Lake Birds

A rather quiet trip around the lakes today but I did get some species of interest. Out on Lake Davis, a small flock of Lesser Scaup rested out in the center of the water. Wintering duck numbers have been rather low this year.



A lone male Mute Swan drifted close to the shore.



Another lone male. This time a Ring-necked Duck.



A single Ring-billed Gull rested as well. Everything seems so sleepy this morning.



Even this male Wood Duck next to Lake Cherokee. Just kind of sleep walking around on the grass.



Perhaps they will be more active next time I visit.

2016 Orlando Wetlands Festival

Time for our next outing at the Orlando Wetlands Festival with the banding crew. Last year was a blast with our biggest capture rate ever at that location. This year's take was a little lower but there were some great birds banded and many more seen.



I have already made a couple of blog posts on the banding blog so I encourage you to go here and here to see all the birds we encountered.

American White Pelicans, Take 2

Two days out from the huge Pelican flock I decided to make my next round again. The day was a bit gloomier but there were still American White Pelicans out on Lake Cherokee. I was first more interested in the Great Blue Herons feeding by the Eastern shore. I am always amazed by how many fish are in these local lakes to supply the large birds that visit all the time.



The American White Pelicans were more subdued today but there were still a lot of them wandering about. These birds were a bit grimier suggesting they are digging deeper for fish.



Cleaner birds were floating out farther in the lake.



I liked having a chance to get the Pelicans lined up in many shots today.



More Great Blue Herons lurked around the edge of the lake waiting for a chance at a meal.



Most of the remaining American White Pelicans were juveniles and taking their time to rest.



A very young bird drifted by as I scanned the lake.



Among the incoming birds was an adult soaring in from overhead.



Yet another Great Blue Heron posed on the outtake pipe and took in the view.



An adult American White Pelican splashed at a following juvenile following a bit too close for comfort.



Not as exciting as Saturday but still an interesting morning.

American White Pelican Frenzy

My Saturday jaunt around the lakes turned out to be much more eventful than I had ever dreamed. I am used to seeing a few white dots far out on the lake as the Mute Swans are typically around, but as I came up to Lake Cherokee I could see an entire flock of white dots at the far North end. I diverted from my planned route and got to the opposite side of the lake where I discovered a huge flock of American White Pelicans!



The Pelicans were in there tight formation moving toward the reeds to trap prey to feast upon.



Once that supply was exhausted they floated away from the shore for a bit. A woman from the neighborhood had also noticed the activity and came out with a point and shoot and asked me about what they were and we chatted for a while. Then I headed closer to the lake to get shots of other species that had gathered to join in.



Beside the inlet pipe, a Snowy Egret waited for leftovers.



Nearby, a Wood Stork stood stoically with a feather stuck to its bill.



The American White Pelican suddenly changed direction and headed back toward my spot. I count just over 100 in this shot but I never got a full field view with the zoom lens.



Wading into the reads, a Great Egret watched for a chance to snatch a meal.



The Pelicans went from calm to frenzied as they rounded up the next school of fish.



The Mute Swan pair are usually kind of the bullies around the lakes but they knew to back off from this mob.



A Double-crested Cormorant soon surfaced from under the rush having grabbed a bite for itself.



Seeing the commotion around the corner, another American White Pelican flew in to join in on the feeding.



I started to scan the skies and more Pelicans were still coming in from distant locations.



One after another flew in and I could still see spots up in the air coming in from far away. The biggest flock we had last year was 16 that moved all around the city. This was group approaching 200!



Appearing sated for the moment, I decided to head to my other planned destinations but I couldn't resist one more shot back toward Orlando proper.



I circled Lake Davis and found it a bit more calm but still full of interesting birds. The usually fiesty Swan Geese were chilling under the shade.



A wary female Wood Duck decided I was safe enough to swim past toward the geese.



Convinced I was OK, too, the male Wood Duck soon followed. On another local lake there is a pair with several ducklings. So glad we have breeding Wood Ducks in the neighborhood. One of those birds I wanted to see as a kid and never thought I could almost trip over them in Orlando.



Tree Swallows were out feeding and, as usual, they are a challenge to photograph as they move so fast and bank and turn in a millisecond.



This is the only other shot of 40 that came out OK.



While I was shooting the swallows a male Blue-winged Teal floated by to head over to the shade.



Near the center of the lake, a few Bonaparte's Gulls loafed on the surface. Very few of the more typical Ring-billed Gulls. Nice to have these hanging around for a while.



Moving away to the other lakes I had a nice soaring Red-shouldered Hawk over Lake Emerald.



Behind Lake Weldona in the neighborhood was a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk perched on the corner.



I headed home and rounded Lake Cherokee again and found the American White Pelican flock feeding again.



I was ready to get back but got one more shot of the hungry birds still gorging. A nice mix of adults but mostly juveniles. FYI, the adults are the ones with the rounded bump on their bills.



A productive morning. Let's see how long these birds stick around this year.

Atlas V from Work

Time for another launch of the Atlas V. This time while I was at work. It was a perfectly clear Winter morning and a couple of us ran out to each the show. Just after it cleared our horizon it was burning bright.



One of my favorite parts of launches is when the contrail kicks in and gives you a scale of how far the rocket is at any moment.



Looks like there will be a lot of launches of many types this year. Hoping to get some darker sky lift offs. I enjoy them all but sunset and night launches are even more dynamic.

2016 Sparrow Drive

Has it been a year already since the Sparrow Drive at Weekie Wachee? Well, really more like three! The weather the past couple of years was too risky for us spending 5 hours on the road to just be rained out. The weather was much nicer this year so the volunteers from the banding site were rounded up and arrived at dawn to help set nets.

Once all who were going to attend showed up by 9 AM the marching through the grasses began. The cold front that came through the other day left the area a bit squishy and wet feet were had by all in short order.



I got a new point and shoot for Christmas and brought it along to test in the field.



A number of other banders were out for the drive, including Jim McGinity who helped extract captured birds with us.



The first couple of runs produced nothing but in this section we captured some Savannah Sparrows and other birds.



The crew finished the first circuit and headed back to the trucks to watch as some of the birds were banded.



Marianne Korosy is in charge of the Sparrow Drive and bands all the birds we capture.



A few of us held birds so visitors could get photos. Here, Tony holds a LeConte's Sparrow that was just banded.



A close up of the LeConte's Sparrow.



I got the Grasshopper Sparrow to display to answer any questions from the group.



Let the next round begin!



Since our banding crew has a lot of experience extracting bird we station ourselves at intervals at the nets to get to birds as quickly as possible.



Jim gets another bird as Lynn moves down to the next position.



Clay extracts and holds up a Swamp Sparrow. Clay helps manage this property and maintains the nets and poles used out here.



Killian has his hands full of birds in bags and heads back to the trucks with our recent catches.



We got more Savannah Sparrows on this final sweep...



...and another House Wren for the morning.



Before we loaded out, Marianne called us over to look at the Swamp Sparrow we just had banded. No of us had ever seen anything like it. This bird had a single white feather on its wing. Pretty cool.



Back near the cars, a Gopher Tortoise was trying to decide if it should come out for a snack.



We have been doing these drives for years and never think to get a group shot. Thanks to Jim for thinking about it just before the truck took all the Wekiva Basin banding volunteers back out of the preserve.



A lot of birds, a lot of fun. Until next year...