Beyond the Backyard

While the blog started as a record of my backyard garden and birds, it quickly grew as I discovered bird photography.  This page contains images taken “beyond the backyard” during my travels around Central Florida (and beyond!)

Turtles! at Loggerhead Park

October 24, 2009 - Dyeyo, Rich, and I visited Grandpa Dave in Juno Beach today.  We couldn’t go so close to the Turtle Museum (officially named Loggerhead Park) without letting Rich get his turtle fix.

Bird-watching at Bok Tower

September 6, 2009 - Rich and I went to Bok Tower this morning to do some bird-watching. The swans were posing in the pond around the tower, and I found that my new warming filter made for some wonderful pictures. I played with my filters as I took pictures of the tower.  I found that I was able to […]

Roses and Baby Birds at Leu Gardens

May 31, 2009 - Rich and I went to Leu Gardens this morning to see roses and turtles. We were pleasantly surprised to see a Common Moorhen in the lake, with her baby nearby! The baby was fussing its head off (it reminded us of Squirt when he’s hungry). We saw a juvenile cardinal, too. Nearby, Daddy Cardinal kept […]

Baby Birds at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Bird Rookery

May 1, 2009 - I read about the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in a photography magazine. It’s an alligator farm, but wild marsh birds regularly make their nests in the “alligator swamp” each spring. The alligators keep their natural predators away while they raise their young. So Rich and I drove up to St. Augustine to take some pictures…and […]

A winter ramble around Bok Tower Gardens

January 10, 2009 - Bok Tower is one of my favorite places to go. The gardens are beautiful, the wildlife is fun to watch, and the trip is a nice escape from the real world. Today we saw hummingbirds! They are wintering at Bok Tower! The swans were posing, and I had fun playing with my new diffuser filter. […]

Hummers wintering at Bok Tower

January 2, 2009 - Rich and I went to Bok Tower this morning. The swans swam right up to us and let me take some cool pictures, but we didn’t really see too many other birds. We heard some exciting sounds though – there are definitely some hummingbirds wintering at Bok Tower, even if we didn’t see them!

Winter Birding at Callaway Gardens

November 27, 2008 - We went to Callaway Gardens to see the Fantasy in Lights display, but during the day, we had a great time walking around the gardens. There are so many birds at Callaway! The Callaway Birds of Prey show is fun. They pick three of about ten of their birds to display during each show, and […]

Callaway Gardens – Fantasy in Lights

November 27, 2008 - Rich and I went to Callaway Gardens this week to see the Fantasy in Lights display. The gardens are decorated with Christmas-theme lights, complete with music and a “sleigh ride” (behind Snowflake, the imaginary reindeer!) What’s so amazing about the lights is that they are virtually hidden during the day. Nutcracker and Toy Soldiers Santa’s […]

Bok Tower hummingbirds photographed in better light

October 19, 2008 - After seeing hummingbirds at Bok Tower last week, but not getting any really good pictures because of the cloudy day, we resolved to go back today when it was sunny and try again. The hummingbirds that we’re seeing at Bok are all males, which complements my set of females from Callaway Gardens nicely. Rich patiently […]

Hummingbirds at Bok Tower!

October 11, 2008 - Today was a great day for migrating birds at Bok Tower. We were walking around by Exedra when we heard the unmistakable sound of hummingbirds. We’d not seen hummers in Florida, so we were very excited. We looked around and found several hummers nectaring on salvia and hummingbird bush. Cool! Now we don’t have to […]

Georgia Aquarium trip

August 27, 2008 - Happy Birthday, Rich! We went to the Georgia Aquarium to see turtles for Rich’s 29th b-day. Of course we had to check out the loggerhead sea turtle first. There was also an impressive beluga whale on exhibit. I had fun trying to get good pictures of some of the colorful fish swimming around in tanks. […]

Callaway Gardens – Summer 2008

August 25, 2008 - After two years of talking about it, Rich and I finally made it to Callaway Gardens…and thanks to Tropical Storm Fay, it rained the whole time we were there! But I saw my first hummingbirds, we were pleasantly surprised to run into some of our FL winter bird friends, and two of the butterflies in […]

Hangin’ out with Dyeyo at Bok Tower Gardens

August 8, 2008 - Dyeyo met me at Bok Tower this morning for some bird-watching. We had a great time roaming around in the beautiful gardens. I lent him my Canon Digital Rebel while I used my awesome new Canon 40D. He took some good pictures, too! This cardinal met us in the pine trees right behind the visitor […]

Blue-eyed Vireo

Bird-watching at Oakland Nature Preserve

June 26, 2008 - Painted Bunting, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Gray Catbird, Pileated Woodpecker, House Wren, American Goldfinch, Osprey, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Red-Wing Blackbird Conspicuously absent: Warblers, Robins, Cedar Waxwings.  

Bird-watching at Oakland Nature Preserve

January 13, 2008 - Birds Seen Today – Painted Bunting, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black and White Warbler, American Kestrel, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Gray Catbird, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Pheobe, Osprey, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Red-Wing Blackbird

December 8, 2007 - Birds Seen Today – Painted Bunting, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Downy Woodpecker, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Bald Eagle, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Great Blue Heron, Gray Catbird, American Robin, Osprey, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Red-Wing Blackbird

Bird-watching at Oakland Nature Preserve

December 2, 2007 - Birds Seen Today – Painted Bunting, Palm Warbler, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, American Kestrel, Hermit Thrush, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Gray Catbird, Great Blue Heron, Osprey, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Red-Wing Blackbird

Bird-watching at Oakland Nature Preserve

December 1, 2007 - Birds Seen Today – Double-crested Cormorant, Northern Flicker, Bald Eagle, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Purple Gallinule, Osprey, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Red-Wing Blackbird

Bird-watching at Oakland Nature Preserve

November 4, 2007 - The painted buntings are back at Oakland Nature Preserve! Birds Seen Today – Painted Bunting, Gray Catbird, Indigo Bunting, Tufted Titmouse, House Wren, Osprey, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Red-Wing Blackbird ONP maintains feeders to attract the buntings…not the red-wing blackbirds! The greedy bully bird chased away the female cardinal. The gray catbird kept close but never […]

Hike at Blue Springs State Park

September 8, 2007 - We went hiking today at Blue Springs State Park. Our Butterflies for Binoculars book recommends this park for butterflies, so we decided to visit. We didn’t see all the butterflies promised by the book, but we did see some surprises… We were walking along and I saw this caterpillar. Since we hadn’t been seeing much, […]

Butterflies at Lukas Butterfly Encounter

September 7, 2007 - My favorite Lukas Nursery also has an enclosed butterfly garden with tons of free-flight butterflies. They raise the caterpillars and release them into the garden. Butterflies will land on you (which isn’t too freaky, if you’re expecting it!). They don’t mind a bit if you get close to photograph them. So I go over there […]

Lowry Park Zoo trip

September 5, 2007 - Rich had never been to Lowry Park Zoo, so we drove over to check it out. There was a family of White Tigers that we really enjoyed watching. They were running all around, jumping over each other, and batting at their mom. They reminded us of Mr. Twerp. The chimps were fun to watch, too. […]

A trip to the Turtle Museum for Rich

August 11, 2007 - When I was a kid visiting my grandparents in Juno Beach, we’d often go over to Loggerhead Park, the “Turtle Museum” across the street from my grandparents’ condo. So when I married a turtle freak, I told him all about the museum. We finally got to visit and Rich had a great time looking at […]

Butterfly exhibit at Brevard Zoo

July 6, 2007 - Rich and I read that the Brevard Zoo was hosting a special butterfly exhibit. So we drove over to Melbourne to check it out. There were some very pretty birds in the butterfly exhibit. I’m not sure what they are, but they were very friendly and let me get very close. There were a bunch […]

Hiking at Wekiva Springs State Park

February 23, 2007 - We read that Wekiva Springs is a great place to bird-watch and hike. It was the first time we’d ever seen a tufted titmouse. I thought this was a robin at first, but then upon closer inspection discovered it was an Eastern Towhee. We didn’t get to hear it do its characteristic “Drink your tea!” […]