Purple Martins-The largest swallow in North America. Despite its name, the purple martin is not truly purple. The dark blackish-blue feathers have an iridescent sheen caused by the diffraction of incident light giving them a bright blue to navy blue or deep purple appearance.🪶

Little Blue Heron hunting reflection. I was out watching an owl nest as I have been doing a lot lately when this Little Blue cruised on by. The reflection and the sunrise light made it into a shot worth taking.🪶

Purple Martins-The largest swallow in North America. Despite its name, the purple martin is not truly purple. The dark blackish-blue feathers have an iridescent sheen caused by the diffraction of incident light giving them a bright blue to navy blue or deep purple appearance.🪶

Starting with a set when these young Great Horned Owl chicks were around a month old. This was my favorite visit to the nest and I got several good videos and pics I'll be sharing. Loved watching mom interacting with the chicks and them with each other.🪶

I have been holding my pics back waiting for them to fledge. This weekend they left the nest. I have been following it for about 5-6 weeks and am going to post it as a series. The squirrels live in a hole in the bottom of the tree. Mom didn't appreciate them inspecting her space.🪶

"The eye is the window to the soul". This particular eye belongs to a Lesser Black-backed Gull. These gulls are massive. Think of a gull the size of a large chicken. 🪶

A tisket, a tasket, what the heck is in that basket? One nest that I have been checking on apparently blew down about 2 weeks ago. The powers that be decided to put the owlets back up in this basket which is secured to the tree where there nest was. It seems to be working. Mom is nearby. 🪶

"The eye is the window to the soul". This particular eye belongs to a Lesser Black-backed Gull. These gulls are massive. Think of a gull the size of a large chicken. 🪶

The hungry little caterpillar 🐛. Monarch caterpillar munching away at our milkweed plant. 🦋

Tree Swallow-One of the hardest birds to photograph in Florida. They are small, very fast, and change directions frequently. The first two shots are the best quality photos of them I have gotten, but the third shot shows off the feeding strategy. 🪶

Hmm, that's a chin scratcher... Wild Rhesus Macaque at Silver Springs State Park in Florida. 🐒#mammal

This Bald Eagles prize possession, a plastic bag. Not sure why he grabbed it or why he was flying around in circles with it but he seemed pleased with his capture.🪶

Snowy Egret showing off it's fishing skills. Catch fish, fly a few feet away, land, eat fish. Repeat. I think pic #3 is my favorite in the series. 🪶

Don't get you feathers all fluffed up. Another in my Ghost on a Post series. The Male Northern Harrier Hawk AKA Grey Ghost likes open pastures and it was a goal of mine this year to get some perched shots. 🪶

Continuing the ongoing series from this nest. This set was from around 3 weeks old. I didn't catch both of them with mom in the same shot unfortunately at this visit. One was always hiding.🪶

Baby birds are little jerks. Baby bird constantly are begging to be fed and one of the ways they do this is repeatedly grabbing the parents beak and yanking their heads downward. These Great Egret chicks are a couple weeks old. Last pic has entire family.🪶

Barred Owl at the waters edge.🪶

Sunday AM I arrived early as is my habit. Unfortunately the park didn't open until 10 minutes after sunrise which caused a backup of about 50 cars waiting to get in. As soon as we were let in I rushed to this spot which is one of my favorite sunrise spots. Which is your favorite? #sunrise

6 images in 20 minutes. Just a 20 minute walk at a local park allowed me to capture all of these images. 🪶 1)Common Gallinule closeup 2)Green Heron in breeding colors 3)Common Grackle 4)Black-crowned Night Heron 5)Anhinga 6)Great Egret Reflected

Roseate Spoonbill Chicks-About 2.5 weeks old now and growing fast. They are still super cute. So if we call baby spoonbills tspoons and these tablespoons now? Worth the 2 hours on I4 each way. 🪶

Immature Little Blue Heron and reflection.🪶

Male Wood Ducks are pretty hard to beat in beauty contests. The reflection also was amazing the other morning. 🪶

Saw my first fogbow this morning at Orlando Wetlands Park. Pretty cool to see. #fogbow

A pair of fledgling Great Horned Owlets. They left the nest around 2 weeks ago. It took a few minutes to find them. Glad to see they are doing well and hanging out together.🪶

Black-bellied Whistling Duck Flyby🪶

Great Blue Heron flyby🪶

Least Bittern hiding in the reeds. 🪶

Gator eye closeup-Wish I could remove the reflection from the eyeball but since I can't, you can see the boardwalk I was on, my buddy standing and myself being the lump laying down on the boardwalk. 🐊

Views from a Bald Eagle nest 🪶 1)Parent glaring at me as I walk under the nest. 2)Other parent on nest 3)3-4 week old Eaglet 4)Multiple House Sparrows living in nest

Squirrel Monkey-These little guys are friendly and often hang out with other species of monkeys. We saw them a few times including jumping across the river. #ecuador 🐒 #mammal

Owlet blink and a couple shots of the pair at around 3 weeks old. 🪶

Brown Pelican-First shot is in breeding colors. Followed by a closeup, a straight on portrait and a video showing off the nictitating membrane again.🪶

First 2 photos are Great Horned Owl mom at sunrise. Both are from same photo, first processed for sunrise color and silhouette and second for details in bird. Second 2 photos are same concept with a Barred Owl pair except I used 2 separate but similar photos for them.🪶

The Ghost on a Post-I posted a shot of this guy on the ground a couple days ago. I also got several of him on some fence posts. Before this year I only had long distance flight shots of these guys. Have spent a lot of time with them this year and gotten much better shots.🪶

Nanday Parakeet flying straight at me. I don't go out looking for them but recently while nest watching these guys landed right near me and then took off and flew in my direction. They are noisy little things.🪶

The Ghost on a Post-I posted a shot of this guy on the ground a couple days ago. I also got several of him on some fence posts. Before this year I only had long distance flight shots of these guys. Have spent a lot of time with them this year and gotten much better shots.🪶

Roadkill squirrel for breakfast anyone? The young eaglet seemed plenty happy with it. The last 2 pics are a week later when the eaglet was testing its wings. It has now fledged successfully.🪶

Eastern Meadowlark sitting on a fence post calling to the ladies.🪶

Papa Barred Owl giving me good looks from a variety of perches. Only a short time after the recent shot on a vine. 🪶

I spotted the mythical Florida unicorn this weekend. He was hanging out with a friend. There may be a clue to how they really got their name in pic#4. It was a nice change from just photographing birds. 🦌 #mammal

Great Horned Owl chicks at around 2 weeks old. Continuing my series from this nest. This visit I didn't have fantastic light or any interaction with the parents. Better pics to follow. (7 pics)🪶

I had to become a stalker for these shots. Northern Harriers are almost as skittish as Kingfishers. I spent a fait amount of time crawling through weeds to get close enough for these shots. Thankfully the sun broke through a bit and there was a gap to shoot through.🪶

Sandhill Crane parent doing a little renovation work on the nest. (Video and 3 pics)🪶

Northern Harrier Hawk cruising over the marsh at sunrise.🪶

Black Skimmer and Reflection-love to watch them glide over some calm water.🪶

Reddish Egret on the hunt (4 pics and video). In the video it loos like it actually stabbed the fish and had trouble getting it off it's beak.🪶

Reddish Egret on the hunt (4 pics and video). In the video it loos like it actually stabbed the fish and had trouble getting it off it's beak.🪶

Mama Barred Owl taking a bath during a little break from sitting on her eggs. (Video and pics) 🪶