Stork nests

watch your fingers

We made our annual trip to Florida to visit friends in Palm Beach County at the beginning of March. This is the latest in winter we've gone, and the differences in what birds were around were interesting.

domestic bliss

At Wakodahatchee Wetlands park, the Wood Storks were nesting. Some of them were in trees right next to the boardwalk, practically close enough to touch if you didn't mind losing a couple of fingers. In January and February of past years, the dominant nesters were Great Blue Herons; this time it was the storks and smaller shorebirds like Tricolored Heron and Cattle Egret.

shorebird condo

All the little hammocks had nests in them. They were like shorebird condos. They generally had Great Blue Herons at the top.

"I just adore a penthouse view..."

Stork nests were below the Great Blues, and then Anhinga nests farther down.

nice neighbors

Cattle Egret and Tricolored Herons tucked their nests into cozy little crannies throughout the trees. Double-Crested Cormorants mostly had their own hammocks.

cozy

There wasn't much nesting at nearby Green Cay, though there were a nice pair of Screech Owl. The Spoonbills seem to have abandoned it this year, though. I'll post more Florida photos soon, in the meantime, one more Stork nest:

Awesome Majesty

not a good sign

I have no particular point here, just showing some more photos from Florida. This Turkey Vulture buzzed me a couple of time while I was walking around Loxahatchee Refuge. It had been a longish hike, and I was flagging a little, but I felt that the bird was a being a bit presumptuous.

don't walk on that log!

At Wakodahatchee Wetlands Park, this alligator waited patiently for a mistake.

marching to his own beat

Nearby, some Cattle Egrets flew right up on the boardwalk railing. No fear at all.

yikes!

A Wood Stork flew right past me at Green Cay. Quite startling; they are surprisingly quick. I was lucky to get any kind of shot at all.

Florida, part one: Life Birds, Green Cay

Elena and I went to Florida over Presidents Day weekend. We were making a long-overdue visit to our friends Adam and Judy in Palm Beach County, but with their indulgence we got in some birding.

exclusive valet birding

I hadn't been in Florida in fifteen years, since before I started birding, so the life birds started coming as soon as we left the airport. White Ibises are all over the place--roadsides, along the ubiquitous canals, parking lots... And I saw my first Anhinga ouside a restaurant where we stopped for lunch. (My Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale. Very nice place. Try the keftedes.)

Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)

And Cattle Egrets are common roadside birds as well.

this one was at Green Cay, but trust me, they were all over the roadsides

Birding by the roadside is fun, but the best thing was Green Cay Wetlands.

totemic

This is a fantastic man-made wetlands park, run by Palm Beach County, with about a mile and a half of boardwalks that bring you right up close with normally-reclusive waterbirds.

very shy

This American Bittern wasn't a lifer, but what a view! It was not eight feet away from me, almost under the boardwalk. Funny thing--right after seeing it, I ran into Central Park birder Brian Padden, who was birding there with Big Year birding legend Sandy Komito. I had the pleasure of pointing them at the Bittern.

just off the parking lot

The birds at Green Cay start even before you reach the boardwalk. Along the path from the parking lot to the nature center building, we saw several warblers, Painted Buntings, and White-Winged Doves.

And then you get into the wetlands, and there's just a riot of birds. There are ducks:

I don't know how I missed seeing Blue-Winged Teals before, but I had.

in south Florida, Mottled Ducks replace Mallards as the common ducks

gallinules:

Common Gallinules live up to their name at Green Cay

juvenile Purple Gallinule. I didn't get a really good picture of an adult.

Grey-Headed Swamphen, an exotic South Florida speciality

herons:

Tricolored Heron. Well, I suppose you can claim any number of colors you like...

juvenile Little Blue Heron

adult Little Blue Heron

Glossy Ibises! Wood Storks! Limpkins!

Glossy Ibises, another introduced species quite at home in Florida

Wood Stork. It took HOW long to figure out these were dinosaurs?

this Limpkin was loudly asserting his territorial rights after a dispute

and Roseate Spoonbills. My god, the Spoonbills.

that spoon, that spoon, that Spoonbill...

And those are just my life birds! I'm not even close to done writing about Florida. More soon.