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We didn't do our usual birding in Florida this year as all three of us were incapacitated to some extent and couldn't do the walking. So included here are some of the birds that frequented my sister's bird feeders. This is a Mourning Dove picking up the seeds from the ground.
A nice male Cardinal. A female was also a frequent visitor.
One of the first Goldfinches of the season. He has yet to get his pretty colors. Look at that big finch bill though!
This was the most frequent visitor -- a Pine Warbler. When you see the Goldfinch and the Warbler together, it is easy to see the differences. We also saw quite a few Palm Warblers.
The Tufted Titmouse (pictured here) and the Chickadees moved very fast, picking up a seed and eating it elsewhere.
Last but not least was the Downy Woodpecker!! We had both males (here) and females.
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...
You know it is going to be a good birding day, when the first bird you see right at the entrance is a mature Bald Eagle staring down from a power pole!!
I got more "likes" on this picture than anything I have ever published on Facebook (even more than the Colin Firth picture)!!
One of my blog readers (thanks, Sandy) reminded me that many of my reader are not here in the US so I really have to name the birds, even the common ones which I will do in the future!!
It was hard to chose which pictures to show as I took close to 500 that day. It is a 3 mile round trip to walk out to the platform at this nature reserve in northern Florida near Gainesville. For more information see Payne's Prairie. We went on the La Chua Trail. This is the second time I have been to this preserve and it was totally different this time than the last time. This time it was very marshy and we literally saw almost every common wader in the bird book! Last time it was dry and the Sandhill Cranes were the predominant bird. We did stop and visit some Sandhill Cranes in a field on our way there.
It was a nice warm day and there were alligators everywhere -- some quite close to the walking path (which the park rangers managed to convince to go back to the water). They were huge as well!
Don't think I would want to run into this fellow!
My sister and her husband are really good at spotting birds in the marshy grass and reeds and somehow she managed to see this American Bittern peaking out. If you looked at the uncropped picture, you would be hard pressed to see him as they blend in to their background so well!!
This was my targetted bird to find -- a Sora which is one of the rails. As it turned out, we saw several! I didn't realize how many until I got home and looked at my pictures and every few pictures, there was another Sora!!
Another picture of the Sora is above!
This was a really nice surprise -- a King Rail! We saw a couple of these and I even managed to spot it the second time. This is a big very beautiful bird. I was amazed that we saw some of these birds as there were a lot of people on the walk on this beautiful Sunday. I know here in NC, I would see few birds on a day like that!
Can't resist adding a couple more pictures of the King Rail.
He is looking right at me here!
We saw several Eastern Phoebes.
Another treat was seeing a new warbler for me -- the Common Yellowthroat (not to be confused with the Yellow-throated Warbler). It is also a warbler and really pretty as you can see here. There is definitely a quilt in these birds!!
We saw lots of the white Ibis as well as the Glossy Ibis pictured here. He doesn't have his brilliant mating plumage yet. These don't seem to be as common as those white Ibis that I see across the street here in NC.
A little Blue Heron.
A Great Blue Heron.
A Great Egret.
A Snowy Egret.
A Tri-Color Heron.
There were serveral Green Herons, each more beautiful than the last!
There were a lot of Pied Billed Grebes swimming around and fishing!
Here he has caught what we thought was a Giant Salamander common here. If you look closely, you can see a leg on the front of the creature. There was quite a struggle here!
Here is an Anhinga with his catch! Lots of Cormorants as well.
This just gives you an idea of the habitat.
On the way to Payne's Prairie, we spotted these Sandhill Cranes in a field by the side of the road. They are one of my favorites and Bill made sure I got to see some close up!!
It was a beautiful day to head to Leesburg Fl and the little park called Venetian Gardens. You can always find Purple Gallinules there as well as the Common Gallinules (formerly called the Common Moorhen). This pictures shows the Purple in the foreground with the Common in the background. There were even more there than the last time I visited.
Here you can see the distinctive up tail feathers in back as well as the very big feet. Look at all that color though!! This is a mature bird.
Here the Gallinule is posing by the marshy area that he likes best.
This one doesn't have all their color yet and is spreading his wings a bit for the picture.
An other immature one with the tail up so you can see the white feathers.
This Common Gallinule was taking a dip.
We saw a couple of Anhingas drying out their wings on the shore of the pond area. We also spotted some Cormorants in the bigger lake area.
Even though I have sworn off taking pictures of American Coots, needed these to complete the Gallinule family in the park.
This beautiful Yellow-throated Warbler showed up at the feeder my first day visiting down in Fl and continued to visit almost every day I was there.
At first he was only interested in the suet but eventually decided the sunflower seeds were okay as well.
This was the Pine Warbler and there were dozens of them at the feeder almost continuously. We found it very very difficult to differentiate these from the American Goldfinches which also frequented the feeders in their dull winter plummage. A couple of Goldfinches may have slipped into these pictures.
I think this one may be a Goldfinch as there is no barring on the chest and the bill is a little stubbier than the Pine Warblers.
At least the Palm Warblers were easy to identify by the yellow under their tail. At first they only fed on the ground but later they joined the gang at the feeders.
And what group of warblers would be complete without the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped Warbler that has overtaken the woods down here. Gail had fewer of them and I swore I wouldn't take a picture of one. This one had the conspicuous yellow marking on his forehead though which I hadn't seen up here in NC.
I believe this is a Goldfinch in front with the House Finch in the rear.
You can see the faint yellow eyebrow on this Savannah Sparrow. Several frequented the space below the feeders.
I loved the little Tufted Titmice that came to the feeder each day. It was almost impossible to get a decent picture of one standing still. I never did get a picture of the Carolina Chicadee which never stood still!!
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