On Friday I visited Central Winds Park. Migration is winding down, but Northern Parula are singing throughout the park. Breeding has begun! One singing male posed nicely for photos; I suspect these are some of my best photos of the species. I was also surprised to see a young fledgling flying/hopping from tree branch to […]
Tag: Scott Simmons
Least Sandpiper
Last week at Fort De Soto I had the opportunity to pretty little Least Sandpiper on the shore of East Beach. This one was pretty cute running around the beach.
Black Birds at Marl Bed Flats
Not all black birds are blackbirds, and not all blackbirds are black, but they are all birds. This morning at Marl Bed Flats I saw lots of black birds, and some of them were blackbirds. My favorite blackbird, though, was only partly black. Bobolinks are blackbirds, and the males are black, the females aren’t. I […]
Fish Crows: Egg Thieves
Crows are smart, and because of this I’m somewhat fascinated with them. They’re not particularly attractive birds, but they have a lot of ingenuity. I’ve read stories of crows working together to steal food from gulls. One crow comes up behind the gull and pulls a tail feather, distracting the gull. When the gull looks […]
Chickadee Irruption in Central Florida!
Here in Central Florida we’ve grown accustomed to having an easy time identifying chickadees. If you see one, it’s a Carolina Chickadee. But this is no longer the case, as there has been a massive irruption of northern and western species of chickadees into Central Florida. The irruption was first noticed when the above photographed […]
Killdeer
Photographers sometimes shy away from photos like this. I call them field guide shots. The bird is doing nothing, just standing in full profile, but you can see everything about the bird that helps you identify it. As photographers, we often want action shots, interesting poses, or at least something that makes the photo stand […]
Osprey With Fish
The fishermen weren’t catching anything, but the Osprey were. This one was sitting perched on a post near the shore of Lake Monroe mocking the fishermen. It was a sorry sight, really. The fishermen couldn’t come close to the skill of the Osprey. Well, they weren’t alone in their Osprey-jealousy, since apparently the Bald Eagles […]
Forster’s Tern on Lake Monroe
A couple weeks ago I was at the marina on Lake Monroe looking for (and not finding) a Royal Tern that had been seen there earlier. So I occupied my time photographing other terns. I shared photos of Caspian Terns in another post, but there was also Forster’s Terns patrolling the marina area. Most of […]