Little Blue Heron

This has been a busy week for me. Unfortunately it was busy at work, and not busy outside watching birds or taking photos. The result is that it has been a week since my last post. Even now, as I write this, I am pressed for time, so I have quickly scanned my images and found one that I want to share. It is nothing spectacular..."just" a Little Blue Heron that was conveniently close to the boardwalk within Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I really like the color of their plumage, and the contrast of that yellow eye.

I think this is my last post related to the January trip to Florida. I have accumulated a lot of pictures since that trip, but startling few of them are worth sharing. This just means that I will have to go outside, do some more birdwatching and take some more photos so that I will have more stuff to share here. And that is a good thing...I need the time outside. Alas, it will have to wait one more weekend. I will use this coming week to continue being busy at work, and to decide where I want to visit next weekend. In the mean time...enjoy this heron.

Night-Herons

As you follow the boardwalk through Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, you will pass several marshy areas. These are great places to see several different species of wader. Often the birds do not react to the human traffic on the boardwalk, and are sometimes super close. In my case, it was a great place to see and compare the two species of Night-Heron that occur in North America. Several of each species were in the same area, giving the opportunity for side-by-side comparisons. I snapped these two photos from the boardwalk while my targets ignored my presence. The first is a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron perched in a tree. The second is a Black-crowned Night-Heron standing in water.

White-eyed Vireo

After I got my photos of the Painted Bunting, I stepped out of the way to allow others to get their look. As I moved to the back of the crowd, several of us noticed that a mixed flock of birds was passing through the trees and underbrush right next to the feeders. One of the birds in that flock was a White-eyed Vireo.

As the flock moved through, it was interesting to me how close these birds were to us. In fact, the White-eyed Vireo was so close that I had to put my camera down. He was too close to photograph. I was using a 100-400mm lens because I expected to need it to get close to the birds. But not for this vireo. As he hopped around the brush just in front of me I had clear looks at the white eye from which he gets his name. As he moved away from me into the brush, I did manage to get a photo of him. The second photo is of another White-eyed Vireo, found later in the day.

[edit: fixed weird formatting caused by using Safari instead of Firefox]

Painted Bunting

One of the other day trips that Tammy and I took while in Florida last month was to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. If you did not see my previous Corkscrew post showing a hungry Anhinga gulping down what I think is a young catfish, check it out here.

Corkscrew is a very birdy place. One of the treats on this particular trip was seeing Painted Buntings at the bird feeders. A crowd of people were waiting near the feeders in order to "ooh" and "ahh" and take photos whenever one of these vivid birds stopped by for a bite. Tammy and I were no different than anyone else. These two photos were my favorites.

Another Anhinga...this one is hungry

One of the places that Tammy and I visited while in Florida was Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. If you enjoy bird watching, and are ever in south Florida, then Corkscrew should be on your agenda. It is too good to miss.

While in Corkscrew, we came across an Anhinga in the act of fishing. It dove into the marsh and swam around under the lily pads, occasionally sticking its beak up out of the water and lily pads (I guess for a bit of air). Eventually it came back to its roost (a log on some dry ground next to the marsh) with a fish to eat. The fish, however, was impaled on its upper mandible.

The Anhinga then spent the next few minutes flailing about, beating the fish on that log, in an attempt to knock the fish off its beak. When it finally succeeded, it got down to the business of getting the fish oriented properly so that it could go down the hatch. Mmmmmm...good eats!