Thursday, September 27, 2007

Bald Point & Mashes Sands

Carol Miller send us these great pictures and writes....

It was a beautiful day for the coast, and the birds co-operated. After seeing several flights of ibis and oystercatchers at Bald Point, we were off to a good start. The beach at Alligator point looked pretty barren at a casual glance, but we walked along the rack lines and saw lots of birds digging through the seaweed. We sat down on the sand and watched one of the sanderlings work his way closer and closer so wec ould get good pictures. Then we saw a big group of oystercatchers resting on a dock. The coup for the day was at Mashes Sands -13 Marbled Godwits, who were feasting on horseshoe crab eggs on the beach.





Marbled Godwit & Ruddy Turnstone



Sanderling & Least Sandpiper



Sylvia Cohen sent us a great Marbled Godwit picture as well from the all day birdwalk to Bald Point.







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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Pawnee National Grasslands

Carol Miller writes...

While in Colorado for the FSU-CU game last weekend, we went northeast of Denver to the Grasslands. It was amazing to see all that flat land right next to the mountains! As we drove around, we saw flocks of Horned Larks and Vesper Sparrows flying around the fields and perched on the fences. We also saw Northern Harrier, Swainson's Hawk, American Kestrel, and Red-tailed Hawks flying overhead, and a fox running across the fields.


Horned Lark


Vesper Sparrow


Vesper Sparrows are a fairly common winter visitor to the Florida Panhandle, the J R Alford Greenway on the east side of Tallahassee can be an excellent site to find them between November and March.
Horned Larks are very rare visitors to Florida; there were 3-4 located in Jackson County last winter, which isn't too far from Tallahassee. In winter Horned Larks prefer agricultural fields especially ones that have recently been ploughed.

Andy





Cooper's Hawk

Glenda Simmons writes...

I've had some interesing birding in my backyard recently, with another incident to share. This juvenile Cooper's Hawk was stalking my backyard birds. I was able to observe him (or her?) for several minutes at a close range, all the while snapping away photographs. I assume that it was just too intent on scoring his next meal, to be concerned with my presence. I'm glad to report that he flew off, still hungry.



Thursday, September 13, 2007

Who needs a Net!

Glenda Simmons writes...

A few evenings ago, I walked into my garage, to find a juvenile male Ruby-throated Hummingbird, flying back and forth across the ceiling in a panic. I had rescued two such hummers last summer from my garage, and the red ER pull for the garage door was covered with grey duct tape after the first incident. It amazes me how these little flying jewels can fly in all directions and across the Gulf Of Mexico and back to the same yards, year after year, but can't figure out how to fly two feet lower and get out a huge opened door! All three of my directionally challanged hummers were young males. Ummm... lol But as you can see from my photos there was a happy ending.