Since I have now struck out on 3 Life birds of late, I wandered up and down the road looking for anything else to photograph. We could hear sparrows all around but most birds were staying low. Finally, a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow popped up onto the fence.
One of the other birders screamed out that there was an Ash-throated Flycatcher 100 yards from me. By the time I got there it had flown of. Now 4 Life Bird misses. All I got was a Northern Mockingbird on that walk back.
Back down by the gate I could see a Bald Eagle resting on one of the telephone poles.
The one good surprise was a pretty early male Prairie Warbler that flew in for a few seconds and then departed. A nice splash of yellow against a cold morning blue sky.
We hoped the Tanager would return but it was not to be. Other birds flew by and eventually Red-tailed Hawks took to the sky. The first in view was a darker morph adult.
It was soon joined by another individual.
This one is a very light morph variety. They decided to ride the increasing thermals instead of gracing us with closer views.
Time to head home. Over at Lake Weldona, a Great Blue Heron was wading in to search for prey.
Then a surprise at Lake Cherokee. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a large bird. By the time I rounded the corner I could see that it was a Brown Pelican but it decided to fly off before I could get a good shot. We don't get a lot of Brown Pelicans in the neighborhood but they occasionally can be found in Orlando lakes in the Winter.
Last stop before the house is almost always the cemetery. Bald Eagles were nowhere in sight but I did find the Coyote again.
Turned out to be an interesting Saturday spin but I really would have liked to get those other Lifers on my Lust Road stop. Maybe next time.
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