Birdmania 2023 Photos

Was a pleasure to have you all down in my neck of the woods again for the 2nd Birdmania. I apologize for the stupid heat - Florida doesn't get a winter, but 90s is really unusual this time of year.

But despite that, we had some excellent sightings, including some of the rarities again, as well as a good number of first-time sightings for most of you. Hope you all enjoyed, and had safe travels back to wherever you were headed next (back home, to Disney, or to explore more of S. Florida).

I'm looking forward to seeing all of your photos once you get a chance to settle in and get to the sorting and processing.

In the meantime, I'll post a few selections of the wildlife we got to see and shoot.

How lucky that the chuck-will's-widow, which had been here for 4 months then disappeared in late January, suddenly returned on the very day we were there, Friday at Green Cay:


I know she stayed far away, and was against the sun, so not the easiest shot, but we did get a belted kingfisher...I might have been the only one with enough reach -hopefully someone else with some cropping was able to get her too:


And it was a very ducky day at Peaceful Waters on Saturday - lots of wintering ducks hanging out, with some nice rarities for our area all together. Here's the beautiful male green winged teal:


And a rare sighting, a male lesser scaup:


More to come - just a quick taste!

 

Still waiting to see some Birdmania results - hopefully soon all you travelers can settle in and start working on photos. I'll pop in a few more - just got back from Disney on Tuesday and have been busy sorting through those shots, so for now, a few more shots from Birdmania:

Oliver the eastern screech owl, in the nature center in front of his own likeness:


Basilisk lizard on its stump, looking around:


Purple martin returning home to the martin house at Peaceful Waters:


The upset snowy egret, still all puffed up and angry after chasing off another bird: