justin, you da man, i am ok with all of it, just tell me what time to be ready in the am, and hole in the wall local cuban favorite sounds great, i love me some cuban, and as many great restaurants as long island/ny have, we seem lacking in good cuban
Sounds good. I'm not a super-before-sunrise riser, so probably closer to a 9-10am time for me to pick up...it's only 20 minutes or so to the wetlands from the hotel. I'll leave the schedule up to both of you - it's your days there because I go all the time. If you want to shoot from morning to sunset both days, hit the two local parks both days or try the others one day, want to sleep in or go to the beach and start in the afternoon on one day...whatever! I'm good with it and we can go at your pace. In the wetlands, I'll be a spotter and help with any IDs, but you can choose when to walk and when to stop, when to sit and chill, when to grab some drinks, or go get a lunch. Is Karen coming down for the Birdmania too, and does she shoot as well? Even non-birders would probably be pretty impressed with Wakodahatchee, and how close you can stand to some giant birds.
karen isn't joining us for bird mania, just flying to orlando on sunday and joining me for disney, she did not want to use up a lot of vacation time. 10:00 am starts sound good to me, we could shoot awhile, break for lunch and go back at it, i will do whatever the consensus is. i am thinking that start time allows me to hit the pancake house right down the road for a leisurely breakfast, a 2nd cup of coffee and then back to the hotel for pickup, unless you would like to join us for breakfast. do you have a small cooler i can fit a liter water bottle into, i find i stay photographically sharper if i stay hydrated, and not being sure yet what the high daily temps will be i think i should prepare for staying hydrated
All that sounds good to Karl and I. I shall bring my bongos for the Cuban restaurant in case we wind up going there. Karl and I are very easy. We just go with the flow so no worries. @gary I believe we have a free breakfast at our hotel but I'm not sure if it's any good. We'll have to check it out and see which is the better choice food-wise. Karl and I are happy wherever we go to eat. Also, I plan on bringing a cooler with those reusable ice packs so we can throw some water/ beverages in there. I am so pumped for this trip it's ridiculous! ~J
@gary , @Joanie Eddis-Koch , @zackiedawg You guys have a great trip! Sounds like it’s going be great ‘birding’ opportunities. Maybe if anyone ends up in the parks before March 9th we’ll run into each other.
I will also bring a cooler with some ice packs - I usually do as I like to bring some iced teas and lemonades to take a break back at the car then head back in. Should be plenty of room for waters and such. One park, Green Cay, has cooled water fountains at the nature center building on the way in, so you can even get a quick drink without going back to the car, or refill water bottles if needed. Wakodahatchee has a semi-cooled fountain by the restrooms with a water bottle filler tap, but it's usually not very chilled...still, water is available at both spots. The Original Pancake House is about 1/2 mile west of your hotel...not too bad a walk - there are sidewalks the entire way and as it's on the opposite side of the 4-lane street, there's a stoplight and crosswalk at the strip mall entrance where it's located. The Holiday Inn will provide a basic breakfast bar with eggs, cereal, fruit and pastries. Original Pancake House will have waffles, pancakes, omelets, etc in generally comically large proportions...you won't need lunch.
Looking good so far for Birdmania: Friday - 79°F | 69°F Sunny, with a high near 79. East wind 8 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Then friday night, Mostly clear, with a low around 69. East wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Saturday - 81°F | 70°F Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. East wind 14 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Then saturday night, Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. BTW - I'd recommend considering staying until sunset at least one of the days - even if it means a slightly later start to the day - the scene is worth it at Wakodahatchee as the sheer number of birds coming in to roost and flying all around is spectacular - I do not exaggerate when I say 1,000 or more wading birds will gather and fly in to about a 1/2 mile square spot, with you standing in the middle of it.
We'll play Friday by ear then - if we end up running the whole day into sunset, then we'll just put ourselves at Wako later in the afternoon. If we run out of time Friday, then we can do a later start Saturday and hit it then. I'm good both days - no other plans.
Sounds like fun - but don't think I could be the leader - don't know enough about where to go. I've been to Costa Rica three times - never strictly for birding, but looked around for a few while there. I was able to photograph 14 species I've never seen here, but it's the sloth that captured my heart...they're just so cute and slow and peaceful looking.
Already landed, having a snack in true pixelmaniac fashion, then into the car and south i go Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Birdmania 2022 is a wrap! It was nice having some Pixelmaniacs down my way to become temporary Birdmaniacs. Weather cooperated nicely - we had two days with temps in the low 80s, sunny, no rain, and a bit windy. We visited three parks in the area - Green Cay Wetlands, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, and Peaceful Waters. There were a few bird species that proved elusive on our two days, despite being around right now - Gary didn't get to see the male painted bunting he wanted to see as grackles had chased them away on the day we were passing through. But overall a good tally of species were spotted and photographed in 5 1/2 hours on Friday, and 2 1/2 hours on Saturday (For Joanie and Karl...Gary stuck around for another 2 hours on Saturday to squeeze in a few extra species for his lifer list). Here's a quick tally from memory of what we spotted - I may have missed something but I think this is a pretty full list (I'm excluding bugs as Florida just has far too many to try to count and other than a few standouts, we weren't photographing them): BIRDS: Belted kingfisher, least bittern, great blue heron, tricolored heron, little blue heron, green heron, black-bellied whistling duck, red-winged blackbird, northern mockingbird, common grackle, boat-tailed grackle, Egyptian goose, purple martin, wood stork, cattle egret, great egret, snowy egret, black-crowned night heron, yellow-crowned night heron, anhinga, double-crested cormorant, yellow-rumped warbler, palm warbler, pine warbler, black-and-white warbler, ibis, glossy ibis, Wilson's snipe, black-necked stilt, black-hooded parakeet, roseate spoonbill, red-shouldered hawk, Florida vulture, mottled duck, blue-winged teal, collared dove, white-winged dove, mourning dove, northern cardinal, blue jay, red-bellied woodpecker, fish crow, purple gallinule, grey-headed swamphen, northern shoveler, pied-billed grebe, American coot, moorhen, osprey, pigeon. OTHER: Green iguana, brown anole, brown basilisk lizard, northern curly-tailed lizard, American alligator, North American river otter, marsh rabbit, banded watersnake, Florida cooter turtle, Florida softshell turtle. The ones in bold are the ones that are more rare or hard to find sightings down here - the ones I was most happy to spot because I was hoping to show off some of the variety and sprinkle in some rarities. Hope all had a good time, and I look forward to the 2nd annual Birdmania! A few snaps from Birdmania, of the more rare or lucky sightings: Belted kingfisher - fermale: Least bittern, male: American alligator hatchlings: River otter: Egyptian goose gosling: Big George, our largest and oldest alligator at around 13-14 feet and over 20 years old - he's the poppa of the baby alligators above: Black-crowned night heron: Wilson's snipe: Black-and-white warbler:
Thank you so much for providing this very helpful list. Birdmania was a smashing success, especially thanks to Justin who was an expert guide for us newbies. I am so excited to be able to go through my bird books and check off the birds that I've seen. I've been keeping that list since my early twenties and it took a big bump up in numbers thanks to Birdmania. Karl and I also visited Gumbo Limbo Nature Center which was not bird-oriented, but more like sea turtles and water species. They also had a butterfly garden. I highly recommend Gumbo Limbo for an additional stop, especially for the first timers that want to round out their list and learn about sea life in and around the area. Gumbo Limbo is primarily a wildlife preservation and rehabilitation area. They have a fantastic education program which helps spread the word about conserving or important turtle species. A million thanks to Justin for helping us to grow in our knowledge about the birds and nature in general. His efforts totally made our trip completely wonderful! ~Joanie
So glad to hear you had a good time...and glad Gumbo Limbo was worthwhile too! Looking forward to see your shots and see how you did - and of course, for next year's Birdmania when you'll come back as a seasoned veteran.
just rolled in from orlando this morning, hope to have some shots processed and posted this weekend, thanks again justin, that was a great time and i already want to make a return next year, so many birds, so much color and activity, and maybe i'll get that painted bunting
so going somewhat out of order right now, this is my first post from bird mania, but far from the first bird photo, this was from friday afternoon at wakodahatchee wetlands, near boca raton, this is a cattle egret in breeding plumage, putting on a show to attract a mate
all right, so going back to the beginning from now on, i now have all approximately 8000 photos loaded from the cards to the drobo, and have started to cull, have rejected and deleted about 500 so far, and am processing and posting a few, i have the first 12 up over on smug mug, which allows me much easier posting. i think i have most of them correctly identified, but justin can help me if i have it wrong. one of the best things i did for this trip about 2 weeks beforehand i purchased and read an ebook, from backcountry gallery by steve perry, a very accomplished pro wildlife photographer, who happens to shoot a sony A1, the book is on how he sets his camera up and why, this allowed me to hit the ground ready, or at least to be in the general setup. one of the best things for me about bird mania was the intensive practice i got with birds, reptiles, and insects. i got this camera in september, and in october at pixelmania, i got some good shots, but i'm beginning to think that was just some good luck, more than i like to think. i really did not know this camera very well, now i am starting to get a handle on it. and we can't thank justin enough, he put us in a lot of the right places to get some great shots, including a few very rare visitors, to wakodahatchee in particular. and i can see improvement from friday morning to saturday afternoon. looking forward to the return of osprey season here. so here are 2 shots of what i believe is a little blue heron, the first is as shot from where i stood, the second is cropped in, one of the greatest features of the A1 is with 51 mp of sensor, and focusing speed slightly better than the A9, you can grab some great shots, as you'll see later as my in flight skill set improved. and here is the cropped version, same photo. i am hoping to improve the post processing, i am now reading an ebook on lightroom and slightly tweaking some of the purchased presets i already had, saving as bird specific presets, in their own development module folder EDIT: BOTH OF THESE ARE FROM GREEN CAY, THE WETLANDS PRESERVE WE STARTED AT ON FRIDAY MORNING, 3/4/22
So far so good! Nice to see that cropping ability on the A1. It's the one thing I'd feel lacking going to full frame, but with that much MP, the crop of the full frame matches the framing of my APS-C - so finally solves that issue. You're good on the IDs as well. I took either that same cattle egret or one close by around the same time, slightly different angle and with his head turned, at 600mm on APS-C: Looking forward to more as you go through that stack of shots!
