The first few times I saw Sandhill Cranes, they were wandering around in baseball fields and parking lots at regional parks, and I couldn’t help but think they looked like gangly, long-necked umpires with little red caps!Only when I discovered them in preserves like this one, could I see their true beauty! Sandhill Cranes feed in […]
I was lucky to catch a shot of this little Blue-gray Gnatcatcher as he flitted non-stop from branch to branch overhead, searching for tiny flying insects. Curiously, despite their name, ‘gnats do not form a significant part of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher’s diet’. (All About Birds)! Although they are more abundant during our south Florida winters, these busy birds […]
Black-necked Stilts are aptly named (Audubon), with their improbably tall, stilt-like legs. In fact, they “have the second-longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any bird, exceeded only by flamingos.” (All About Birds). They forage for insects, small fish and aquatic invertebrates in shallow water, but – curiously – Black-necked Stilts rarely swim (All About Birds)! Pairs work together to build […]
Now that the baby Great Horned Owlets at our local Refuge have fledged, they are often seen perching on outlying branches, but always under the watchful eye of a parent.Just before sunset the other evening, we saw this Owlet practice flapping his huge wings .He was working so hard to get it right […]
I watched this striking Purple Gallinule preening in a low, marshy shrub one recent sunny morning. He stayed there for the longest time among the shadowy leaves, as I patiently waited for him to come out into the light.Finally, he began to clamber slowly, deliberately down the long leafy reeds. And then he did something I had never […]
The Griffon Vulture is a large and awesome bird of prey, one of the largest and the highest flying of all birds (Nature’s Song, Slifkin, p.222). It is believed by many to be the Nesher (נֶשֶׁר) of the Torah, a bird very often translated instead as Eagle. (As in the moving verse where G-d tells the […]
We just returned from an amazing 3 weeks in Israel, where we attended the Eilat Migratory Birds Festival . On the first morning, we were lucky enough to see huge flocks of migrating Storks soaring overhead.They seemed to sail along effortlessly, heading northward, taking advantage of the high, warm thermals between the mountains of Judean Desert […]
The same drizzly morning that I saw my first Smooth-billed Ani, I also photographed my first Snail Kite! These birds have been hard to find in recent years, due to the diminishing Apple Snail population.
Though I’d heard about local sightings since last year, I’d never seen the Smooth-billed Ani until a recent rainy morning. This unique-looking member of the Cuckoo family is found only in certain parts of south Florida, Central and South America, and the Caribbean (All About Birds). According to the Audubon Society website: “John James Audubon and other early naturalists failed […]
The little Green Heron is undeniably one of the most patient hunters in the wetlands.We often see Green Herons, like this one, sitting on a low branch for the longest time, just watching the water below.When he spots a tasty morsel swimming by, he stretches out his neck – his whole body, really! – and . […]
Birder's Journey 