All the News That's Fit to Share
A bona-fide member of the Fifth Estate, practicing Mobile Journalism (MoJo) every chance we get...
A little yellow warbler has been hanging around the bird bath on Wednesday. Finally managed to grab a couple of shots. Not sure exactly what kind it is. Maybe an orange-crowned Warbler vermivora celata? Feedback from bird experts welcome.
While setting up in the backyard bird blind to see what species I could photograph during the fall bird migration of 2011, this vibrant-colored blue jay [cyanocitta cristata] visited the bird bath and I was able to get quite a few shots. Pretty much every day, the large blue jays run other birds away from the bird bath when they are ready to drink or bathe by mimicking the call of the red-shouldered hawk. I’ve never seen any academic research on this, but I have witnessed it many times, so I know it to be true. (Click here or on the image to see a larger view.)
It appears the ruby-throated hummingbirds [archilochus colubris] have begun their fall migration already. The females have been coming around the feeder for the past few days. I finally took the time this morning to get some shots with the new big lens. This is the best from the first series, with this female sharing the feeder with a yellow-jacket. More to come…
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A male rose-breasted grosbeak [pheucticus ludovicianus] making a stop in the backyard bird sanctuary in middle Alabama during the spring bird migration of 2011.
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A pair of ospreys [pandion haliaetus] nesting in Gulf State Park. If you look close, you can see one bringing a fish to feed their new chicks. Not sure what kind of fish. [Click here to see a series of photos - >].
GULF SHORES, Ala. — At least one great blue-heron seems to still make a home around the fishing of Little Lagoon and the pass on West Beach in Gulf Shores. There used to be an entire colony. I photographed a dead one here on October 11, 2010.
The brown pelican population seems to be coming back to the area. I spotted and photographed several fairly large flocks from the Flora-Bama Lounge on the Alabama-Florida line to the end of West Beach and the Fort Morgan peninsula over the past couple of days (see below).
GULF SHORES, Ala. — Sometimes if you put yourself in a position in nature and turn up your powers of observation, you get lucky. I had been hearing the bobwhites call for two days and nights.
Then this morning while I was still sipping coffee, two Northern bobwhites [colinus virginianus] wandered into the camp site next to mine in Gulf State Park, feeding on the ground. I was able to shoot more than a dozen frames with the new 750 mm lens before they scurried off into the underbrush out of sight.
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A mourning dove splashing around in the backyard birdbath.
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