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Photo Trips
Check out past trip reports (old to new) Page 1 or Page 3 or Newest reports.
January 31, 2008: Made my yearly trip to the Everglades on this date although did not get to stay and camp this year. The highlights were the baby birds. There was a Great Horned Owl nest in the parking lot at the visitor center, baby anhingas right next to the boardwalk on anhinga trail, and baby ospreys down at the marina in Flamingo. Also got to see a couple less common birds, the blue headed vireo and white crowned pigeon. And of course some of my favorites the gators and crocodiles.
Set 2
January 26, 2008: Fort Desoto again. Tried a new sunrise spot near the small pier. I am very happy with these shots and they even have some people in them. Afterwards I walked up and down the bach a little and found a white morph reddish egret. Next, I stopped by Boyd Hill and saw nesting ospreys and black hooded parakeets and some nice blooming azaleas.
January 22, 2008: Today I returned to one of my new favorite areas, West Palm Beach. They have some of the best parks in the state and two of them, Wakodahatchee and Green Cay are man made wetlands which were created to help assist with water filtration. This time I visited a new park Okeheelee. I spent most of the morning next to the bird feeder out back photographing the painted buntings. Afterward I headed to Wakodahatchee and Green Cay. Found some nicely posed turtles and hunting great and snowy egrets. Also finally got a good shot of a Northern Harrier Hawk. Left a little early to try to check out Jonathan Dickson State Park as I had seen the signs coming over and just happened on the Jupiter Inlet lighthouse.
Set 2
December 29, 2007: Back to my old reliable site, Fort Desoto. Lots of good action this AM. The day started with another beautiful sunrise over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Next, I found a big group of brown pelicans diving and flying by just off the beach allowing me to practice my flight photography with some bigger targets for once. A good variety of shorebirds were also present. I also photographed my first northern gannet (determined after a little arguement on Birdbrains whether it was a booby or gannet). Lastly, I was able to shoot a hunting little blue heron with a nice reflection as he caught a variety of foods for breakfast.
December 23, 2007: Returned to Viera for a 2nd straight day mainly in hopes of getting some more good eagle shots with some better weather. As you can see I did not find the eagles again, but I did get some of my best shots of hooded mergansers and a female ring necked duck. I also got one of my favorite shots in photo number 6 which is an american coot running across the top of the water.
December 22, 2007: Back to Viera Wetlands. I was able to get some nice shots of an adult and a juvenile bald eagle at separate locations in the wetlands. The sky was rather white which didn't help the photography much, but all in all a pretty productive day.
December 18, 2007: Ran down to Venice Rookery but was very disappointed with the picture taking opportunities. Stopped at Myakka River State Park on the way back and saw tons of Limpkins, a few waterbirds, and had a a very cooperative Palm Warbler on the birdwalk.
December 13, 2007: Took my first trip to the southeast corner of Florida. Parks visited included Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Green Cay, and Loxahatchee. The primary purpose behind the trip besides exploring these new parks was to photograph the heron nesting activity at Wakodahatchee. This worked out really well despite a quick rain in the early morning. Also photographed a wide variety of water birds including green heron, purple gallinule, anhinga, snowy egret, black crowned night heron, and the usually shy sora.(2 sets of 20 pics)
Set 2
December 9, 2007: Another beautiful Florida sunrise. Took some pictures down by the pier in downtown St Petersburg. I also found a good spot to practice flight shots of brown pelicans and double crested cormorants.
December 8, 2007: Returned to Fort Desoto and got one of my favorite all time sunrise shots. I had the good luck of a father and son taking a rowboat across the flats in between Fort Desoto and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. This brought life to an already beautiful scene (pic 5 below). Afterwards I walked the beach and got to photograph a lot of neat feeding behavior. On the way home I stopped at the Tierra Verde ponds which had now filled up with winter visitors. Hundreds of redheads, some ring necked ducks, a couple scaups, a few shovelers, a wigeon, and a canvasback duck.
December 7, 2007: A quick trip to Sawgrass earned me a cooperative Red Shouldered Hawk and a much rarer cooperative Pileated Woodpecker.
December 2, 2007: Traveled over to Merritt Island NWR today for a morning of photography. Watched a beautiful sunrise to start out the morning and finished off by finding only my 2nd Florida Peregrine Falcon. In between I found a couple of spoonbills, yellowlegs, and a reddish egret along with some nice calm water allowing for some good reflections.
December 1, 2007: Had a very successful day at Viera Wetlands. The highlight was definitely the Crested Caracara feasting on the coot. I came upon the scene after the coot had been reduced to mostly feathers and a few last bites. I also did a lot of practice with the high speed shooting of my new camera, especially with Snowy egret flight and feeding shots.
December 1, 2007: Finally getting around to posting these pictures from the Festival of Dancing Lights at MGM Studios. These are a little different than my normal type of shots so I was experimenting quite a bit with zooming and shutterspeed and iso combinations.
November 27, 2007: A foggy morning spent at Three Lakes WMA yielded a few interesting shots. Mostly shot from the dock area at the end of Joe Overstreet Road where there was a nice congregation of interesting birds.
November 18, 2007: A quick trip to Weedon Island yielded a few good shots of a nice sunrise and some neat cloud formations.
November 17, 2007: My first trip with my new camera, the Canon 40D. I watched a beautiful sunrise from Fort Desoto over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Found a semi cooperative American Oystercatcher, a very cooperative Snowy Egret, and an American Kestrel.
August 31, 2007: Traveled back to what have been my most productive parks lately. Started the morning over at Viera Wetlands. At Viera I saw a bunch of baby moorhens along with a one 1 footed limpkin. Also a bunch of barn swallows and 1 bank swallow. There were a lot of pig frogs around although they didn't like to pose. I also saw a caracara and a red-shouldered hawk with a large rodent (muskrat?). I left there late morning and headed over to Three Lakes WMA. After a brief rainstorm I found a snail kite and a very cooperative gopher tortoise. When it started raining on me again in the early afternoon I decided to head to Lake Kissimmee State Park which is in the general direction of home anyway. The highlight here was a doe and her fawn and a barred owl. The fawn was hiding in some underbrush while the doe ate right out in the parking lot.(2 sets of 20 pics)
Set 2
August 25, 2007: I spent my second day in Gainesville at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. A very cool place with a lot of good photographic opportunities. Especially impressive were the giant lily pads which were just documented as the largest ever recorded in the United States.
August 24, 2007: Spent a nice weekend up in Gainesville this past week. I took the opportunity to take a quick trip to Paynes Prairie on Saturday. I hiked the 8 mile round trip Cone Dikes trail and was done by 10:30 AM which was good because it was getting hot. Not much moving out there except a few nice butterflies.
August 14, 2007: Something a little different for me. Drove out just past Brandon this AM to see this field with some sunflowers. There weren't as many flowers as I was hoping but I am still happy with the individual shots.
August 8, 2007: Not too many results as you can see below despite a long trip and hitting many good parks. It all started by going to a place called Cutler Wetlands in an attempt to see a Flamingo which has been sited there multiple times. Of course, no luck. Next on to Everglades National Park which was essentially dead except the mosquitos. The only thing that made it semi worthwhile was finding my first Everglades python, although a car beat me to it, and of course stopping at Robert is Here fruit stand on the way out and getting a shake and a couple new fruits to try. Stopped by Chekika which has always intrigued me and although the gate was locked I did see the common nighthawks below. This is my first time seeing them since I began photography and there were at least 5-6 within 100 feet of each other. Also stopped at Kirby Storer and Panther National Wildlife Refuge on the way home and saw absolutely nothing. At least it beat being at work!
July 31, 2007: I attempted a new sunrise place this morning, near the Pier in St Petersburg. There was a storm brewing behind me which blocked out the sunrise, but I still got a few interesting shots and will definitely try from here again. Afterwards I went to Boyd Hill Nature Park which is nearby. I found a cool looking mantis on one of the boardwalks and a few nice flowers. This is a really neat park, especially being located in the middle of the city.
July 25, 2007: I traveled down to Corkscrew Swamp mainly to see the ghost orchid (pic 1 below). Unfortunately not much else going on. Then I park hopped my way all the way home. I stopped at Panther NWR which was highlighted by a little Cottonmouth with some attitude. Followed by a swing through Fakahatchee Strand which was rewarded only by the gator in the road with an injured leg. My next stop was Babcock Webb where I saw a few interesting birds. Then I headed to the South Sunshine Skyway Pier for some sunset shooting. This site has great potential and I hope to get much improved shots from here in the near future.
July 21, 2007: I attempted to catch the sunrise at a new place this morning, Ballast Point Park at the south end of Bayshore. Unfortunately it was a little too cloudy to get much color but I like the potential for the location for sunrise. Afterwards I headed over to Sawgrass Lake Park. The photographic highlights were a green tree frog posing nicely on the boardwalk, a moorhen family, and a red shouldered hawk family that were chasing a couple of pileated woodpeckers around the treetops.

 

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