Please help a friend out!

Help! A good friend of mine, Kristen Beck, runs the Florida Outdoor Center, which is a non-profit that helps get kids (and adults) outside. Their summer camp program is in urgent need of a bus. She has created a funding page to collect donations. 

The is a special request to everyone who has ever attended and enjoyed one of my birding classes: you have Kristen to thank for that - she is the one who convinced me I could teach, she convinced me that I am entertaining, and she gave me the confidence to get up in front of you all! So, if you've ever attended and enjoyed one of my classes, now would be a great time to thank me by throwing a couple bucks her way.

Bioblitz and the Enchanted Forest

David and I were honored to be ask to participate in the first annual Bioblitz at the Enchanted Forest in Titusville. We led a few walks including a herp walk, and a bird walk. It was really a blast, and we look forward to doing it again next year. Here's what we saw!

Velvet ant, also known as the Cow Killer ant. Supposed to have a nasty bite, but I haven't gotten close enough to find out.

 Unidentified Caterpillar species.

Dragonfly, I believe from the Libellulidae family.

Egg sack, but we aren't sure what from.

Gopher Tortoise.

Same Gopher Tortoise, smiling.

Grasshopper,  possibly Melanoplus femurrubrum?

Grasshopper, Lubber. As you can tell from this picture, these guys like to eat and tend to irritate gardeners something fierce. But they are really pretty to look at.

Cuban Anole, another invasive exotic species.

Green, or Carolina Anole, one of our local boys.

Gopher Tortoise Poop.

Ground Skink, being held by David.

Golden Silk Orbweaver spider.

Possible Western Reef Heron

I snuck out for a long lunch today to chase the Western Reef Heron. It wasn't a particularly hard chase, he was sitting right where it was reported, just waiting for us. Note that this has not been an officially approved sighting yet, but the only other thing it could be is a Tri-color/Snowy hybrid. Click the pictures to enlarge.

 Notice the long white plume on the head.

Compare and contrast with an immature Little Blue.

Although the plumage is similar, note that honking big bill, about twice the size of the little blue.  Note also the yellow lores.

There was also a nesting Black Neck Stilt. This normally would have been my big sighting for the day as I just love love love Black Neck Stilts. Look at the way it has it's pig pink feet tucked under, so casual, like she's just watching TV.

And of course, no trip to the refuge is complete without saying hi to the Roseate Spoonbills.

Kidney Foundation Fundraiser 2015

Click Here to Donate!

A few years ago, my trainer did a run for a children's cancer charity. To sweeten the pot, she agreed to do a burpee for every dollar pledged. Given that I get matching gifts at work, I pledged a lot just because the thought of her doing twice as many burpies made me laugh:-) So, inspired by her, I decided to offer a similar deal, I agreed to do tortures (such as crunches, pushups, etc) for every dollar raised. However, by far, the most popular was my offer of doing interpretive dances. So, now I am just offering interpretive dances in exchange for pledges:

• new this year: New donor special: For a $5 pledge, you can get a copy of last year's DVD.
• $10: 1 minute of interpretive dance, I pick the song
• $20: 1 minute of interpretive dance, you pick the song
• $30: 1 minute of interpretive dance with tutu, you pick the song
• $50: 1 minute of interpretive dance with tutu, you pick the song AND location for video shoot!
• $100: 1 minute of interpretive dance with tutu, you pick the song, AND with special guest star, DAVID also in a tutu!

Disclaimers:

• For song choice, please check iTunes or Amazon to make sure it's something I can download legally.
• These are pledge per person NOT cumulative; if you want to see David dance, you have to donate $100, he won't do it for 10 $10 pledges from individual people.
• Location must be within driving distance of Fellsmere, and I will need to know your choice well in advance, especially if it's someplace that I need to get permission to shoot at.)
• As with last year, due to copyright issues, I can't post the videos on YouTube, but all donors will instead receive a special edition DVD.
• If you get matching gifts at work, please let me know so I can add it to the dance tally.

Please pass the link to this page along to help me raise money for a good cause!

Click Here to Donate!

Sistah Visit

My sistahs have been in Florida, they let me crash their vacation, first in Ft. Myers, then in Key West. Here are some pix.

 I took them to Manatee Park, but alas, no Manatees. But there were othah cool things like this Monahch.

Another shot of the Monahch.

This was cool - a Mockingbirhd on the nest.

The Mockingbihd's husband.

A lizzahd, eating something, it kind of looks like it might be eating a baby lizzahd.

All three of us at the National Key Deeah Refuge.

Psyched that they actually got to see Key Deeah.

Wicked pissah! We even got to see a mom and a baby!

Up close...

Even closah.

In Key West, getting ready to go out on a glass bottom boat.

Me and Shuhl.

 Me and Lynn. I was only drinking ice tea heayah, but I look remarkably drunk.

My sistahs in front of the glass bottom boat.

At the bow of the glass bottom boat.

Rockin' the glass bottom boat.

My favorite picture of the weekend. Love my sistahs, they do make me laugh!

The sun setting.

The cute little rasta-boy tour guide took this picture for us.

Lynn and Shirl with the sunset behind them, but I goofed up the picture so it isn't as dramatic as it was supposed to be.

Shirl and Lynn at the end of the boat ride.

A little lizzahd on a light on Duval street.

Valentines Day Weekend Part 2

(Continued from Valentines Weekend Part 1)

A Wood Stork in flight.

On Sunday, after a nice visit with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Sherm, we headed out to Wakodahatchee. I had the intention of finishing the weekend with my 300th photographic life bird. Did I make it?? Read on... for starters though, this was a photogenic, but not life, Little Blue Heron.

 Woo-hoo! Lifer #299! A Neotropic Cormorant, right as we entered the park. You can tell he his a Neotropic because he has feathered lores, not orange ones like the Double-crested Cormorants.

 A Great Egret, who was totally in the mood to get down. You can tell by the fancy outfit and green on the face.

This was either a Neotropic Cormorant or a Double-crested-Neotropic hybrid, David was quite sure as it had field marks of both.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. A guy we met called these Mexican Tree Ducks. I  don't know why. But they are very cool birds, one of my favorite duckies.

This was a Grackle, but he just looked so expressive. Look at his face!

He was singing, and just looked so happy.

Here he is going for a high note.

All nature is beautiful, but Egyptian Geese could use a few make up tips. A little eye shadow goes a long way, sweetie.

This picture of nesting Wood Storks with an Anhinga tells a story:
"Hey, someone should tell her she's in the wrong nest." "I don't wanna tell her, you tell her..." "No you..."

A Great Blue Heron and a Cormorant.

Two Great Blues thinking of getting down. Well, HE was thinking of getting down, she wanted no part of it and chased him away.

This was weird. These two Gallinules started fighting.

Then they started kicking each other.

Then the started whapping each other with their wings.

And more kicking!!

Meanwhile, this bystander just laughed at the whole thing. I swear, it was like a 9th grade gym class!

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in flight.

A Palm Warbler.

A Yellow-rump Warbler, aka "butter butt"

A Northern Harrier put on an awesome display!

I think about 40 people with cameras wet their pants while he was putting on this display.

Present company included. I wanted to applaud when he was done.

Finally, a Green-backed Heron with green on his back!

"Hey... that fat chick with the camera... I think she is stalking us... act casual..."

Male Mottled Duck.

Female (top) and male Mottle duck.

Another Egyptian Goose, smiling, but still in need of a little less eye shadow.

The Mottled Duckie couple.

Egyptian Goose and Gator. An ill-fated romance if I ever saw one.

I just love Pied-bill Grebes, they look like such a happy little birdie.

A Purple Swamphen

A Black-belly mooning.

This was somewhat disturbing. There were about 5 of these iguanas on the rookery island. I hope they don't eat eggs.  I didn't even know iguanas could swim!

A Red-wing Blackbird posing nice.

This Little Blue Heron looks like he is kissing his own reflection. It reminded me of a poem my mom used to say, "You love yourself, you think you're grand, you go to the movies and hold your hand, you put your arm around your waist, and when you get naughty you slap your face!"

A Snowy Egret.

Another Soft-shell Turtle. We saw a lot of these this weekend.

We were on the way out of Wakodahatchee when a lady asked us what this was. This immature Purple Galinule was so well disguised that neither David or I noticed it till the lady asked us about it...

But the the Gallinule was all like, "Hey! You want a picture?? Lookit my arm! Ain't it purty?"

"Lookit lookit lookit! Who's a pretty bird? Screw parrots, I'm a prettier bird!"

This was my last series of pictures on my way out. It's just a Common Gallinule, but I thought it was so pretty.

The water was so still here, it was like a mirror.

You could turn this picture upside down and not even know.

Ok, so we left Wakodahatchee and came home to do my Manatee watch. I had an awesome weekend, didn't get my 300th life bird, but there's always tomorrow. So, I'm taking the water temperature at the manatee watch, and this little boy asks me what I'm doing, and I give him the Manatee Temperature lecture, and he tells me that he just came from down the berm and he had seem "a bunch of manatees on the bank" I thought this was a little weird, so David and I went down the berm to check it out. There were about 8 manatees that we hadn't been able to see from the manatee overlook, but they weren't actually out of the water, just in shallow water.

Then, my darling husband mentions that he thinks there are Vesper Sparrows in the area that we were in, and he found one for me, and I had my 300ths life bird!!! Yay! We high-fived, and I came home and started to update my photographic life list. Except after all of that celebrating, I realized that I had miscounted, I forgot that I had one bad ID from a few weeks ago. So alas, this Vesper Sparrow was actually 299. So, I will save 300 for yet another day! But David is still the best husband ever, I'd probably still be in the double digits were it not for him!