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

Snowy Plover, 58/150

Uncommon and local on sandy beaches. Pale gray upperparts, drab gray legs, thin bill, and smudgy dark eye-line, and extremely adorable!!

Short-billed Dowitcher, 57/150

I was able to walk into the lagoon during low tide and capture some images of the shorebirds up close. I love the way the light is hitting the bill here and his feathers are just beautiful~

Red Knot, 56/150

I continue to have a little bit of a difficult time identifying the Dowitcher, Dunlin, Willet,  and Red Knot.  I posted this one on my FB page, and an expert identified it as a Red Knot.  I took this image a cold, windy, late afternoon in January.  I do love all the shore birds I get to photograph in Florida :-)

Interesting facts:
On nonbreeding plumage, note barred flanks. Salmon and gray breeding plumage distinctive (which I will probably never see)

Semipalmated Plover, 55/150

This is the same Plover, same day, same beach, Fort De Soto in January.

Interesting Facts: Common and most numerous small plover. Most slender and darkest small plover. Note dark brown upperside, dark cheek and orange legs.

Lesser Black-backed Gull, 54/150

I spotted this Lesser Black-backed gull in January on my way back from Bear Cut Preserve in Miami.  I wanted to drive through the parking lot before I jumped on the Rickenbacker to scout out a good sunset spot, when I saw this big boy.  So, naturally, I pulled over, jumped out and took a few quick images before he took off.

Interesting facts:

Uncommon and rare visitor from Europe, small numbers found with other large gulls.

Killdeer, 53/150

This beautiful Killdeer was posing for me @ Merritt Island a few months ago.  He was on the opposite site of all the Spoonie and Avocet action, and I barely spotted him, he was just finished fluffing up, then took off~

53/150

Leucistic Reddish Egret

After some research, this, I believe, is the offspring of a Reddish and a White Morph, a stray white morph feather, a Leucistic Reddish Egret.

He was dancing and prancing and was extremely friendly.  There were some children with fishing nets and "Lou" here went right up to investigate their catch repeatedly.

I used my 70-200mm, 2.8, with a 2X extender, and I am quite pleased with it's focusing abilities.

The water was very shallow as you can see, and the Egret put on a show, and I had a front row seat!

These images were taken on Fort Meyers Beach area.

Best show ever!

Belted Kingfisher

 North American kingfishers are fish-eating birds found on sheltered water. They hover over open water before plunge-diving headfirst to capture small fish.

 When I drive across Alligator Alley, I often see many kingfishers on the telephone wires on my drive.

Dark blue-gray above and mostly white collar below, shaggy crest and large bill.

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Western Sandpiper, Shorebirds♡

I am learning my shorebirds, albeit, one by one. This is a Western Sandpiper, and I found him on Fort Meyers beach.  At first I thought he was a Black-bellied, then I looked again and noticed that rather long beak.  It is also similar to the Semipalmated Sandpiper, but slightly larger, and with a slightly longer and more drooping bill~

51/150

Bahama Birds~

I recently went to the Bahamas for a weekend and wanted to share some of the birds I saw on my trip: Banaquit

Bahama Woodstar

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

 Cuban Grassquit. . the story goes like this: This is an Endemic species to Cuba. In the 1960's an aircraft carrying a consignment of 600 finches from Cuba to Spain made an emergency landing at Nassau. About 200 birds died before they could be released, the rest were set free for humanitarian reasons. They are "feeder" birds and "city" birds, so they have fared well over the years.

I just returned from a fantastic weekend in the Bahamas, and Carolyn, our amazing tour guide, took us all over, and we saw many beautiful species of birds, and got quite the authentic tour of the city streets as well. The is a female Cuban grassquit, and they can be seen in the town of Nassau, @ a gift shop. (I would recommend the tour)

info@bahamasoutdoors.com

If you go, tell her I recommended her :-)