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!)
August 15, 2010 - Dyeyo and I spent another great morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve today. We went with hopes of seeing some migratory warblers or wading birds. Dyeyo did see a Northern Parula, but our major excitements today were the Yellow-Crowned Night Warbler and the baby Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks! The sunrise was slow this morning. Dyeyo […]
August 9, 2010 - I’ve been meaning to make a map of the best birding spots at the Circle B Bar Reserve. The best places vary with season, of course, so this is primarily a summertime map. Click on the picture below for a bigger version. We’re really looking forward to the re-opening of the Marsh Rabbit Run trail, […]
August 8, 2010 - Finally! We got some rain! Although it cut our morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve a little short, it also kept our hike cooler than usual. And boy did we need the rain! The morning started out darker than usual, due to the cloudcover. We took the Shady Oak trail and got all the […]
July 31, 2010 - Dyeyo and I spent a fun, but hot, morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve today. We got there just before sunrise, and watching the sun come up over Lake Hancock was spectacular. Then the sun went behind some clouds. We saw a juvenile Green Heron down at the start of the Alligator Alley trail, […]
July 25, 2010 - It’s amazing how every day at the Circle B Bar Reserve is a little bit different. Last week we saw lots of juvenile Great-Crested Flycatchers. Today we didn’t see a single one, but we saw five Green Herons (and we usually see one of those per visit at most). Nature’s fun with all its surprises. […]
July 18, 2010 - Dyeyo and I arrived at the Circle B Bar Reserve at 6:30 am to enjoy a nice warm morning of birding! The sunrise over Lake Hancock was gorgeous. Since our favorite Marsh Rabbit Run trail is closed, we took the Alligator Alley trail instead. The breeze down by the lake felt wonderful as we enjoyed […]
July 10, 2010 - The nesting season at Gatorland’s Rookery is starting to come to a close. While there are still nests under incubation, and some nests have tiny babies, the majority of the babies have fledged, and they spend their time hopping around in the tops of the tallest trees they can find. The rookery was strangely quiet […]
July 3, 2010 - This morning was cloudy, breezy, and great for getting outside! The birds at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery took longer to wake up, probably because the sun wasn’t shining as brightly as usual. The rookery was eerily quiet when I first got there, and then the babies started fussing as soon as the sun started to break […]
June 27, 2010 - Dyeyo and I enjoyed our hike around the Circle B Bar Reserve again this morning. We saw our usual assortment of birds and babies, plus a few surprises… The Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks continue to make Circle B their summer home. Their calls can be heard all over the marshes at all hours of the morning. […]
June 26, 2010 - The Gatorland Rookery is crawling with birds these days. Fledglings seem to have appeared out of nowhere — all those hidden nests are empty now and their occupants are getting as high in the tree branches as they can. It was amusing to see the rows of fledglings along the boardwalk, fences, and observation tower […]
June 20, 2010 - Dyeyo got an extra Father’s Day gift today when this Anhinga posed for us at the Circle B Bar Reserve. The Anhinga surfaced with a catfish and proceeded to eat it, to the delight of the Birdie Paparazzi! (Hey, Squirt, it’s a catfish!) So if you’ve never swallowed a fish whole before, here’s how to […]
June 20, 2010 - The beautiful sunrise this morning was just the start of a happy Father’s Day hike with Dyeyo at the Circle B Bar Reserve. We saw lots of baby birds! Sand Hill Cranes, Purple Gallinules, Common Moorhens, Grackles and Red-Winged Blackbirds, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker… The Black-necked Stilt babies that we have been watching for the past […]
June 19, 2010 - I went to print one of my favorite rookery pictures from this spring, and it bothered me that the background clutter detracted so much from the portrait of the mother and baby Tricolored Heron. I love the way the baby is peeking out from under Mama, but it was easy to miss him altogether in […]
June 17, 2010 - Birds grow up far too quickly at the Gatorland Bird Rookery. This spring, one Double Crested Cormorant made her nest in a tree right next to the third level of the Observation Tower. I was lucky enough to be there the day her eggs hatched, and then I returned week after week to photograph the […]
June 13, 2010 - The sunrise at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning was magnificent! The drive over from Orlando was very very foggy, and as the sun rose and burned off the fog over the marsh, the light was just beautiful. I looked over at a common bunch of grasses, illuminated by the sunrise. The golden glow […]
June 12, 2010 - Cattle Egrets were all over Gatorland’s Bird Rookery this morning. It was very hot, and there were only a handful of photographers there for Early Entry. (Did everybody go to visit the baby spoonbills at St. Augustine?) So I had the place virtually to myself. As always, the birds put on a great show. There […]
June 11, 2010 - The St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s bird rookery had a record-breaking four Roseate Spoonbill nests this spring. Two sets of chicks hatched a few weeks ago, but they are not visible from the boardwalk. The other two nests hatched last weekend, and the little guys are so cute! Dyeyo and I watched and waited for […]
June 6, 2010 - I’ve been reading a lot about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. Camera sensors are not capable of capturing as much dynamic range in an image as our eyes can see; therefore, images lack the full range of tones. HDR attempts to solve this problem by allowing you to combine images of different exposures in software, […]
June 6, 2010 - Dyeyo and I went to the Circle B Bar Reserve at 6:30 this morning to enjoy the early morning light with our birds. Unfortunately, the sun didn’t really come up because it was so cloudy. We still had a good time birding. The first bird we saw was this Little Blue Heron, who posed for […]
June 5, 2010 - My new baby bird of the week was the Little Blue Heron. I’ve been watching a couple of nests for the past few weeks. One nest in particular has changed hands between Tricolored Herons and Little Blue Herons several times. So today I finally noticed movement in the nest, and caught a glimpse of the […]
May 31, 2010 - The peak bird migration is definitely past, and some would say that this is the “slow period” for birding at Circle B Bar Reserve. Dyeyo and I are finding that the babies popping up throughout the preserve still make our walks very rewarding! This morning we arrived at the Circle B Bar Reserve at dawn […]
May 29, 2010 - The increasingly hot temperatures drove Dyeyo and me to the Circle B Bar Reserve at 6:30 this morning, to allow us time for birding before the heat set in. I was amazed to see the marsh at sunrise. It was like a whole other world, with dewdrops glistening in the rising sun, and the grasses […]
May 28, 2010 - Just as the great egrets hatched back in March fledge, a new set of nests are under construction and more babies are on the way to Gatorland’s Bird Rookery. The rookery is alive with birds, from nesting adults, fledging chicks learning to fly, and babies of all ages. I heard this cattle egret nest before […]
May 23, 2010 - I returned to Gatorland’s Bird Rookery this morning to check up on my baby birds. They are getting so big! The rookery is a cacophony of little voices, all begging for food. The great egret chicks are as big as their parents, but most of the chicks still haven’t fledged. It’s amusing to watch the […]
May 22, 2010 - Dyeyo and I felt like going to a new birding spot this morning, and we’d heard good things about the Emeralda Marsh Conservation Area in Lake County, so we drove up there to check it out. It made us realize just how spoiled we are by our Circle B Bar Reserve, which is close to […]
May 16, 2010 - It was very hot but very fun to be back at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning. Dyeyo and I took a nice long hike and saw some neat birds. I saw my first Eastern Meadowlark! I’ll wait until I have a better picture to post one, though. When we first arrived, we saw […]
May 14, 2010 - Today is an off Friday and so I spent the morning at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery. There are chicks all over the rookery now. The Great Egret chicks are huge and you wonder when they will fledge. There are baby tricolored herons and baby snowy egrets throughout the rookery. The new sound of baby double-crested cormorants […]
May 9, 2010 - A rose-breasted grosbeak was recently seen at Bok Tower Gardens, so this morning Rich and I went to bird-watch at Bok. We didn’t see a grosbeak, but we did see some fun songbirds. The first bird we saw this morning was a male Eastern Towhee. He was on the ground, rooting through the grass, digging […]
May 8, 2010 - After hearing about all the roosting roseate spoonbills at the St. Augustine Farm Bird Rookery, Dyeyo and I decided that it would be worth the three hour drive to go see the spoonbill nests. When you first enter the rookery, you are on a boardwalk in between several large oak trees. In the tops of […]
May 6, 2010 - I spent a few hours at the Gatorland Bird Rookery this morning before going into work. I wanted to check on my little double-crested cormorant that I saw hatch five days ago. As usual, I had a great time taking pictures of all the baby birds. :) As I walked in from the early entry […]
May 1, 2010 - This morning I went back to the Gatorland Bird Rookery. I was excited to see our baby tri-colored herons again. I wasn’t disappointed! I saw three new species of babies today (green heron, double-crested cormorant, and common moorhen). I even saw a double-crested cormorant hatch! Very cool. :) When we were first going in the […]
April 25, 2010 - This morning Dyeyo and I went back to the Gatorland Rookery to see if some of the nests we saw two weeks ago had any babies yet. We were happily surprised to see how many babies there are in the rookery now. We saw five types of babies: great egrets, anhingas, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, […]
April 15, 2010 - Rich and I decided to take a week off this spring to go to Callaway Gardens to see the azaleas. With the cold winter and early spring rain, the bloom was supposed to be spectacular. It’s also very late – so the Callaway Azalea Watch was very helpful in planning our trip. The Mountain Creek […]
April 11, 2010 - I keep reading about people birding at Mead Gardens in Winter Park. We went over there on a cloudy Sunday morning and were disappointed not to see a whole lot, probably because of the clouds (it rained most of the rest of the day, and the birds seem to be smart enough to know to […]
April 10, 2010 - After enjoying the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Bird Rookery, I looked for one closer to home and found the Gatorland Bird Rookery. Gatorland is of course known for its gators, but wild marsh birds regularly make their nests in the “alligator swamp” each spring. The alligators keep their natural predators away while the birds […]
April 3, 2010 - When Dyeyo called to say that he’d seen a baby sand hill crane hatch at the Circle B Bar Reserve, I was very jealous. Then a few weeks later he reported seeing the new family at the same place several times in a row. So I had to go and see if I could get […]
April 2, 2010 - Last year Rich and I went to Bok Tower a few weeks after the azaleas bloomed, and I was mad to have missed the blooms. So this year we went while the azaleas were in bloom. They were pretty, but not as dramatic as what we expect to see at Callaway Gardens in a few […]
March 28, 2010 - Rich and I went to Oakland Nature Preserve for the first time in over a year. We were disappointed because we saw very few birds. Last year, Oakland Nature Preserve stopped putting out feeders for the painted buntings. It’s sad to go by the bird blind and not see any. :( The weather today was […]
March 20, 2010 - The trees at the Circle B Bar Reserve were full of little birds today. The warblers are so cute. This yellow rumped warbler wasn’t sure about the crazy photographer underneath him. There were tons of warblers today (palm, pine, yellow-rumped, and common yellowthroats), but we didn’t see or hear a single blue-gray gnatcatcher. That was […]
February 7, 2010 - The recent freezing weather in Central FL had some devastating effects at the Circle B Bar Reserve. Many of the fish died from the cold, leaving the entire place stinky and littered with dead animals. Then the birds started to leave, probably because their food source was so greatly diminished. So by today the smell […]
January 31, 2010 - Dyeyo, Rich, and I were very cold birdwatchers at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning. My wool hat from Pittsburgh came in handy! I saw my first limpkins on Wading Bird Way today. Look at that long spear of a beak! The limpkins were fishing for their breakfasts as we watched. This guy had […]
December 29, 2009 - Rich and I braved the cold winds this morning to go to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. It’s supposed to be very good for birding, but it also made us realize how spoiled we were with the Circle B Bar Reserve. We hiked the Scrub Jay trail. The winds were very strong and at first […]
December 28, 2009 - The air was full of American White Pelicans at the Circle B Bar Reserve this morning. A huge flock of the pelicans is roosting on the lake at Wading Bird Way. I took the camera and pointed straight at the sky as they flew overhead: It was cool to hear the “whoosh!” of all their […]
December 23, 2009 - Now that Dyeyo, Rich, and I have discovered the Circle B Bar Reserve, we go there often. Each time we go we see new birds and learn more about them. It’s such fun. The first bird we saw this time was one that I usually don’t like to photograph, a black vulture. There are tons […]
December 11, 2009 - Rich and I took his parents to Leu Gardens while they were here in Florida. Being turtle people, they were excited to see the turtles in the pond: I was more excited to see this female ruby-throated hummingbird nectaring. It’s late in the year to see hummers in Orlando. I wasn’t close enough, and there […]
November 28, 2009 - We’re starting to see a few more birds in the yard, but not as many as usual, and no goldfinches yet. There have been a couple of new house finches (I think the darker red ones are migratory…I never see such bright red guys in the summertime), some brown-headed cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds, the yellow-throated […]
November 28, 2009 - Dyeyo, Rich, and I were so excited about our last visit to the Circle B Bar Reserve, we carefully watched the weather to go back on the next sunny day. But the weathermen deceived us, telling us that today would be sunny, and it was cloudy and foggy instead! Along the Shady Oak path, we […]
November 8, 2009 - After hearing about the Circle B Bar Reserve from people in the Sierra Club, Dyeyo, Rich, and I decided that we needed to check it out. Boy were we surprised! People were not kidding when they said it is a wonderful place for birds. It’s a protected reserve in Polk County, and there are paths […]