Kestrel hawk, great blue heron, and other FL birds

Some birding photos to share before the overwhelming number of Pixelmania shots I'll soon be posting! ; Had a nice long weekend and time to get out to the wetlands for some shots, so figured I'd share them with the birders here. ; These are with the DSLR:

First, the lovely little kestrel hawk - tiny little guy about the size of a dove, but with the hawk features and some beautiful colors:






A cooper's hawk who thought he was pretty sneaky - he was hiding just a few feet off the ground in heavy brush and shadow, about 5 feet from a bird feeder - just being really still and waiting for some birds to come by...he was giving me the stink-eye for blowing his position:


A red-winged blackbird female, hanging out on a thin reed:


The big, lanky great blue herons are nesting this time of year - which means the males have to go out and retrieve branches to bring back to the wife, who decides where in the nest the branches go - he does the labor, she does the decorating:


Really neat to see them stretch those big bodies as they come in for a landing:


The pair together on their nest:


Those eyes! ; The cormorants are putting on their nicest colors for mating season:


The NEX mirrorless got in a few shots too this weekend...

Only my 3rd ever sighting of a red-tailed hawk - and my first shot worth uploading as the others were 90% crops from 500-1000 feet away!:


The iridescent boat-tailed grackle catching a little sun and showing a little color on his otherwise-all-black feathers:


Cormorant flying in to its nest:

 

Thanks Howie.