Boyd Hill on a beautiful day

There's always an anhinga sitting in this spot.

Life imitating art.

Snowy egret flying in.

Another eastern phoebe.

Based on the short bill, I'm going with a Downy Woodpecker.

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve was pretty quiet on a recent Saturday morning. The few migrating birds I saw were high up in the trees and I couldn't get any shots of them. The eastern phoebe was the only one to get a little lower and sit for a portrait. I was a little disappointed  that I didn't see any raccoons, otters or alligators there. I know there are tons of them that live there but they were being scarce that morning. It was a little bit cooler and very windy. I left the house with a jacket on but had it off after my first 30 minutes there. The weather here has been perfect. Anywhere from 70 - 80 degrees and a cool wind blowing. I love this time of year. When it's sunny and 70. Sorry all you folks up north already getting snow. It's time for a visit down south.

Hubby's first trip to Circle B Bar Reserve

Great blue heron posing for us.

Snowy egret blowing in the wind.

Small alligator on the rocks giving me a big smile.

Eastern phoebe. I'm starting to see these everywhere.

Lots of butterflies at the park.

Hubby noticed the snake in the tree.

A couple of Sunday's ago the day started off dreary. Drizzle and wind. By noon it had cleared up and after watching tv all morning I jumped off the couch and said "I'm going to Circle B for an afternoon walk." Hubby said "I think I'll go with you." I said "What, you don't want to stay home and watch football and golf all day?" So off we went. The reserve is about 45 minutes from our house. It was a gorgeous day. Cool, mostly sunny and a little windy. On the way there I talked about all of the things we would see. I think he jinxed me. I talked about all of the big alligators we'd see (we only saw 2 tiny ones). I talked about looking for the baby limpkins (no sign of them). I talked about birds migrating through (almost none in sight). I talked about the eagles rebuilding their nest (no eagles). I said we had to keep a look out for the bobcat that everyone had been seeing (no bobcat). Oh well, at least we had a nice two hour walk. The highlight was the snake. And he was surprised at how many butterflies were there. They were flying everywhere. I think I might leave him home on my next trip.

Our World Tuesday 

Also, check out more birds at

Unusual backyard visitors - Skywatch Friday

Ring billed gull on our dock. We usually only get laughing gulls in our neighborhood.

Turkey vulture sitting on our dock.  This is the 2nd time I've seen one on our dock in 7 years.

The tide was so low the muck was showing on the sides of the channel. The turkey vulture found something to dig out.

Pelican on our neighbor's dock. We have never gotten pelicans in our channel. In the last week I've seen one hanging around.

Posing for me.

Eastern phoebe sitting on my fence. I've never seen one of these in our backyard.

These ibis aren't unusual. Actually, there's always a flock somewhere in the neighborhood. One night they were sitting on the lamp post down the street. I took this through the kitchen window.

Snowy egret sitting on my dock. I see these every once in a while in the channel.

Last weekend was a perfect weekend. I was in and out of the house all weekend but when I was in I was always looking out the windows for any visitors. We had several different ones this time. We don't usually get pelicans and eastern phoebes. It was a nice mix of birds. It was very windy and that might have been what brought in the new birds to our channel. I also saw 2 pair of hooded mergansers but they stayed down at the other end of the channel and I didn't even try to take a picture that far away.  Sunday before sunset I went out and snapped the above picture. It was nice outside but it got cold fast when the sun went down.

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

Nasty weather at Lettuce Lake

I think both the above and below pictures are an eastern phoebe. I've seen them there before.

Warbler?

 

Red bellied woodpecker. You can see it was not a nice day.

Female cardinal.

 

This looks like a downy woodpecker or is it a female yellow bellied sapsucker? They look almost alike.

The weekend before Christmas was really yucky. It rained all day on Saturday. It drizzled Sunday morning. It stopped by lunchtime but still looked like the end could come at anytime. I had cabin fever so I headed out to Lettuce Lake. It's not too far and there's a boardwalk along the lake so it wouldn't be too muddy. It felt cold in the wind without the sun out. Most of the bigger water birds were on the other side of the lake but there were a few smaller birds along the boardwalk. It was worth bundling up and getting out of the house.