Large flock of starlings - Skywatch Friday

Every once in a while I see a large flock of small birds buzzing around and I wonder "What are those little birds."  I was out at the celery fields in Sarasota recently and saw a flock flying on the other side of the lake. One minute they were in the cow pasture across the street and the next minute they were in the lake. They kept flying back and forth. I snapped a handful of pictures when they were headed into the lake and when I got home and zoomed in on them I realized they were European starlings. It's funny how close together they stay. It almost seemed like they were trying to take the lake with them. While this seems like a huge flock to me, they are found in flocks of over 1 million birds in England. Now that would be a sight to see.

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Sandhill cranes at Celery Fields

Does my toe look funny to you?

If you're not going to stop staring at yourself in the water then I'm leaving.

Hey lady, get my good side.

Where's my contact?

See, this is how you do it.

Yea, it's almost Christmas.

I was afraid my late afternoon stop by the celery fields in Sarasota was not going to produce any sandhill cranes. There were no signs of any my first hour there. I missed the whole two week window of 100's of cranes stopping by phenomenon. Well, I work in retail and it was almost Thanksgiving so what can I do. I finally get out there and no cranes? About half an hour before it got dark a few showed up. Most of them were across the lake where you can't get to including the dancing ones on the bottom but right as the sun was going down two of them wandered over to my side of the lake so all was not lost on the trip.

Celery Field variety of birds - Skywatch Friday

I parked along side of the road at the celery fields in Sarasota and the above was circling overhead.  Having a "turkey" vulture circle around you is almost like celebrating Thanksgiving. I don't think turkey vultures get the credit they deserve for being "cool" birds. They look great when they are flying high up in the sky. They look creepy when there's a group of them hanging out on the side of the road.  I did have a good visit to the celery fields the week of Thanksgiving and I'm going to try and get back before Christmas.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

This red shouldered hawk couple sat on the light fixture the entire time I was there.

Any id on this would be great. At first I thought it was a palm warbler which are common here but there's no hint of yellow.  Could it be a hermit thrush? That's the closest I could find on Whatbird.com.

Flock of anhingas flying by.

Grackle can't read.

The above is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a greater or lesser. They look alike.

I finally see a kildeer and didn't even know it. The sun was going down and I wanted to get a picture of the shorebirds sleeping. I didn't see the kildeer in the upper left corner until later when I uploaded the pictures. The picture is extremely cropped. I can't believe that little bird snuck into my picture and didn't let me know he was there. There was a small flock of shorebirds together and he must have been hiding in them.

Spoonbill party at Celery Fields. - My World Tuesday

I found this group of roseate spoonbills hanging around the Celery Fields pond on my 2nd trip there. My first trip several weeks ago was not successful. I got there early Saturday morning and found very little there. I decided to go back late in the afternoon and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I made that trip. The Celery Fields in Sarasota was just that, a celery farm from the early 1920's until some time in the 1990's. The Sarasota Audubon is now working with Sarasota county on restoring 80+ acres to natural wetlands. The nice thing about this area is that you can cheat on the exercise thing. No hiking 2 miles to get to the lake. There are roads all around the ponds and you can drive from pond to pond and just get out and take pictures.

Spoonbills aren't rare in central Florida but they aren't as common as other birds such as ibis or great egrets. I was recently thinking I hadn't seen many around lately. When you find a group together they are fun to watch. It was late in the day so the above group was winding down and preening. Several kept trying to sleep. A few were still trying to get that last bite before dark. It looks like there's a juvenile in the 2nd picture from the bottom. The one on the right was very pale pink and a little smaller than the others.  I have more stories from my trip coming up later.

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