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!)
June 23, 2011 - I love my off-Fridays! Rich and I took advantage of our three-day weekend to drive out to Indian Shores, where there is a nesting colony of Black Skimmers. The colony is located near the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, a really neat non-profit bird hospital. The sanctuary rehabilitates birds and releases them back into the wild. We […]
June 19, 2011 - Dyeyo and I spent a nice Father’s Day morning with Herman at his rookery in Polk County. That’s always such a fun place to go. Herman’s little portable boat is awesome for floating between the islands and observing the birds. We started the morning with a Least Bittern – what a way to start the […]
June 18, 2011 - Dyeyo and I have been going to Circle B together for over a year now, and for that whole time Dyeyo has been on a quest to see Red-Headed Woodpeckers. But day after day goes by and Dyeyo still hasn’t seen his “Woody.” So for Father’s Day, I asked Herman to recommend a place where […]
June 12, 2011 - This morning I was off to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR) in search of baby Black-Necked Stilts. I’d seen a very photographable nest there last weekend, and I was hoping to see chicks there today. At first I was disappointed – the nest was deserted. But I drove around some more and found some […]
June 11, 2011 - Rich thought I was insane when I woke up at 4am on my off-Friday and drove up to St. Augustine. He thought I was even crazier when he heard me describe how I lowered the tripod and lay flat on my stomach to photograph the birds. But look at the results…. :-D The Least Terns […]
June 10, 2011 - I found the Matanzas terns! They have moved south to Summer Haven. (Thanks Monique!) I spent a great morning at the colony this morning. I have so many fun pictures that I can’t finish the post tonight, so here’s a tease. Check back tomorrow for more!!
June 5, 2011 - Dyeyo and I spotted these, um, friendly squirrels at the Circle B Bar Reserve on Saturday. They made me chuckle and think of Rich’s and my anniversary. So here’s an anniversary message from the squirrels… Keep your partner looking his best. (I’ve never seen squirrels preening each others’ tails!) Lend a hand at every opportunity. […]
June 5, 2011 - It’s hard to believe that Rich and I have been married for seven years. We were married at Bok Tower Gardens, so we decided to go back there today in honor of our anniversary. Rich didn’t mind that I brought The Beast along. We saw lots of great baby birds. Since it’s our anniversary, I’ll […]
June 4, 2011 - Yes, that’s right, we saw a hummingbird at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning! I didn’t get a picture—those guys move fast! I couldn’t see it for long enough to tell what kind of hummer, either, although I assume it was a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. But it was most definitely a hummer! Dyeyo and I […]
June 3, 2011 - Can you imagine going through life with ridiculously long red legs? It’s not often that I devote a Beyond The Backyard blog post exclusively to one bird. But after spending the morning at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, I had a ton of great images of Black-Necked Stilts. They are all over! I found […]
June 2, 2011 - After reading about how Joe Overstreet Road is such a great place for bird photography, I’ve been meaning to get there all winter. But I didn’t get the opportunity until this morning. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. But I did end up with some fun pictures! I wanted to visit Joe Overstreet for Eastern […]
June 1, 2011 - Dina made me do it! After seeing her Roseate Spoonbill shots, I had to go to Lowry Park Zoo for myself. The spoonies have built a nest over the alligator exhibit, and there are three cute babies growing up in it. The nest is unusually visible, making it very photographable. Rich had been wanting to […]
May 31, 2011 - We stopped by Lake Eola at sunset tonight to try some cityscape photography. My favorite parts are the swan silhouettes in the foreground! :)
May 31, 2011 - Rich and I went to Winter Park for dinner tonight, so I got some more time at the osprey nest. It was more active tonight than the last time I went. You know, you can learn a lot from a juvenile Osprey… First of all, when your mom arrives at the nest with a fish, […]
May 31, 2011 - I’d heard about a Least Tern Colony at Matanzas Inlet. It’s the biggest in Florida, numbering up to 200 nests (and yay for Audubon’s success in closing the beach to vehicles that were running over the nests and chicks!!) Since I was in the neighborhood this morning, I stopped by to check it out. Except […]
May 31, 2011 - I drove up to St. Augustine this morning to visit the St. Augustine Alligator farm rookery. There are babies everywhere! I didn’t spend much time on flight shots today, instead concentrating on making good images of babies. It’s hard to do that, with all the sticks and branches and nesting material everywhere. Next time I […]
May 30, 2011 - I’ve been drooling over pictures taken at this nest. I finally asked Michael Libbe where it is and made the trip there myself. The nest is on top of a platform on top of a telephone pole in downtown Winter Park. The really great part is that there’s a 4-story parking garage right across from […]
May 29, 2011 - Herman took my dad and me out in his boat again this morning. The Polk Rookery has changed considerably since my last visit in March. Then the birds were building their nests, and Great Egrets, Wood Storks dominated the Brazilian Pepper. Today the rookery was filled with fledgling birds of all sorts: Roseate Spoonbills, Great […]
May 28, 2011 - It was a good morning for baby birds at the Circle B Bar Reserve. I spent about an hour watching the Osprey nest on the Heron Hideout trail. Then I moved on to the Alligator Alley trail, where I photographed the Red-Shouldered Hawk Nest. The Northern Parulas taunted me but didn’t let me see them. […]
May 27, 2011 - I downloaded the Fractalius Photoshop filter this afternoon. It’s fun! It works by finding fractals inside your image. You control how the image looks by dragging sliders to vary the line size, diffusion, and a bunch of other factors. For some of these pictures, I blended the Fractalius output with the original image. For others, […]
May 22, 2011 - It was hot this morning! We arrived at the Circle B Bar Reserve at 7:00 and hiked the Alligator Alley trail loop. This Great Blue Heron was trying to cool himself with the funky wing position – he wasn’t the only one who was hot! We checked on the Great Crested Flycatcher nest by the […]
May 21, 2011 - After a long week at work, I was itching for a photography adventure. So I got up at 4 on Saturday morning and drove to Fort De Soto for sunrise. But I did have a great morning at North Beach, enjoying especially the antics of the Reddish Egrets. They are too funny! I arrived just […]
May 16, 2011 - Every afternoon when I get home from the Circle B Bar Reserve, Rich pounces on me and asks for pictures of turtles. Usually I haven’t seen many, or gotten great photo ops of the ones that I do see. So this weekend when I came across a small turtle making its way across the Heron […]
May 14, 2011 - Dyeyo and I went to the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning in search of Bobolinks. These migratory birds can only be found at Circle B for a couple of weeks a year, in the spring during their migration back north. Various people on the Circle B Flickr page have seen Bobolinks, and Dyeyo found […]
May 14, 2011 - I drove up to St. Augustine to spend my off-Friday at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm‘s bird rookery. It’s right at peak season and the rookery, and the activity is awesome! Some Great Egrets are still building nests, others have tiny babies, and still more have fledglings who know how to leave the nest but […]
May 13, 2011 - I spent the morning at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm photographing the baby birds at the rookery. There are chicks of all kinds now, and the rookery is bursting with activity. The baby birds are not altogether unlike humans. For example, these two Snowy Egret chicks clearly weren’t seeing eye-to-eye on who should get to […]
May 8, 2011 - Happy Mother’s Day! Dyeyo and I spent a few hours at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning before going to spend some time with my mom. It seemed appropriate that we saw a bunch of baby birds with their moms today. :) We hiked the Alligator Alley loop this morning, starting just after sunrise. […]
April 30, 2011 - This morning started out slow at the Circle B Bar Reserve. We’re getting into the time of year when there are fewer birds at the reserve, and you don’t get as many great photo ops as you do during the winter. But I find that the baby birds are just as fun to photograph as […]
April 23, 2011 - Rich came with me to Fort De Soto for sunrise this morning. He can’t remember the last time he watched the sun rise! We went to East Beach to see the sun come up over the Sunshine Skyway. Then we went the North Beach lagoon, then we found the famous mulberry trees. It was a […]
April 22, 2011 - Rich and I visited Fort De Soto for sunset this evening. It was fun to share the park with Rich, who’s never shared my early-morning zeal for sunrises and golden-light bird photography. It was also the first time I’d been to Fort De Soto in the afternoon. We headed to East Beach first, where the […]
April 17, 2011 - Dyeyo and I couldn’t take it anymore. People on the Birdbrains mailing list have been going on and on this week about all the birds at Viera Wetlands. So we drove out there this morning to see all the birds. It was a beautiful sunny, slightly breezy morning, and it was awesome to be outside […]
April 15, 2011 - I spent a quiet off-Friday morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning. It’s always a treat to be on the trails without the weekend crowds. I started off on the Heron Hideout trail to say hello to the little Sandhill Crane, then I turned left onto the Alligator Alley trail and hiked that […]
April 10, 2011 - Dyeyo and I went to the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning on a quest to find baby birds. The adorable Sandhill Crane colt that met us on the Heron Hideout trail was just the first. We figured that the Barred Owlet had already fledged, so we headed out to Wading Bird Way in search […]
April 3, 2011 - After hearing time after time about how great the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is, Dyeyo decided that he wanted to go with me and see it. It was a pretty foggy morning, but the sun burned off the fog just as we arrived at the refuge around 8:30. The Birdbrains have been saying that […]
April 2, 2011 - This winter the American Bittern and the King Rail were the stars at the Circle B Bar Reserve. This spring, the Sandhill Crane colt that frequents the Heron Hideout trail is quickly becoming the newest celebrity at the park. This morning I met Michael Libbe at sunrise and we found the Sandhill Crane family out […]
April 1, 2011 - I couldn’t take it any more…after seeing picture after picture on the new Alligator Farm Rookery blog, I had to make the trip up to St. Augustine! My best shot of the morning was this Roseate Spoonbill in flight. He flew into the “sweet spot” of open sky with perfect sun, and the light glistening […]
March 27, 2011 - Wow it was foggy this morning! It was all clear as I left Orlando, but the fog started when I hit I-4, and the Polk Parkway was crazy with fog. So I wasn’t anticipating seeing too much this morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve. I’m glad I was wrong! We saw tons of birds. […]
March 26, 2011 - Today my dad and I led the final spring photo walk at the Circle B Bar Reserve. We had a very foggy morning, and due to the closing of the Marsh Rabbit Run trail, we took the group on the Alligator Alley trail. Between the fog and the reduced number of birds along Alligator Alley, […]
March 20, 2011 - Our friend Herman took Dyeyo and me out on his little boat this morning to a rookery in Polk County. It was so amazing! Unlike the Gatorland Rookery and the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery, this one is totally wild. There were hundreds of birds there, most of them sporting their breeding plumages. We saw […]
March 12, 2011 - I drove over to Fort De Soto on Saturday morning in hopes of finding some early migrant warblers. There have also been a Reddish Egret in full breeding plumage and a Long-Billed Curlew hanging out at the North Beach lagoon. I had high hopes of some good photography, but unfortunately, it was a pretty quiet […]
March 11, 2011 - I went over to the Circle B Bar Reserve after work today to catch the sunset. The good news? I saw the bobcat for the first time ever!! The bad news? The Marsh Rabbit Run trail is now closed because the alligators are very active. There’s a freaky sequence of pictures on the Circle B […]
March 4, 2011 - I spent my off-Friday morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve. I arrived at 6:30, about 20 minutes before sunrise. I hiked down to Lake Hancock and was on the dock for the sunrise. It was pretty cloudy this morning, so the sun was a little late peeking out from behind the clouds. It was […]
March 3, 2011 - Rich gets annoyed at me for not posting more pictures of turtles. After all, our site is called “catandturtle” because I like cats and he likes turtles! Then I did post a video of a turtle, but Rich refuses to watch it, because the turtle was being consumed by a Limpkin. So here’s a Rich-friendly […]
February 26, 2011 - This morning my dad and I led another Photo Walk at the Circle B Bar Reserve. Circle B asked us to lead people around the preserve, showing them the best trails and places to find birds. Today we had about ten or so people meet us at 8:00 (remember, photographers have to be up early […]
February 20, 2011 - You know it’s springtime at Circle B Bar Reserve if you see the following: Trees are getting their leaves back Sandhill Cranes start sitting on nests! Baby eagles peek out to say hello People flock to the marsh to enjoy the warm weather The ducks head back home — see you next year! The birds […]
February 14, 2011 - I forgot to post a video that I took yesterday at the Circle B Bar Reserve. There is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker that lives in a dead tree at the “Four Corners” intersection. He often poses, showing off his bright red feathers in the sunshine. Yesterday he was working on his cavity, drilling away at it. […]
February 13, 2011 - I had a nice walk this morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve. It’s always great to go there to unwind after a long week. This morning I hiked the Alligator Alley trail in search of small birds, then I walked up Marsh Rabbit Run and up Wading Bird Way around to the Eagle Roost […]
February 12, 2011 - It’s amazing how different a place can look after two weeks. The weather kept me from Circle B last weekend, and I think it’s driven a lot of the birds away too. The ponds that used to be covered in American Coots and American Wigeons were virtually empty. Not an American White Pelican did […]
February 7, 2011 - Ever since Cole Fredericks, a noted birdwatcher in Central Florida, commented in the Circle B Flickr species list discussion that the list was missing Orange-Crowned Warblers and Blue-Headed Vireos, I’ve been on the lookout for those birds. Last week I got the Orange-Crowned Warbler. I’ve gone up and down Alligator Alley several times in search […]
February 6, 2011 - A few weeks ago, I took a short video of a group of American White Pelicans feeding at the Circle B Bar Reserve. I thought it was cool because you could see them tossing fish in their mouths, and see the fish bulging out of their pouches as they ate. When I got home, I […]