Florida wildlife – A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens

a second look, adventure, birds, dragonflies, egrets, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, nature, perseverance, photography

Babies and more…

March 31, 2023March 30, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

This Tampa rookery is one of the closer destinations that we can go for photos from our home base in Wesley Chapel. And this time we found the babies we were seeking the last several times we came here. Plus we found some photographer friends to enjoy the day with us. A nice bonus.

Egret chicks have been a bit elusive until this trip.

I had my long lens on the camera and as I scanned to see what I could see this egret was filling the view finder. No cropping, but I liked the picture.

Our friend said that the snowy egrets were putting on a show, and I think he was right. I don’t know if I can post a sound clip, but if you are interested, and would like a chuckle, google ‘snowy egret call’.

Up periscope came to mind when I saw this photo.

I didn’t forget the wood stork babies. This guy is getting big.

The water has been overtaken with lily pads since we were here last. I decided to see if I could find any twigs sticking up through the lily pads in hopes that there would be a dragonfly landing on it. And there was, and if that one left another one would land asap.

The black crowned night heron is usually tucked into the low shrubbery, which makes for a tough photo. But just was we were leaving this one hopped up to a branch and spent a bit of time grooming itself.

We should try to get out every day, but my cold has me dragging today. Thankfully I had photos from yesterday to keep me busy. That and a nap…

a second look, birds, egrets, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

4th times a charm…

March 19, 2023March 18, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

Finally. Little bobbleheads popping up in the nests. We struck out the first few times we headed to one rookery or the other. Now both are blooming with babies, with more to come. Lots of fun for the photographers in the area.

It took a while to spot the chicks in this tucked-away nest.

A photographer recently pointed out their slightly prehistoric look. I have to agree. Egret chick.

Mom and Dad’s pride and joy. Wood storks.

This seemed to be the biggest baby we saw.

I find these little wood stork babies to be so cute. Or maybe it’s in comparison to their adult selves.

Snowy egrets are there. We hear their funny calls. But their nests are tucked into the low branches too far to hope for a photo.

Stay tuned for more babies. Possibly on easier to see nests.

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, Florida landmarks, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, Owls, Pedaling Along, perseverance, photography

In search of…

March 9, 2023March 8, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

I think we just wanted to get out and ride the trike and scooter, and take whatever pictures came our way, so it was off to John Chestnut Park. Now that I’ve seen gators in the park I apparently can’t go there without seeing them. It was a little one, but not so little that I didn’t cut off the end of his tail in my feature photo.

Dragonflies were landing on the leaves in the water near the alligator. Not a great picture but I’m glad they are back and zipping around.

This grackle flew from branch to branch keeping the walkers, and riders, company. And yapping at us to give him a treat.

This red bellied woodpecker was just doing it’s thing, ignoring the people who were gathering and taking pictures of the nearby barred owl.

Two people had to point us in the right direction to find this guy. I’m told his name is North. Yes, I probably could have tried to take that stick out of the picture, but but I surrendered before I drove myself nuts trying.

So he was playing a little joke on us? Hiding in plain sight.

We talked to a fun gentleman on the fishing pier and I told him that we had been seeing pictures of owls taken in the park. He immediately took out his phone and showed us some of his photos. He said they are everywhere, just keep your eyes open.But he said I had asked the right person because he was the president of the SOS, Secret Owl Society. Says he has a tee shirt with that title emblazoned across his chest, only the ‘O’ is an Owl face. Then he told us where to head, only when you are talking about riding on the trails it’s easy to get confused. But when you see people gathering and taking pictures that’s a good sign.

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Beautiful day, part 2…

March 6, 2023March 5, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

Only it was really part 1, because I have a few images from my second trip to Chinsegut Conservation Center in just a week or so. That was our first stop, since it was the farthest north we intended to go. When we got there the feeders were being loaded up, again. The gal said that they’d been filled up the night before and were empty already. It didn’t take long for the birds to get to work on emptying them again. That’s a red bellied woodpecker in the feature photo.

Another Mrs. Cardinal enjoying the suet that was also refilled that morning.

Birds of a feather eat together. Pine Warblers.

Yes, I think the pine warblers outnumbered everyone else.

Heading south we stopped at the Nature Coast Botanical Garden next, and wandered to the music by a band that was playing in a little gazebo next to the train garden. We saw the train make its last trip around the track before being put away for another week. But I found the waterfalls at the garden to be especially pretty that day.

Plus a butterfly, which made me happy to see.

Stop number 3 was to see what was happening at the eagle nest. The two ‘babies’ were on their own while we were there. But a couple who were just leaving said that one of the adults had just been up in the tree keeping an eye on them.

There seemed to be some tidbits in the nest for them to be snacking on.

This was all the action we saw from them, and we didn’t wait for a parent to return,

Our last stop of the day was at the rookery, and those were the pictures I posted yesterday. This morning we watched a live streamed photography class given for our photography club. And I’ve got a book I need to get back to…

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The Vienna Rookery…

February 24, 2023February 23, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

Photographers are told that you ought to visualize the photo you want to take ahead of time. I’m not sure that they mean on the drive to your destination however. I had no problem visualizing the rookery full of great blue heron nests, with babies calling out to be fed and their parents flying in and out. But when we got there I could only see a couple of nests with great blue herons standing at attention minding the nests.

This is the first shot I took. Ah, thought I, Dad on guard, and that pile of feathers to the left must be Mom, laying on eggs.

But the pile of feathers turned out to be these two ‘chicks’. Not little balls of fluff. And I now thought that maybe that was Mom, keeping an eye on things out out of reach of the little darlings.

They were flapping those wings too, thinking of the places they’ll go.

They were yapping at her, but she didn’t seem to be impressed.

There are other ways to get your other’s attention however.

The great blue herons were outnumbered by the great white egrets. And the egrets were still in the nest building and posing stage of things. Just like in the rookeries much closer to home.

I was told that we were a month late to see the great blue herons at the just hatched stage. And we think that our kids grow up too fast. But then there will be a new family to raise next year, and we’ll come back in January.

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Excitement at the rookery…

February 9, 2023February 10, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

A friend recently commented that she went by the rookery and not a lot was going on. But that was a few days ago, and the action is picking up at this point. The birds are flying in and out, building their nests. Once most of the nests have eggs there will be a lot of birds on nests, and that is a lot quieter. Until the chicks hatch and the decibel level goes up. Way up.

A little hanky-panky going on. Actually there was a lot of it going on.

This spot is a small outcropping at the edge of the bigger island that the birds nest on. I’ve watched the birds for years and this area is usually where the anhingas nest, along with a great white egret also. But not the wood storks. So when this wood stork invaded the area the anhingas let him know that they weren’t going to stand for it.

I love the look on Mrs. Anhinga’s face in this one. I think she called for help.

I’ve always noticed that as close together the nests are the birds seem to coexist quite peacefully.

But this argument continued and I kept shooting since it seemed like new behavior to me.

Maybe flapping his wings would back the anhingas off.

But the face off was still in full swing.

At this point it seems the anhinga is backing off. But I took many, many more pictures and this standoff continued as we were leaving.

If the war nearby was alarming to any of the other birds it wasn’t obvious. The egrets were more interested in finding a partner, so they carried on as usual.

So there was lots of posing going on also.

Once they have eggs the birds will be laying in the nest, only getting up to reposition themselves. After a couple of weeks you begin to hear the babies calling out to be fed. You hope that they will be bobbing up and down in a nest that you have a view of from the sidewalk, and eventually that will be true. The cycle of life.