One morning in late December, it was super cloudy and foggy outside. I almost rolled over and went back to bed. Instead, I went wandering with my camera around Oakland Nature Preserve and discovered that foggy days are good for sparrows and little birds.
I was tickled to spot this first Grasshopper Sparrow perched out in the open…until I came across the group of three of them! They were the most cooperative Grasshopper Sparrows that I’ve encountered. I was surprised at how long they stayed still while the other little birds flitted around.
Grasshopper Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrows
The air was full of the song of Eastern Bluebirds. Then I heard the happy calls of American Goldfinches – “potato chip! Potato chip!” One of the goldfinches perched high in the treetop next to the bluebird – what a fun combination.
Eastern Bluebird and American Goldfinch
I was on a quest to spot the Field Sparrows that had been reported on eBird. So I was carefully checking every little bird that I saw. It’s a shame there wasn’t more sunlight, as I found a bunch of fun surprises. Like this Black-and-White Warbler…
Black-and-white Warbler
…and this Orange-Crowned Warbler, who didn’t show me his orange crown as he hopped in and out of the leaves.
Orange-crowned Warbler
A flock of Chipping Sparrows has been hanging out at Oakland Nature Preserve this winter. As I focused my binoculars on anything that moved, I found myself thinking, “just another chipper!” They came close and posed nicely in the grasses for me.
Chipping Sparrow
You hear the Tufted Titmice before you see them. Their happy calls came from the treetops where I spotted them eating acorns. They are such cheerful animated little clowns.
Tufted Titmouse
A pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers was clearly a mated pair on the lookout for a good nesting site. One of them hopped down to a dead tree stump and posed for me. A few feet behind him, a Downy Woodpecker said hello also.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
When I least expected it, a striped Prairie Warbler hopped out in front of me and started foraging in a vine. Although it’s January and still the middle of winter, some of the birds are starting to get into their spring breeding plumage. My favorite time of year is quickly approaching!
Prairie Warbler
Finally, as I was considering heading home, I spotted the object of my quest – two Field Sparrows who hopped out briefly into the open. I only got a few quick snaps of one before they flew off. A great end to a fun morning!
Rich and I ran up to Magnolia Park on New Year’s Eve to photograph the last sunset of 2019. Then I went to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive to capture the first sunrise of 2020, but you’ll have to wait to read about that in a future post. It’s fun to photograph the sunrises and sunsets as symbolic passages of time. Judging by the sunset, 2019 wasn’t such a bad year!
A couple brought their lawn chairs to the park to enjoy Nature’s show. They used their binoculars to bird watch as the sun slipped below the horizon.
Last Sunset of 2019
The best colors happen 15-30 minutes after sunset, when the sky lights up with the afterglow. I crouched down for a different angle, including some of the wildflowers in the foreground of my shot. Articulating screens sure do come in handy for angles like this!
Afterglow
As the sun’s light faded, the moon started to glow over the treetops. Common Gallinules laughed at us and Great Blue Herons flew in and out of the reeds, on the lookout for their New Year’s Eve dinners. It was time to head home and protect the cats from the noisy New Year’s fireworks!
2019 was my thirteenth year of regular blogging on catandturtle.net. It’s amazing at how much the blog has grown – it started out as a record of my gardening and backyard wildlife, long before I even knew of such a thing as a Beast! This year marked 2000 posts as I mostly enjoyed birding in my local patches around Lake Apopka. Rich and I got to take a couple of much-anticipated trips to Cape Coral for Burrowing Owls and the beaches for nesting birds and turtles.
I am so lucky to live close to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive and the surrounding birding hotspots. It’s almost impossible to head out there and not find a great bird or a great photography opportunity. My favorite time of the year is springtime, when the birds are mating and migrating and taking care of their babies. From the tall Black-necked Stilts to the camera-evading warblers, the fast-flying Barn Swallows and the big-footed baby Purple Gallinules, it was a year full of avian opportunity. I also re-discovered the fun of chasing little birds at Oakland Nature Preserve, made my first trip to Newton Park, and enjoyed more than a few sunsets at Magnolia Park.
Around Lake Apopka: House Wren, Black-and-white Warbler, Blue-winged Teals mating, Black-necked Stilt, Sunset, Pied-billed Grebe with Chicks, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Least Bittern, Fulvous Whistling-duck, Barn Swallow, Black-necked Stilt chick, Purple Gallinule chick
I made it over to Fort De Soto during spring migration and was rewarded with a rainbow of color. Those special days at the end of April are a Floridian’s best way to see Neotropical migrants decked out in their prettiest breeding colors. I was big on yellow birds this year – orioles and vireos and especially Black-throated Green Warblers.
Migrant birds at Fort De Soto: Indigo Bunting, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-throated Vireo, Black-throated Green Warbler
Then as the weather warmed, I spent several happy weekend mornings crouched in the sand and water, photographing beach birds. A flock of Red Knots in breeding plumage was a fun surprise, along with the Black-bellied Plover in crisp black colors. The terns are always fun to watch as they court, with the male presenting a fish to his prospective bride.
Beach photography at Fort De Soto: Black-bellied Plover in flight, Red Knot, Royal Tern courtship, Least Tern courtship, Black Skimmers, Black-bellied Plover in breeding plumage
For years I’ve read about the famous Cape Coral Burrowing Owls, and this year we finally made the trip down there. Wow, there were literally nests on almost every city block! We happened upon a nest with small babies still covered in downy feathers, then watched mesmerized as the babies explored the world outside their nesting burrows. Apparently poking Mom in the eye is an acceptable way to ask for dinner…
Not the Nicest Little Owlet
The other trip that we took this spring was to Fort Meyers to photograph Snowy Plovers. While I’d seen a small handful of Snowy Plovers at Fort De Soto over the years, I’d never seen their nesting habits or their tiny babies – until this year. Rich read patiently on his Kindle while I photographed several nests, watched the parents pick up eggshells, and tried to keep up with the fast-running babies who are so small and white that they are hard to see on the big wide beach. Rich says I didn’t stop grinning for days.
Snowy Plover nesting and baby
Then there were the nesting Least Terns. I’ve always loved watching these birds, from their courtship fish rituals to the tiny blond babies that spend their first few days in a tiny indentation in the sand. Rich helped me find a new colony this year, and my favorite memory was the “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” family. Mom and Dad spent the afternoon taking care of their day-old chick (Yesterday), the chick that was just hours old and still wet from the egg (Today), and incubating one remaining egg (Tomorrow). The family interactions were precious.
Least Tern courtship and babies
In the midst of early summer photography, I got to do some upgrades to my website, enhancing the Central Florida Bird Photography Locations pages and cross-linking birds to locations. I had a blast writing the code and learned a lot about custom WordPress plugins.
2019 Life Birds: Western Tanager, Purple Swamphen, Common Tern, Hooded Oriole, Pine Siskin, Bank Swallow, Bronzed Cowbird
I didn’t do as much macro stuff in 2019 as in years past. I did succeed in creating an image that had been in my mind’s eye for some years. This is a Ruby-throated Hummingbird photograph of mine, posed upside down behind a plumago flower and water droplet. The image of the bird is refracted in the water. I was really pleased with how this one turned out.
Suspended Animation
Like every year, I enjoyed time in my wonderful backyard, where our wintering Painted Buntings are such a joy every time we look out the back windows. :)
Painted Bunting (Male)
2019 wasn’t all about the birds. It was a high-count year for the nesting Green Sea Turtles on Florida’s East Coast, and Rich made the sacrifice of waking up early multiple times to go and see his favorite turtles. Sunrises with turtles are always spectacular. The high point of this turtle season was seeing our first hatchling emergence, where Loggerhead babies dug themselves out of the sand and crawled quickly down the beach to meet the great ocean.
It’s hard to believe we’re on the eve of 2020. I’m looking forward to a new year of discovery as the Beast and I explore natural Florida! Happy New Year!
Find my birding list from today on eBird.
