Random Shots From Florida
More photographs from Florida: Red-Sholdered Hawk, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier and Florida Scrub-Jay.
Category: Other Birds
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
I attended the 2012 Florida Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festive in Titusville this weekend. It was an extremely well run event and I had a great time. On Saturday morning, I got up at 4:30 a.m. to see a group of three Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.
Due to habitat loss, the population of this bird is about 1% of its original size. The population of this bird is limited to about 6,000 breeding groups, or about 14,000 birds in the Southeast United States.
Two Types of Grebes
Today was a good day for Grebe watching on the Reservoir. Today, we had both a fairly rare visitor, a Horned Grebe and a more common visitor a Pied-Billed Grebe.
Merlin and Lima
On Saturday, I explored the park looking for raptors. My first was a Merlin falcon on a water tank on top of the Lincoln Correctional Facility on 110th Street. It was chased away by a mob of Crows. Later, I saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk hunting, although it was too fast to photograph. As I ended my walk, I saw the female Red-tailed Hawk, Lima on a 5th Avenue building around 77th Street.
American Wigeon
While the abundance of birds in the park seemed small, there were surprises. The best for me was a new species of duck for my Central Park list, an American Wigeon.
(The mark on the bird’s right rear neck, seemed to either be feathers out of place or an injury rather than a field mark.)
Yellow-breasted Chat
I’ve been out of town, but have returned and I was able to spend a few hours in Central Park this afternoon. Here are some pictures of a very shy Yellow-breasted Chat who was the highlight of my afternoon.
