Thursday, November 19, 2020

Finding furry and feathered fauna

Although we get out early in the local wetlands, we generally shelter in place at home for the greater part of the day. 

Our back yard lake attracts waders such as this Great Blue Heron:



Green Herons are very skittish, so I was lucky to have this one stick in a spot visible from our patio:

This Great Egret paid me no attention as it spied and then caught a small fish:


The fish wiggled violently and scattered water droplets, to no avail:


The first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the season, an immature bird which lacked the red on its head, started drilling sap wells on our Mahogany tree:


At the local Bald Eagle nest, the male "Pride" roosted nearby:

Out in the wetlands, a trio of white herons flew in together and walked in line, as if to show off their distinguishing characteristics:


A Snowy Egret led the parade, followed by an immature Little Blue Heron, the taller of the two, which has a black-tipped gray bill and shows a bit of blue on its head. The snowy Egret has a narrow black bill:


An adult Little Blue Heron was also present:


Along the levee trail, as I was peering into the dense  foliage of the fruiting ficus sp tree which I call the "warbler tree," a Merlin made frequent passes which kept the small birds in hiding. The falcon perched at the top of the tallest pine and had a commanding view of the surroundings:



I tried very hard to get photos of the Merlin in flight as it flew by rapidly and unpredictably, once right over my head:

It was  easier to capture it as it stalled before alighting on its roost:

A courageous Blue Jay harassed the Merlin, which has been known to capture even larger birds:




As I emerged from the high grass along the trail to an open area, I cautiously checked for mammals, usually an Opossum, Marsh Rabbit, Raccoon or even a Bobcat. This time I was rewarded by a Coyote with a reddish coat:



A Gulf Fritillary sipping nectar:

A Hunters Moon, also a Blue Moon as it was the second full Moon in October, was ready to disappear over the egret on the lake just before sunrise:

Slightly to the right, in the northwest sky, a streaming cloud caught the rays of the sun before they reached ground level:


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Linking to:










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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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24 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your photos. They are outstanding!

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  2. Wow..you saw all that on one walk..Lucky you and wonderful pictures..Love the Heron parade. Your Merlin..very interesting..I just googled it..I would have thought that it was a Coopers Hawk (being no expert)..I have a framed Coopers Hawk pic..Have to check its feet..Probably not yellow..Great neighborhood..good series..thanks

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  3. That last shot is incredible. I love your photo of the coyote. Our suburban Tulsa coyotes are near so slender as I guess they fatten up on domestic dogs and cats.I love your herons and the shot of the eagle is so noble. The merlin shot, froze in mid air is wonderful.
    Have a great weekend.

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  4. Lily white, beautiful egrets. When I was a kid I only knew 'egret' as the brand name of the main padlock of our house. And it's only on birding blogs, yours specifically, that I learned how an egret really looks like. If I saw it in zoos somewhere, I wasn't paying attention. :) Thanks!

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  5. These are really amazing photos. I can never get over the variety of birds in South Florida. You caught some super moments.

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  6. As always, some great shots. That eagle - oh, wow!

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  7. Hello Ken,

    Love the beautiful skies and reflections. You have a great place there to see all these beautiful herons and egrets in your yard. Great captures of the Jay and Merlin. Love the Eagle shot and the beautiful butterfly. I hope the Coyote moves on. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post! Take care,enjoy your day! Have a happy weekend! PS, thanks so much for leaving me a comment.

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  8. Truly amazing what you see from your back yard. You are so very fortunate. Great photos, as always.

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  9. Outstanding series, Ken!

    I'm jealous of your Merlin images. Very nice!
    That sunrise is something special.

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  10. Excellent shots! The bottom photo is amazing.

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  11. You always seem to find the most marvelous assortment of creatures on your walk. Love them all - the birds and the coyote

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  12. Thats a fine set of yard birds (and mammal!) - love the way those herons lined up for you.

    Hope all is well - Stewart M - Melbourne

    PS: thanks for the blog advice - unfortunately it did not seem to work! Oh well. SM

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  13. I was surprised to see the red coat on the coyote. I think of them as more brown or tan.
    Thank you for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2019/08/pass-jelly.html

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  14. Amazing photos especially the ones of the merlin.

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  15. Impressive animal photo's. Love them.

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  16. Can imagine, the flight of birds and movements of animals on the ground keeps you on your toes all the time!! Don't know how you do it - but happy, because at All Seasons we reap the benefit of your stunning photos! - Thank you:) Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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  17. Kenneth, oh Kenneth! these photos are just amazing as always! You really have this gift of capturing not just visually but the whole story in it! Those flight and action photos are just magical! I can never take a sharp photo of a bird on the ground!!! Thank you so much for sharing this to us at Timeless Thursdays!

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  18. My goodness, I don't think I'd leave the back porch if I had these visitors! I'm not great at my camera settings, but I have learned that it helps to use the 'sports' setting with continuous frames for fast birds.

    What a fantastic addition to 'My Corner of the World' this week!

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  19. Great shots! Stay safe and enjoy.

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  20. What a beautiful array of photos. YOu are always so fortunate to capture such great shots of rather elusive creatures. Any coyote here would be fleeing very quickly. And even the heron that visited our pond was skittish, though I have managed a few shots and one brief video.

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  21. It was wonderful to see the herons and egrets which reminded me of our time living on the VA eastern shore, although unlike you, they were not in our backyard. That blue jay was very fortunate not to have ended up as a lunch snack.

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  22. Such stunning beauties each of them. I love the Coyote and Bald eagle and of course the rest too.
    We were also birding this weekend, and I have some pictures to share in my new #WW linky that goes live in a few hours. See you around, Ken.

    Have a fabulous week ahead.

    https://natashamusing.com

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