Crops & Clips: Latest clicks

The rainy season is settling in. Several weeks before the "official" Atlantic hurricane season we were visited by a weather disturbance which developed near The Bahamas and threatened to develop into a tropical storm. This curtailed our morning walks for a few days. Just before the skies turned cloudy and the winds and rain started, I looked up over the wetlands to see...

...White Ibises in flight...





...a Bald Eagle, which appears to be "Pride," the male member of the pair which nests about 1 1/2 miles from our home...



...Mottled Ducks...



...Wood Storks...



...Green Heron...



...Common Nighthawk...



...and Monk Parakeet.



Before sunrise, a poor image of a female Anhinga...:



...which rested on a rock in the lake:



Earlier, the Flower Moon had waned to gibbous...



...and Eastern Screech-Owls were active along the trail (notice that this one has caught a lizard):





Out in the dimly-lit wet prairie, I startled a White-tailed buck and doe:





Spending most of the day at home, confined to COVID-19 lockdown, I took advantage of the spare time to create a couple of composite photos--

A flock of ibises traversing the full Flower Moon before sunrise:





A Tricolored Heron partially eclipsing the Moon:



Back to reality, the back yard  birds provided a diversion. A Tricolored Heron caught sight of me and flew across the lake:





Through the back window, I watched a hungry European Starling youngster beg for grubs from Mom. I am glad that we do not use insecticides on our lawn: 





The day-old Full Flower Moon setting on May 7, before sunrise...



...and after sunrise:



Neighborhood kids enjoying a bit of freedom under watchful eyes of their Labradoodle:



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Linking to:

Fences Around the World

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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Crops & Clips: Flashback to April, 2017

A new month begins, prodding me to get out of my COVID-19 pandemic-induced funk and start looking through my photos from three years ago. I will try to find images which depict favorite memes: critters of all kinds, flowers, fences, reflections and skyscapes as well as photos which speak for themselves. We remained in Florida the entire month, but did spend a week on the west (Gulf) coast with our visiting Illinois family. 

The month of April started off with a handsome male Northern Cardinal on a Pond Cypress which is just sprouting new leaves...



...a male Black-and-White Warbler...



...a male Prairie Warbler...



...and a male Gulf Fritillary. The "male" theme was accidental as they represented the first four creatures I photographed on April 1, 2017. In the case of the butterfly, only the males possess a series of pheromone-secreting androconia, visible as transverse (ladder-like) striations on six veins on each of its fore-wings. (You may need to enlarge this image to see them):



Great Crested Flycatcher:



Northern Mockingbird:



Green Heron:



In the rookery, a pair of Green Herons shared a tender moment with their first egg, on April 9:



Our daughter and family visited from Illinois. Our granddaughters went out with MaryLou to view the Bald Eagle nest:



We spent Easter vacation on Sanibel Island on Florida's Gulf Coast, where we watched an Osprey eat a fish:



At Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve, a Reddish Egret hunted, energetically dashing to and fro:







On the beach, a Willet displayed its distinctive wing markings:



A Ruddy Turnstone probed in the sand:



A Royal Tern flew along the water's edge:



Dunes at Bowman's Beach on Sanibel island:



A Tiki Hut on the boardwalk at Bowman's Beach:



Marsh Rabbit at Bowman's Beach:



Back home, at the local nest, the two eaglets were climbing on the branches and would soon fly freely:



Common NIghthawks had returned to breed:



Carolina Wrens had been present all year, but were singing much more vigorously in early Spring:



A notably tortuous neck on this Tricolored heron:



Solitary Sandpiper and reflection:



A Bunting eating the "Shepherd's Nettles" seeds of Bidens alba on April 21. It is probably an immature Painted Bunting, as its back has a greenish cast, but... 



... it appeared to have some blue feathers on its breast, suggesting it may be an immature Indigo Bunting. (This was probably an aberration due to the color temperature of the processed image). Both species usually migrate north before the end of April:



A Mottled Duck and Black-necked Stilt:



Sunrise as seen from our back patio...



...and our front yard:


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Linking to:

Fences Around the World

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

________________________________________________

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

________________________________________________