I recently posted (Sibling Rivalry) about the Tri-colored Heron chicks, who are fast learning to be independent. The babies have gotten much bigger and much more self-sufficient in the past few weeks. This Tri-colored Heron is learning to forage like the grown-ups in the shallow water, where they find fish, crustaceans, amphibians, and other small invertebrates (iBird Plus). I chuckled […]
The juvenile Wood Storks are getting bigger now, and there are lots of them in the nesting trees at one of our local preserves.They are so coy and – I dare say – cute, with their impossibly large bills and fuzzy heads! Our Wood Storks are among the later nesting birds. They breed “. . . just in […]
We love watching the Loggerhead Shrikes and checking the sharp prickly branches they perch on, as that is where the Shrikes often impale their prey, left to dry out, and be consumed later! Their nickname is “Butcher Bird“, as I described in a previous post!My husband caught sight of one of the Loggerhead Shrikes arguing with […]
The Tri-colored Herons have been prolific, as usual, in our area and there are many new broods this spring. Of course, (as you can see above) the competition for the choicest morsels can get pretty serious when a parent drops by with something to eat! It is really comical to watch their facial expressions as they wait […]
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 […]
Birder's Journey 