You can hear the unmistakable, loud hammering of a busy Pileated Woodpecker from quite a distance. As soon as I got out of the car at the refuge, I knew he was there, and followed the sound all the way from the parking lot to the woods several hundred yards away. There he was – hard at work! […]
Category Archives: Birds
All of sudden, there they were – a flurry of pink as several juvenile Roseate Spoonbills came swooping in, jockeying for the best position as they settled onto the pond.The population of these magnificent birds was greatly reduced a little over a century ago, when they were hunted for their feathers at the height of […]
I’ve written several previous posts about the wonderful Yellow-crowned Night Herons we have in our local preserves. At this time of year, these special birds like to frequent a small wooded area along the boardwalk. At first, you might not see any, as they are amazingly well-camouflaged. But little by little, they come into view, and you may soon […]
While watching some of my fine-looking bird friends just before a rain shower the other evening, I got to wondering about the origin of the expression “fine feathered friends”. As a child, I learned from my father that we “look it up” if we want to find out about something. I recall running often to the bookshelf […]
We are nearing the end of the Hebrew month of Elul. Elul has been a time of introspection, a time to look back and reflect on our past year, and think about what our journey through the next year will be like. During Elul, as Rabbi Simon Jacobson so beautifully describes it, we prepare to enter “a […]
Common Gallinules (also known as Common Moorhens), members of the Rail family, are extremely common in our wetland preserves. They breed all year round in Florida, and can have many broods per season. The adults are very protective of their nesting territory and can be quite bossy, squawking loudly at anyone they perceive as an intruder. The parents must be […]
Remember those stunning, brilliant red Northern Cardinals we saw adorning the wetlands just a few months ago? Well, I did a double-take when I saw one of them recently in the same preserve. Now that it’s late summer in south Florida, this male Northern Cardinal, and his female friend (mostly-hidden there behind the Fireflag stems) are barely recognizable. […]
You just can’t help but smile with Black-bellied Whistling Ducks around 😉 They are so charming, so friendly, so cheerful – and so photogenic!Always a treat to watch them up in the snag, surveying the ‘pondscape’ and singing their hearts out . . . Love to catch them landing – or taking off – along […]
No doubt about it, southeast Florida can be very hot in mid-August. So what do the birds do to keep cool?? Many birds, like Hawks and Wood Storks, soar overhead, circling above the wetlands to take advantage of high altitude currents where the air is cooler. Most birds try to keep their cool by being much less active […]
Quite by serendipity the other day, I was suddenly confronted by some news on social media that saddened and shocked me . . . a dear acquaintance had died quite unexpectedly at her home a few days ago. Nora was her name.I really didn’t know Nora very well – we’d met a couple of years […]
