In Search of a Snipe -- They Appear Where You Don't Expect Them!

Again, you know it is going to be a good birding day when the first bird you spot is a Bald Eagle posing nicely.  (This was not the first one we saw but the light was better.)  I should start out by saying that by Florida standards, it was a pretty miserable rainy day.  After seeing my sister's pictures from the "dump", I had wanted to visit.  Bald Eagles are real scavengers and would rather have someone else do the work for them than catch prey themselves (guess they feel entitled as they are our national bird)! 

 There were literally hundreds of vultures circling the dump and quite a few Bald Eagles off in the distance most of the time.  Amazing to see three sitting in a row on the hillside.  At least they weren't posing on a pile of trash!!  The dump is the Citrus County Solid Waste Landfill and they have a dirt road circling the dump to view the eagles.

Even though this was far away, I did like this pose!

Again pretty far off but unmistakable.

This is a juvenile Bald Eagle.  It takes about three years to develop their adult color.

On our way to the dump, we stopped at a couple of other birding sites in search of the Snipe.  At this one trail, we only found Red Breasted Mergansers and buoys!!  

We spotted these nice female and male Hooded Mergansers in the dirty water around the dump.

Somehow my sister managed to see this Wilson's Snipe down by the water edge.  Believe me, for the most part it looked like one of the rocks that were nearby.  Both Gail and I took several pictures of the rocks thinking it was the Snipe!!

He was pretty far away!!

This was how she first saw him, and believe me he looked just like the rocks!!

Coming back to North Carolina, I have now seem them three times here in two different places!  I think even I can spot them now! So now I have to see a Woodcock...