Fort De Soto County Park – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Great Egret – Light on White

By Mia McPherson|December 5th, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Egrets|Tags: adult, Ardea alba, bird ID, clouds, coastal, egret, egrets, flight, flying, Great Egret, light, nature, Pinellas County, sky, spring, wading bird, white, whites, wildlife|

Great Egret (Ardea alba) in flight, a balance of whites and light

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Black-bellied Plover

By Mia McPherson|November 30th, 2010|Categories: Black-bellied Plovers, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County|Tags: bird ID, bird photography, Black-bellied Plover, hunting, lagoon, mud flats, mudflats, nonbreeding, plovers, Pluvialis squatarola, shorebirds|

I love watching Black-bellied Plovers hunting. They take a few steps, stop, look and listen, then do it all over again.

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Reddish Egret – White Morph

By Mia McPherson|November 25th, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Reddish Egrets|Tags: bird photography, breeding plumage, clouds, egret, egrets, Egretta rufescens, flight, flying, morning sky, Reddish Egret, white morph|

Breeding plumage white morph Reddish Egret while it hunted and danced in the waves on the Gulf coast of Florida.

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Shorebirds of Fort De Soto – Marbled Godwits

By Mia McPherson|November 10th, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Marbled Godwits|Tags: adult, bills, blur, coast, coastal, crustaceans, feeding, flight, flying, foraging, funny pose, Godwit, godwits, graceful, grasshoppers, Great Plains, Gulf of Mexico, insects, lagoon, landing, Limosa fedoa, low tide, Marbled Godwit, mixed flocks, mollusks, mudflats, one leg, plant tubers, preening, probe, resting, shorebirds, tundra, water|

Marbled Godwits are graceful birds while on the ground, feeding and in flight.

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Auto Levels in Photoshop

By Mia McPherson|November 9th, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Willets|Tags: auto levels, birds, lagoon, photoshop, post processing, sandpipers, shorebird, shorebirds, Tringa semipalmata, water, Willet, willets|

Auto levels in Photoshop must be used with a light touch. Using auto levels can create too much contrast in an image, can cause color casts, it can brighten an image too much, it can strip the light and can make some images look very unnatural.

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Shorebirds of Fort DeSoto – Ruddy Turnstones

By Mia McPherson|October 31st, 2010|Categories: Bird ID, Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Ruddy Turnstones|Tags: adult, Arenaria interpres, beach, bird ID, breeding, coast, coastal, foraging, Gulf of Mexico, male, nonbreeding, Ruddy Turnstone, sand, shorebird, shorebirds, turnstone, turnstones|

One of the easier medium-sized shorebirds to identify on Fort De Soto's beaches and tidal mudflats are the Ruddy Turnstones. The only other turnstone that frequents North America is the Black Turnstone and it occurs on the Pacific coast.

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Rotation Adjustments – Sanderling At Dawn

By Mia McPherson|October 26th, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Sanderlings|Tags: autumn, beach, bird photography, Calidris alba, coastal, coastal island, fall, Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico, low light, nonbreeding plumage, rotation adjustment, sand, Sanderling, sanderlings, shore, shorebird, shoreline, water, waves|

Proper rotation can make an image work. Improper rotation can cause the the person viewing to wonder what isn't right about an image.

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Shorebirds of Fort DeSoto – The Plovers

By Mia McPherson|October 16th, 2010|Categories: Black-bellied Plovers, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Killdeer, Pinellas County, Piping Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, Snowy Plovers, Wilson's Plovers|Tags: Anarhynchus nivosus, Anarhynchus wilsonia, bird ID, Black-bellied Plover, Charadrius alexandrius, Charadrius melodus, Charadrius semipalmatus, Charadrius vociferus, coast, coastal, Killdeer, Piping Plover, plover, plovers, Pluvialis squatarola, Semipalmated Plover, shorebirds, Snowy Plover, Wilson's Plover|

Throughout the year you can see and photograph many different species of Plovers on Fort De Soto’s beaches, tidal lagoons and spartina marshes.

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Great Blue Herons

By Mia McPherson|September 26th, 2010|Categories: Bird ID, Birds, Davis County, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Blue Herons, Pinellas County, Roosevelt Wetlands, Utah|Tags: adult, Ardea herodias, baiting ethics, bird photography, close up, ethics, flight, flying, Great Blue Heron, heron, herons, hunting, immature, juveniles, nest, nesting, perched, portrait, prey, sand dune, snag, snow, stalking, wading birds, wetlands, winter|

Great Blue Herons are North America's largest heron and one of the three largest herons in the world.

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Pinto Bean Laughing Gulls

By Mia McPherson|September 8th, 2010|Categories: Bird ID, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Laughing Gulls, Leucistic, Pinellas County|Tags: bird ID, gulls, Laughing Gull, leucistic, Leucophaeus atricilla, odd, pigment issues, strange|

On several occasions I have seen and photographed Laughing Gulls that have strange colored markings on their bills and legs. I have assumed that they are partially leucistic though I could be wrong.

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Hungry Yellow-crowned Night Heron

By Mia McPherson|August 22nd, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Ghost Crabs, Pinellas County, Yellow-crowned Night Herons|Tags: adult, beach, coast, coastal, crab, eat, eating, feeding, Ghost Crab, Gulf of Mexico, herons, hunting, nature, Nyctanassa violacea, Ocypode quadrata, sand, stalking, wading bird, wading birds, water, Yellow-crowned Night Heron|

It didn't take long for the Yellow-crowned Night Heron to grab the crab and send the sand flying.

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Some Days are Magic

By Mia McPherson|August 20th, 2010|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Little Blue Herons, Pinellas County|Tags: Egretta caerulea, feeding, herons, hunting, lagoon, Little Blue Heron, north beach, Pipefish, Skyway Bridge, tidal pool, wading birds, water|

Each time I look at one of the images of this Little Blue Heron I have to smile and relish that amazing morning. Yes... some day are magic. I treasure each one.

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Small In The Frame

By Mia McPherson|August 19th, 2010|Categories: American Oystercatchers, Birds, Brown Pelicans, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Laughing Gulls, Palm Warblers, Small in the frame|Tags: American Oystercatcher, bird photography, birds, Brown Pelican, diving, Haematopus palliatus, juvenile, juveniles, Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla, nature, Palm Warbler, Pelecanus occidentalis, pelican, photography, Pinellas County, Setophaga palmarum, shorebird, small in the frame, wildlife|

Though I quite often photograph birds so that they are what is labled "frame filling" I also like to compose images that show the bird or animals small in the frame.

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Nesting American Oystercatchers

By Mia McPherson|August 14th, 2010|Categories: American Oystercatchers, Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Nesting Birds, Pinellas County, Wildlife Ethics|Tags: adult, American Oystercatcher, bird ID, brooding, coastal habitat, eggs, ethics, Haematopus palliatus, nest, nesting, nesting behavior, nesting ethics, oystercatcher, oystercatchers, saltwater, sand dune, scrape, Sea Purslane, settling, shorebirds, wildlife ethics|

Nesting American Oystercatchers create simple scrapes on coastal beaches, dunes and salt marshes to lay their eggs in. They usually lay between 2-3 eggs around April to May.

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