Juvenile Brown Pelican In Flight
After posting an image of a American White Pelican lifting off two days ago I thought I should post an photo of a Brown Pelican today for comparison.
After posting an image of a American White Pelican lifting off two days ago I thought I should post an photo of a Brown Pelican today for comparison.
Snowy Egret in a hurry that I photographed almost exactly 5 years ago while sitting low in a Florida lagoon.
One December morning in 2008 I was sitting in the sand at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida when a Great Blue Heron came up and perched on a driftwood stump that had washed up onto the shore.
In Florida I found it easy to get close up images of Great Blue Herons because quite often they are used to the presence of humans but here in Utah that isn't the case and Great Blue Herons are sort of skittish.
Both of these Laughing Gull images were taken at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida, the image above shows a Laughing gull in nonbreeding plumage that was taken in September of 2008.
There are two subspecies of Willets which Western and Eastern, here in Utah I only see the Western subspecies but in Florida I could see both during the course of a year.
This Snowy Egret was photographed as it stood in the shallow water of the Gulf of Mexico at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach one early August morning in 2007.
It really isn't too hard to spot this Spotted Sandpiper on the seawall, I just thought it was a catchy title. I saw my FOY (first of year) Spotted Sandpiper this past week and that got me excited.
Five years ago today I was laying in the warm wet sands of Fort De Soto County Park's north beach as the salty water from the Gulf of Mexico soaked my skin while photographing a Ruddy Turnstone doing what they do best, turning things.
Early morning light is a delight and adds a nice mood to images like this one of a Willet in flight.
I photographed this Ruddy Turnstone in early morning light at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida several years ago as it stood on the sandy beach.
The forecast is calling for snow today and there is already a heavy cloud cover so looked back through my files and found some Brown Pelican images taken on a warm February morning in Florida to post today.
This image soothes me because of the still water, the relaxed pose of the calm Snowy Egret and the memories of how delightful it was to be on the north beach of Fort De Soto
These two "Great" images were taken two minutes apart of two different "Great" wading birds in Florida.
These two Reddish Egrets; a dark and a white morph, were photographed on the same day at Fort De Soto's north beach in May of 2009 and both of them were showing signs of being in breeding plumage.
Sanderlings look very different in appearance during breeding season and winter and novice birders might even think they are two different species.
I was tickled one morning when I came across this Turnstone in nonbreeding plumage perched on a piece of weathered driftwood just after the sun came over the horizon with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico behind it.
This image has always cracked me up, I wonder if the Great Blue Heron even realized its toenails were dragging in the water.
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.
Just a very simple image today of a Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) flying over some sand dunes.
This is an adult White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) that I photographed at Fort De Soto's north beach that was feeding in a tidal lagoon by the mangroves
Just a single image of a Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) that strolled past me while I sat in the water photographing it. Every time I look at this image I feel a wonderful sense of peace, the same feeling I had when I took this photo.
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.
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 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.
On the day that I photographed this Laughing Gull either Hurricane Ike or Gustav was out near the center of the Gulf of Mexico that was churning up the water
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.