Birds!

[Buckethead]

A rare mostly white robin I found in a local park.

[daiv]

Weird!

[Harriet]

Weird, but ever so cool!

[daiv]

Couple birds from today - an unfortunate Indigo Bunting:


Chipping Sparrow on the nest:


The eggs:

[Buckethead]

Little Blue Herons at a lake not far from me. Those things are rare around here. The lake is about four miles from my house and there's a bike trail leading to it. One of my normal rides is to ride out there, do a couple of laps of the lake on the crushed limestone trail that encircles it, and come home. That gives me about 15 miles. And there's always something to photograph. The two in the marsh were taken from quite a distance.

[Buckethead]

Sometimes you get lucky. This at the same lake as above. Great Blue Heron in front and Little Blue Heron in the background.

[Harriet]

I love getting a mix of a similar species in a picture. But, sometimes you can get some really odd combinations...

[Buckethead]

You have some pintails. Cool. We have them up here, but I haven't seen any at the lake I go to.

[Harriet]

That picture is one of many I took at the Merritt Island Wildlife Reserve during a recent winter when boogoodles of migratory birds were passing through. It is amazing how many different kinds of birds you can spot on one short trip through the area. To me it is as much fun as going to the nearby space center. One year, back before I got old and forgetful, we identified over 100 different species on one trip -- eagles, hawks, ospreys, shore birds, ducks and waders, songbirds of all sorts, terns, spoonbills, woodpeckers, you name it... it was an unforgettable birdwatching day.

[Buckethead]

I went through some of my pictures from this spring and here are a few odd species mixes of my own.

Ducks and a turtle.


Great blue heron and that round lump in front of it is a western painted turtle. The marshy end of that lake is full of them.


Great blue heron and ducks.


Little blue heron and a mallard.

[daiv]

Great pics! Keep posting them as you get them! Little Blues have been seen up in this area, but it is an extremely rare event.

[Buckethead]

A few from today.

A wild turkey and people. This is on the Lincoln Junior golf course. The golf course is close to the center of the city and just blocks from the zoo. It's several miles to open countryside. I ride right by it on my normal workout ride to a local city lake. After I took the pictures I stopped in the golf course office and suggested they should call the zoo and ask if one of their turkeys is missing. They did, but also said that they recently had a deer on the course and think the wild animals follow the creek that runs through the course into the city.

Mallards and a soft shell turtle I photographed today.



A wood duck family. She doesn't let me get too close.

[Buckethead]

This may be one of my best shots ever. It's the same wood duck as above. I've been after this wood duck and her chicks all spring. She's so timid though that I've never been able to get near enough to her to get a really good shot. I have to go through a few feet of high weeds and brush without making any sound to get a shot of this stump, but I've seen up to seven turtles on it and always check it. Today the woody, two of her chicks, and a western painted turtle were there. I managed to get four shots before she sensed I was there and she and her babies swam away.

[tumamoc]

That's a great shot. Well worth the effort!

[daiv]

That is excellent! It's funny to see the turtle and ducks together. They both obviously know there is no danger from each other.