The Sanibel Lighthouse Hawk Watch with Vince McGrath has been an anticipated event for a number of years prior to leaving the state of Florida for what you might not believe a move of mine to the great white north. The Osprey above (image 1) was photographed at the Sanibel Island Lighthouse in October 2016. […]
Tag: Merlin
5 bars! Eastern Crowned Warbler!
Phew, what a day that was. Yesterday evening the news of an Eastern Crowned Warbler at Bempton Cliffs broke. I had planned a morning’s birding with Terry a long time ago, which I didn’t want to give up, plus I had stuff to do in the afternoon, so I peacefully (or not?) accepted that I […]
Stared Down By A Merlin
I went down to the shoreline this weekend looking for shorebirds but was stopped in my tracks when I came face to face with a Merlin. We stared each other down for at least a minute as we both sat perfectly still. No one was going to come between her and a meal. Not even […]
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald – review
The arcane world of falconry is infamous for a snobbery that dates back to the medieval period, when different raptors were pegged to a hierarchical list of feudal stations. So the noble peregrine was for princes, the dainty merlin was milady’s bird, and – as we know from Barry Hines’s novel – it was just […]
Little Ringed Plover – Charadrius dubius
This morning’s weather was terrible, but I thought I would go to Isahaya and try to see the immature Steller’s Sea Eagle that arrived last Thursday. I’d seen heaps of these raptors in Hokkaido so it wasn’t a big deal for me personally (hence waiting this long to go and try spotting it!), but it […]
New Workshops Announced
Finally all that snow is starting to clear up. Personally I quite like the cold and the snow, it keeps my joints tight and not inflamed and it keeps me alert. Things have really been taking off in the past two weeks with a lot of planning going into new workshops which are now live […]
Marl Bed Flats, 1/23/2013
This morning was my best birding morning at Marl Bed Flats, though the photographic side of my brain must have shut down. I went there early this morning hoping to meet with the Space Coast Birding Festival group. I thought they were going to meet there at 6:00am, but apparently they were meeting elsewhere and […]
Lake Apopka, 12/14/2012
So I braved the 4 mile Lake Apopka Loop Trail again. It’s a challenge, not just because it’s an 8 mile walk round drip, but also because the trail is hard, compact gravel much of the way, so I’m always sore when I get back. This morning it was cold (by Florida standards) and windy, […]