Flamingos were either in Yucatan or on their way to Cuba when Hurricane Idalia hit them. The flamingos went with the winds instead of fighting them, as the eastern portion of the storm drove the birds up the western side of Florida.

But flamingos are big, strong birds, more than capable of making their way back home, like they did in 2019 following Hurricane Barry.

Birds are capable of things that we cannot imagine.

The FWC treats flamingos as a native species protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

At one point, this Egret had three fish - but this image was the best of the series.  I found a little corner of the beach, right after sunrise, where there were so many species feeding on an abundance of fish~

Dancing Osprey on a Snag @ Viera Wetlands

I wish I could tell a fascinating story of how this Osprey came in for an elegant landing . . . . but as the sun was setting, I was looping around looking for foreground and this beautiful bird was resting on top of this snag, my lens was focused on him as he began to adjust his footing allowing me an interesting shot of wing display. Heaven.

I have been absent from my  BLOG for 13 months, but I am back now, back to nature walks, identifying birds and portrait photography.

Hope you are all well~

Rachelle♥

TigerTail Beach, Marco Island, Sunset in September

I wanted to see what birds I could find on the beach during the sunset hour, and to my surprise, there were two Black Bellied Plovers! Perhaps someone that knows more about migration can shed some light on why these two didn't migrate to the Artic.  I found a tri-color bathing in the glow of the sunset, and an Osprey guarding his catch. Other than that, it was pretty quiet.  The entire Least Tern colony roped off area was completely gone, my guess is maybe some damage from Isaac, as the beach over there is usually very clean, but on Saturday, if was full of grass and dried ocean debris. And gulls, we saw lots of gulls, where I expected to find the Least Terns and Skimmers, instead were flocks of gulls~

Happy Monday and make it a great week!!

Tigertail Beach in spring~

 I saw quite a few Black-bellied Plovers in breeding colors - these birds at this time of year - are absolutely incredible to see!

 I saw a colony of Black Skimmers near a colony of Royal Terns - nesting & mating.

 A beautiful Dunlin in Spring breeding colors - stunning!

 The least terns were very very active, feeding, nesting, calling, mating, and became very anxious with my presence~

I only saw this one little Snowy Plover and a few Wilsons Plover, - and they do nest on this part of the beach. I was hoping to see more Snowy Plovers - but only this one was walking around - I never saw another~

Flamingo, The Camargue, France

Forgive me for my two week absence, I have just returned from two weeks in Europe, having spent one week in Paris and one week in Rome.

The Flamingo - The bird most sought after by visitors, and the symbol of the Camargue, is undoubtedly the flamingo.  Wading with its webbed feet in the shallow saline waters of the large lagoons, it filters the mud with its large down-curved beak, and extracts the invertebrates on which it feeds.  Flamingos breed in colonies of thousands of individuals.  Pairs form in the spring and in May-June some 20,000 white chicks hatch in the Camargue, forming the new generation.  The flamingo  only attains its characteristic vivid pink plumage at the age of four or five years.  They seem almost motionless on their slender legs, but the slightest noise can cause them to take flight in a blaze of colours and with loud cries.  At the end of summer, part of the population flies south to the other side of the Mediterranean, where the winters are milder, others remain in the  Camargue taking the risk of perhaps facing an exceptionally cold winter~ (La Camargue, English version)

Black-bellied Plover, 59/150

I love love love the Black-bellied plover, one of the first I learned to identify . . . because we live in South Florida - we see the winter plumage - they are beginning to get their breeding colors now - and off they go. Black-bellied plovers breed in the high Arctic of North American and Eurasia.

http://www.goldenrod.org/bird_migration_map/bird_migration_map.html