Barb's beautiful view

Wood Stork, photograph by Barb Reis

Stunning Barb.

Today was special. Neighbor and friend Barb stopped by. Oh, how I love to talk to her. She's a birder. She dropped off a jump drive with a few photos to share with you. Let's take a moment to be with her, beginning with a few more photos she took of the stately Wood Stork. 

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Great Blue Heron

Breeding female Anhinga

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

A breeding Great Egret and its Brown Anole lunch. Its breeding plumage shows in the green around the eye, and though not in this photo, long feathery plumes grow from its back.

 

Last, the Brown Thrasher visits an area next to Barb's sliding glass door.

Stepping outside to look up

Good, beautiful morning, about 7:00 am, 4/9/23 (Easter)

I begin the day by stepping outside to look up. I see this sky. 

Often I walk and then sit down for at least 20 minutes. When I still and sit, I notice what's around me.

I heard someone say again, "There are no birds now." Maybe this was a comment about migration. The many different warblers that filled the oak behind our place have left. But, oh my goodness, there are birds. 

10 Wood Duck ducklings a few days ago. I saw them leave a natural area and hop into the pond. Maybe this was their first day. 

Saturday afternoon, 4/8/23 - there are 6 ducklings. A Little Blue Heron is in the foreground.

Female Downy Woodpecker, April 2023. Difference between Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers? HERE.

There are many ducks. Here is a Lesser Scaup, male.

Blue-winged Teal Duck, male and female (dabbling)

This (I think) Mallard female duck is going to get in trouble.

An Eagle flew overhead.

Susan Herman shared a photo of a soon-to-be Monarch chrysalis.

From the butterfly garden, I took a photo of a soon-to-be-born Monarch butterfly.

Behind Pat and Cathy's place, a Belted Kingfisher in the Southern Live Oak.

Cardinals are plentiful! A male portrait.

 A female looking for Betty, or its male partner.

Yeah. She's looking for him. A male Cardinal looking back at that female.

Tri-Colored Heron, breeding plumage. This photo shows its neck. That is a good identifying clue.

The TCH used its wings to hop along the shallow water to catch fish.

It caught one!

A Brown Thrasher. Not as good a photo as Barb would get, though you get the idea.

Three male Wood Ducks, big pond.

Behind our place, a pair of Great Blue Herons. One in the water spray mist.

The other a distance away. They kept an eye on each other.

Keeping an eye on us. This curious juvenile Raccoon came down far enough to peek out over the yellow orchid blooms into our back window. Happy spring morning little masked-guy.

Brown Anole often checks us out, too. After all, we share a neighborhood and world.

Enjoy this beautiful day! Take a chair outside and sit in the shade. After 15 minutes, the birds will get used to your presence, and if you're like me, you'll wonder why you don't spend more time in nature. This wonderful photo was taken by Terry.

Looking up

White Moonflowers seek the light of the moon.

The Hunter's Moon begins to set in the west. I think of Lesley who swims laps under the moon and stars. Every morning.

Wise people say that if you're feeling agitated, step outside and look up. I did and felt a spontaneous breath arise. I decided to take photos of the sky. 

Looking east. I wondered if this is a contrail. Marc Holtsberg might know.

Southeast.

East.

As the rising sun warmly lit morning, I noticed that Lesley and I weren't the only ones looking up. 

This is a Little Blue Heron - a one-year-old (so say the birders who know way more than I do). Little Blue's attention is caught by an Osprey making its call. 

What Osprey? This one.

Did you wonder why Little Blue has white patches? They are feathers left from its juvenile molt into adulthood. Look HERE. 

Anhinga looks up.

This one perches on a dead tree limb behind Tom and Jeanne's place. 

WWI lets some dead tree trunks remain - that's so healthy for the habitat because they're a treasure trove of bird meals (insects), and 5-star nesting spots.

A Northern Mocking Bird.

A Bluejay.

Arriving home, I heard the Belted Kingfisher! I looked and clicked. More photos of the Kingfisher to come. But here, the Kingfisher with another flyer.

A diverse flock of ibis and heron and, look, a pair of Hooded Mergansers

On a windy, cold-for-me, day this week I headed to a nearby preserve: the Manatee Road entrance to Robinson Preserve. Walking briskly to warm up, I paused at a protected area and discovered a group of birds in the distant grasses: a Little Blue Heron flying in (blueish/grayish legs = little blue), White Ibis (notice their red-pink curved bills) and a Great Egret (right side of photograph; if you could see its legs, they would be black). 

But wait, what is that paddling duck-like bird? 

I took a few more photographs and used What's this bird? to help figure it out. I narrowed it down to Merganser, but what type? Here is another photograph.

They are both Hooded Mergansers. The lead is a first year male and the other is a female. Notice the golden eye and darker bill on the male. The female has more orange on its bill and a darker eye.

Male, golden eye and darker bill.

When that male Hooded Merganser matures, he'll look like this (a black head with a patch of white with that hood appearance).

Female Hooded Merganser (yellow-orange in bill, dark eye):

And now, in the foreground with the female Hooded Merganser, what about this pair of ducks? What type are they? 

They are Female Redheads! (I needed the group to help with the identification.)

On my drive home, I stopped on 53rd to get a photograph of hundreds of female and male Redheads. 

Redhead Ducks hanging out on the edge of the pond with Cormorants.

Though I photographed these birds at the preserve, I have seen them here in Wildewood Springs, too.