Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The kids

I realized that the cat's page got deleted years ago when I had to change to Blogger from Mac. Here are their latest photos.

Me and Pita, Halloween 2017
NummyMuffin in his sushi costume, Halloween, 2017




Barty
Lisa
NummyMuffinCoocolButter
PITA

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Indian River Birding Festival

We had an amazing time at the Indian River Birding Festival and Art Show this weekend. Thanks to the hard work and incredible organizational skills of Deb Avery, we got to meet a bunch of super awesome people while sharing our love of birding. Thanks so much also to everyone who came out and joined our classes and tours.

Here are a few of the pictures I took this weekend:

Mary, Jason, David and Bonnie on our Pokemon Birding class. Mary participated in her first raid, Jason took over his first gym, David leveled up to 6 and is hatching eggs, and Bonnie submitted her very first Ebird checklist of 10 new life birds. Awesomely successful class!

A Barn Swallow nest at Goodwin WMA.

An immature Black Vulture. You can tell he's immature because he still has some white feathers on his face.

A Little Blue Heron.

Boat-tailed Grackle looking particularly splendid.

Boat-tailed Grackle looking a little grumpy here. 

Another immature Black Vulture. 

An immature White Ibis and a Wood Stork. They are in the same family, intact the Wood Stork used to be known as a Wood Ibis.

It struck me funny that they seemed to be in synch. 

David, Jason and Mary birding at Sebastian Inlet. This wasn't an official festival trip, but fun all the same.

A Snowy Egret, posing nicely.

A Wood Stork, testing the water.

If I was shooting film, I would think this was a double exposure.

A Reddish Egret, posing nicely.

This is kind of cool. At first I thought it was just a picture of a Wood Stork mooning me. But take a look at his beak. It looks like there is a triangle at the base where it is hollow. I have no idea if they are all like this. Need to research more, I guess I've never seen one from this angle before. 

Two Skimmers, looking silly.

I don't know why, but this picture reminds me of that old hair product commercial, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

Osprey

Osprey in a tree.

The Wood Storks were super obliging posers today.

We had either rain or bright perfect weather all 3 days. And it changed every 20 minutes or so. 

Reddish Egret

Skimmers are so adorable when they play.

I think these guys are a band, "Snowies and the Skimmers". Unfortunately, I think one of them was all hepped up on goofballs. 

Another Wood Stork posing handsomely.

This White Ibis just looks so happy to have this fish.

"My fish! You no can has!"

This is a white-morph Reddish Egret. If you look at the pictures above, you can tell by the beak, legs and eyes they are the same species. 

A Great Blue Heron hanging out on the south side of Sebastian Inlet.

We saw so many rainbows this weekend. 

Sometimes larger birds will stand around with their hands on their hips and ask, "Now what do you have to say for yourself?" (Actually, they do this to get mites off their wings, but I like my story better.)

Last, but not least, a Magnifieant Frigatebird looking all dramatic. I thought at first it was a female as I couldn't see the red bulby thing on his neck, but it was there, it was just bad lighting. 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

My Nature ID Rocks

Leave me a comment if you've found and liked my rocks! And visit my daily blog or like me on Facebook if you want to know more about birds and the critters around here.

Nature ID Rock #1 - Painted Bunting

Front
Back













Nature ID Rock #2 - Northern Cardinal  (Male)


Nature ID #3 - Pileated Woodpecker (Not Ivory Bill)


Nature ID Rock #4 - Coming Soon!


Nature ID #5 - Coming Soon!




Sunday, August 13, 2017

Unidentified Bugs

Not Positively Identified

Some kinda moth on Saltmarsh Mallow (Kosteletzkya virginica)  (ID courtesy of Jim Stahl)(Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA)

Positively Identified

Black Horse Fly (Tabanus atratus) (ID courtesy of Jim Stahl)

Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilla) male. (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)


Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilla) male. (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)
Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina) female (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)
Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) male (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)
Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) male. (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)

Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) male (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)

Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) female (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)






Four-spotted Pennant (Brachymesia gravida) immature female (Fellsmere, Goodwin WMA) (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)

Golden-winged Skimmer (Libellula auripennis) femalec Playlinda Beach. (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)

Seaside Dragonlet, Female. Playalinda Beach.  (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)


Seaside Dragonlet, Male. Playalinda Beach. (ID Courtesy of Jim Eager)