Category Archives: 2020 SE Trip

Last Day Bird Groups

This morning, there were all sorts of birds out back at low tide. This group had Wood Storks (the ones with black on the back), American White Pelicans, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and White Ibises,

Groups of Roseate Spoonbills came and left.

Later we went downtown and found these groups of Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans hanging out in the sunshine.

We’ve seen 65-70 species here this week, more than half from our deck. We’ll head north in the morning after a nice stay in Cedar Key.

Florida Birding sans camera

We are enjoying good weather and birding in Cedar Key but an extra leash tug from Ginger ended up with a dropped camera and a jammed lens on my SX60 Canon. So it’s iphone time and the birds here are out there a ways.

We’ve been enjoying pelicans, ibis, oystercatchers, ospreys etc from our back deck and going on some nice outings, but missing the Canon.

We have an Osprey who spends hours on a post just behind the cottage. Here’s a shot of him – sorry about the quality.

Right beside him this morning was a yellow-crowned Night Heron.

We drove out to the little airport today and found hundreds of shorebirds whirling through the wind and alighting on the tarmac. There were hundreds of Semipalmated Plovers, and many dowitchers and sanderlings. Who knows what else was huddled in that avian mass?

A storm is coming and birds are seeking shelter. Here are a lot of Royal Terns huddled on a roof.

New camera time when we get home.

Chilly but birdy

We left Vermont to escape the cold for a bit but I’m still birding with frozen fingers in Virginia. The ground is bare and there are a lot of birds about here in Charlottesville and it is parka and gloves weather. This morning, Ginger and I took a long walk and our first bird was an Eastern Bluebird.

This guy had some companions who were spooked by Ginger.

Here are a few of the other birds we saw:

A couple of geese ignored the dog but she was pretty interested.
A few Red-bellied Woodpeckers were noisy but stayed up high in the trees.
Dozens of Dark-eyed Juncos lined the walking path, exciting the dog to no end.
This Northern Mockingbird ignored us as we walked closely by.

Off to South Carolina in the morning.