Limpkins eating at Kapok Park

I seem to be lucking out on the limpkin mealtimes. I feel like I've seen more limpkins in the last month than I have in the last 2 years. There were a handful at Lettuce Lake right before Christmas. There were at least 6 at Kapok Park and on a recent trip to Circle B they were everywhere. Was this past spring a banner year for limpkin babies? I have never seen one. Limpkins eat apple snails and freshwater mussels. They will also eat insects, worms and frogs if their main diet is scarce. There was a group of white ibis hanging around the limpkins. I think they were hoping the limpkins would drop something but they never did. I'm going to be on the lookout  for limpkin babies this spring

Kapok Park in December

"Can someone please clean up my home?" says the night heron.

Warbler

Loggerhead shrike posed in the tree.

I couldn't find this duck in my Florida Audubon app. It was a surface feeding duck. I've never seen this one before.

My first kildeer shot. There were 3 of them but they are very skittish and I couldn't get them all together.

Muscovy ducks don't get much attention. This guy was watching me for a while when I was taking pictures of the kildeer so I turned around and snapped a few of him.

A quick pre-New Year's walk around Kapok Park provided a few new birds for me. This was the first time I had seen a kildeer that close and I had never seen a loggerhead shrike at Kapok before. Still trying to figure out what type of duck that was. It was all alone feeding near a group of limpkins and ibis. There seems to be a lot of trash in the lake. The only way to clean it up would be to get a boat in there. I'm sure with cutbacks there's no one maintaining these small parks. 

Drive home from work - Skywatch Friday

The Thursday before New Year's I left work a little early and decided to stop along the Courtney Campbell Causeway before heading home to see if there were any birds hanging around. I had not been in a while because now it's dark when I leave work. Clouds had rolled in and it was just starting to get dark. There weren't too many birds around. I saw 2 groups of ducks floating out in the bay. They looked like lesser scaup. They were disappearing ducks. One minute there would be 4 or 5 ducks floating around and then there would only be 1. Lesser scaup are diving ducks which dive for their food. They kept doing it all at the same time. They are very skittish and would not get too close to the causeway. As I was leaving the access road on the causeway, I saw the above osprey sitting on a lamp post. At first he was turned facing the main road but when I stopped he turned around and looked down at me. He almost looks comical.

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

If you can call this snow.

Views from my in-laws front porch in Atlanta. Early Christmas morning my sister in Birmingham called me all excited "It's snowing here." I knew it was headed for Atlanta (isn't everyone's worse fear being snowed in at the in-laws?). It started around lunchtime. We were hanging around the house with hubby's family doing Christmasy-type things.  The women hanging around the kitchen talking, the men on the couch watching sports. By the end of the day it was pretty outside and luckily it wasn't sticking to the roads so they weren't frozen. It snowed on Sunday as well but we were able to get out and head back to warm sunny Florida on Monday morning.

Atlanta birds in the cold - My World Tuesday

Woodpecker and friend sharing the feeder.

American robins were everywhere.

Not sure what the birds are with the stripe on their wings. I don't think they are red winged blackbirds. I didn't see any red. There were some grackles mixed in.

Sparrow was waiting to get to the feeder.

Female cardinal at the feeder.

People say there are robins in Florida in the winter but I have never seen one here. I've only seen them in Atlanta. I forget about them until I visit the in-laws. On my Christmas eve walk around my in-law's neighborhood I found a handful of birds in the cold. One house had a bird feeder that had quite a few visitors. I was glad I had brought my 300mm lens with me. I almost didn't thinking it would be too cold to be outside (for me and the birds) but both myself and birds were out a good bit.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!  http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Also,check out more birds at World Bird Wednesday below.

Cedar Waxwings for Christmas.

Christmas Eve afternoon, I had to get out of the in-laws house for a walk. I bundled up prepared to freeze in the 35 degree temperature (although since the sun was out if felt more like 45).  My hubby's parents live in an older neighborhood in Atlanta so there are lots of old growth trees all around. At first I was thinking it would be too cold to see any birds there. About a half an hour away I noticed a big group of robins hanging around this one spot. Then as I walked along a back street I noticed someone had a feeder up and there woodpeckers and cardinals hanging around. I rushed back to get my camera. When I got back to the spot where the robins were, I was looking high up in the trees with my zoom lens (had my 70-300mm with me) and realized I was looking at cedar waxwings. My first cedar waxwings in person! I could see at least 5 of them way up in the top of the trees. They were flying around from tree to tree but staying close by. There was a couple that seemed to stay close together.  I watched them for about half an hour and then the sun was going down and I had to get back. The next day it started snowing and I never did make it back to that spot. More on my birding trip to the in-laws coming.

Circle B Bar Reserve in December - Part 2

Yes, this cattle egret ate the frog. Down in one gulp!

Osprey flying over me.

 

The osprey finally got a fish. I tried to get him hitting the lake to catch it but it was directly in the sun and did not come out well. As he flew past me I was able to get the above.

Turkey vulture peeking out behind the tree.

 

Green heron in the lake.

More birds from my pre-Christmas trip to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. The place is finally hopping with variety. Lots more from my post-Christmas trip later.