I think it is always important to try to remember that not everyone knows that there is such a thing as Birding or Bird Photography Etiquette. It could be a good time to bring the subject up; politely of course.
I scoured my files and the scariest thing I could come up with for Halloween is this Golden-silk Spider (other than images of me). I don't think it is really scary except that it doesn't have feathers or fur.
When I photographed this Wood Duck drake I remember wishing that we had high thin clouds to diffuse the sunlight a bit. It still worked out okay though.
It seems I have always had a fondness for Great Blue Herons although I don't recall the first time I ever saw one. Great Blues are large wading birds that have a prehistoric look to them and even their calls; more like a croak, sound like something from the long distant past.
I've had the good fortune to photograph both the eastern and western Willets in breeding plumage, the eastern in Florida and the western in Utah and Montana.
Black-bellied Plovers in breeding and nonbreeding plumage can look like two different plover species but they aren't.
I photographed this Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor) a few years ago when I still lived in Florida.
Four years ago today Hurricane Ike was out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and the waves that it generated made a strong splash at Fort De Soto County Park.
Several people have remarked on how much they like the resting Black Skimmer juvenile image that was in my rotating banner at the top of this blog so I thought I would post it to show the whole bird.
Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia) are North America's largest tern with a wingspan of 50 inches and weighing in at 1.4 pounds.
Despite having "Night Heron" in their name Yellow-crowned Night Herons (Nyctanassa violacea) are not strictly denizens of the dark, they can and do stalk their prey during the daylight hours too.
I photographed this adult Laughing Gull (Larus atricilla) in breeding plumage while it bathed in the shallow waters of a tidal lagoon at Fort De Soto's north beach a few years ago.
This adult Reddish Egret was going into breeding plumage, it has the pink and black bi-colored bill and the lores are turning bluish purple.
Not that long ago Common Gallinules (Gallinula galeata) were called Common Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus), it will take me some time to get used to the new name.
This image could have been better. I have no doubt about that. I did get the exposure right and I like the action. But there are far too many things about this photo that just don't work.
Ruddy Turnstones in breeding and nonbreeding plumage can appear to be two different species to novice birders and bird photographers as can several other bird species.
Dunlins exhibit a vast difference between nonbreeding and breeding plumage, so different that a novice birder might mistakenly believe that they were two different species.
I was going to do a simple post about this image of a Fish Crow with a young Gopher Tortoise in its bill that was taken on Egmont Key State Park (also Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge), an island located just to the west of Fort De Soto, Florida.
I like the ribbons of different shades of blue in this image and even though the Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) is small in the frame it stands out well from its habitat.
Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla) are the world's smallest shorebird, weighing in at a mere 0.7 ounces (20 g), a length of 6 inches and a wingspan of 13 inches.
This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) got up close and personal with me a few years ago in Florida, it largely ignored my presence altogether as it stalked prey on shore of the Gulf of Mexico.
This Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) image was created several years ago at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in central Florida.
I photographed this Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) in October of 2008 at Fort De Soto's north beach.
Getting "Down & Dirty" pays off when photographing shorebirds like this Willet in the surf I photographed in Florida as it walked along the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2008 I had the great pleasure of observing and photographing a family of American Oystercatchers from the day after the chicks hatched until three and a half months later.
The Black Skimmer had a Mangrove seed pod in its bill and it was twirling the seed pod with its bill, at times the seed pod even went over the top of the bill but unfortunately I didn't get any images of that.
Light plays a huge part in my photography, I try to be at my location just before the sun comes up or goes down to take advantage of the beautiful light that occurs at those times of the day.
Two Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) at different stages of life, one an adult in breeding plumage, the other an immature gull in flight.
One of the shorebird species I am able to see in Utah during migration that I photographed often while I lived in Florida are the lovely Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola).
This Snowy Egret image was taken just after the sun had risen above the horizon in about the same location as the egret image I posted yesterday but at a completely different time of the year.