Lake Lotus, August 23rd

One hour during Saturday afternoon, the radar and weather sites were threatening our next day out. By the evening things changed to a clearing sky. This proved true and the day was still hot but not too bad this week.

Many birds were seen flying due south but there was not a lot of low level activity. We still caught a new migrant and saw many interesting things. For various fauna pics, head here.

Birds on the rise. Can't wait for September.

Lake Lotus, August 16th

Week 2. Hot, hot, hot.

Dripping with sweat, we caught another new migrant and caught another unexpected bird. Check it out here and if you live farther north, be thankful of cooler climes. For now.

Lake Lotus, August 9th

A new banding season has begun!

Read all about the first day back after clearing invasive plants here and see what new migrant species we banded made the entire hot day worth it.

Great Black-backed Gull

We had a day to play.

The goal was a trip to the beach and Jetty Park, just a hop-skip south of the shuttle launch pads, was chosen to get the kids out into the outdoors. Heat be damned.

As we hauled the beach gear down to the beach early in the morning, I noticed a very large gull down by the waves. Camera always in tow, I excused myself to make sure I could record what ever it was before 'trying' to relax for the rest of the day.

Happily, it turned out to be the suspected species it was. A juvenile Great Black-backed Gull!



Other birds made appearances throughout the morning but this bird made the day a total joy. Spending time with the family was good too!

Gorgeous bird.

Young Grackle

Spent a short time at the parents over on the west coast of Florida. I tried to get a few shots of different birds but all I was able to find of interest was this young Common Grackle following its parents around the yard.



Better than nuthin'...