The smallest member of the falcon family, this handsome little American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) can be found throughout North America and much of South America (Arkive.org).Only about 9-12″ in length, the elegant but fierce little bird of prey feeds mostly on insects, small rodents and amphibians, and small birds. Yet, due to its petite size, the American Kestrel itself sometimes […]
Sometimes the weather doesn’t look great for birding when you set out in the morning. But you just never know what you will see . . .A few minutes into my walk, a fellow birder pointed out that a Roseate Spoonbill had just flown in near the entrance – so I turned back, of course!Right there […]
I had stopped to take a photo of some other birds wading in a roadside pond, when all of a sudden . . . . . . this charming American Bittern suddenly appeared out of nowhere and walked right in front of me on the path.He looked this way and that ;), and then continued on his way, […]
When I first moved to Florida, I thought surely some of the Blue Jays in our local preserves were actually Scrub Jays – they just looked so much gentler and prettier than Blue Jays in New York! But I was wrong . . . This is a post about the REAL Florida Scrub Jays, and […]
We visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for the first time the other day. The Refuge is located about 3 hours north of us, not far from the Kennedy Space Center, near Titusville, Florida. What a magical place! I will need to add multiple posts in order to show the wonderful diversity of birds – and the […]
I spotted this Red-Shouldered Hawk surveying his surroundings from a perch on a bare tree this morning. Red-Shouldered Hawks are monogamous, solitary nesters, and return to the same nesting spot year after year, sometimes generation after generation. The Hawk’s average life span is less than 5 years, but “the oldest-known Red-shouldered hawk was at least 22 years, 5 months […]
What a thrill to watch an amazing murmuration of Starlings and Grackles right here in our local preserve the other evening! As I snapped photo after photo, my husband remembered to also take some video, a clip of which can be seen here:This magical event has been occurring every evening at sunset for a week […]
During my walks I am awestruck by the tiny wonders of Nature all around me – the insects, the flowers.. . . These little gems remind me of the poetic words of King David, as he described Creation and the natural world: “[G-d] wrapped Himself in light like a garment and spread out the heavens […]
The Pine Warbler has to settle for these cypress forest branches when in Florida, though he is “overwhelmingly a bird of the pines” in his normal range (Peterson Field Guide to Warblers of North America, p. 343). The Yellow-throated Vireo favors a similar habitat, and has very similar coloring. I found this crouching behavior above amusing, as this tiny […]
