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Spring must be coming as I am suddenly seeing lots of Robins as well as the Cedar Waxwings. I had never seen a Cedar Waxwing before this year even though they are a common bird found throughout the east.
Mrs. Robin was nearby.
The Cedar Waxwings seem to travel in rather large flocks. While in Florida, I had seen many pictures from my NC friends of trees filled with Cedar Waxwings and was hoping I would get to share that experience. This was one of the trees that I saw absolutely filled with the Waxwings. They seem to favor the barren trees that are above the rest. They also fly off in a group like the Starlings do and I wonder how many flocks that I thought were Starlings were indeed these Waxwings.
They are really a pretty day especially when framed by the stunning azure skies we often have. The day of this picture was a hint of spring for sure with the 70 degree temps while the north was suffering with the snowstorms.
Two together.
Pictures from a cloudy day but you can see those bright yellow tips on their tails.
There were actually four of these birds sitting close together and one spread out his tail for me.
I actually thought the branch might break when the last one landed. If you look really closely at the bird second from the left in the top row, you will see the red speck of color on his wings.
Walking on the path to the east pond by the aquarium, I spotted this Brown Thrasher. He was pretty fast heading back off the path and into the woods.
A little blurry as the Thrasher was running here but at least you see his striped belly here.
Of course the Wilson's Snipe was back again for a second day at the parking lot. I saw him a couple of days later on another of the aquarium paths. I must have surprised him as he flew up right in front of me.
Pretty male Hooded Merganser at the aquarium pond. Still lots of them there.
There were also both female and male Ruddy Ducks. This is a male.
I swore I wouldn't take another picture of the Yellow-rumped Warbler but he was posing so nicely. They used to be called Myrtle Warblers. They are flying around like a swarm of bees when you drive you car down Ft. Fisher Blvd down near the aquarium!!
Who would have thought that on my first venture out since coming back from Florida that I would see another Wilson's Snipe in an area where you would not expect to find one (a vacant field next to a parking lot). Evidently before I arrived, there were four of them hanging out there. Eventually too many people appeared and he too crept back into the bushes.
Just another view of him.
My first visit of the day had been down to the rock wall at Ft. Fisher as the Avocets were there again. As usual, I missed them (some day....). There were any number of Dunlins hanging out though on the small beach by the rock wall. A Clapper Rail whizzed by as I was standing there as well but too fast for a picture (I will get another one...I will get another oen).
And this fellow was hanging out with them and confirms what my sister says about birds that look alike hanging out together. You can see this bird is a lot more spotty and has a much smaller beak. I have tentatively identified him as a Black-bellied Plover in his winter plumage but haven't gotten confirmation. He was definitely a loner.
There was the usual gang of Dunlins, Oystercatchers and gulls out on the rock wall at high tide but there were also a few terns joining in. Here are two Forster's Terns standing instead of their usual diving for fish.
There were even a couple of Royal Terns out there with the Godwits and Dunlins.
I couldn't identify the bird in the background here but thought it looked most like a Short-blled Dowitcher. Don't have confirmation of this either!! There were several Godwits in the gang of resting birds as well. It is quite a sight to see all the Oystercatchers, Gulls, Terns, Godwits, Dunlins, Willets and other shorebirds all grouped together on the rock wall at high tide all facing in the wind direction.
Here is another shot of him crowded in with the other birds. The light was not great that day so am unsure of his leg color but can see the two color beak.
I have to comment that I hurried down to the basin when I received a "birdie" call from new birding friends as my daughter likes to call it alerting me to the Avocet presence.
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!!
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