckles and light under parts, and can be told from the young Yellow-Crowned by its lighter colors and paler yellow, thinner bill. The youngster below seems to have barely escaped becoming lunch for a gator:

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is also a small, slight bird, about the same size as the Black-Crowned, but not as stocky. Note the overall gray body, with the pale yellow crown and cheeks, and the otherwise black head. The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is also locally common, and can be seen regularly along estuaries and bays as well as deeper in the inland swamps.

As with the juvenile Black-Crowned, the juvenile Yellow-Crowned is brown with white specks. Note the much thicker, darker bill, and the generally darker underside.

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is a persistent hunter, and patience pays off when you find one on the prowl. I’ll end with a sequence of photos of a Yellow-Crowned doing what he does best:

Happy Birding!