This fabulous, wonderful, loving, talented, great man passed away on Thursday, July 29, 2021. I know that he and his photos will be missed by many, especially me. I am so proud that God chose you to be my dad. May you get to see even more amazing things that our Universe has to offer. Catch ya on the flip side, Dad. I love you!
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Boat-tailed Grackles are very much linked to tidewater, spending their lives near coastal salt marshes; they rarely occur more than a few hundred meters from water across much of their range. The exception to this rule is Florida, where the species occurs inland throughout the peninsula, essentially side-by-side with Common Grackle in many places
Boat-tailed Grackles have variable eye color: along the Atlantic Coast it is yellow, in Florida it is brown, along the eastern Gulf Coast it is yellowish, and along the western Gulf Coast it is brown. The important thing to take home here is that where its range overlaps with Great-tailed, Boat-taildes have brown eyes, and Great-taileds have yellow. But beware of juvenile Great-taileds; their eyes change from amber to yellowish over the course of the first fall and winter.
Backyard Bird
Polk County, Florida.
Tags: Boat-tailed Grackle male bird birds fly flight feathers nature wildlife outside outdoor outdoors animal image photograph portrait Florida. Polk County Lake Wales Lake Pierce Florida Wildlife trees water perched tidewater salt marshes Brown Eyes backyard Canon 7D Canon EOS 7D Sigma 150-600 mm Black purple ghelm4747 Gary Helm
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Without question, the Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) is one of the most colorful of all North American waterfowl. It has a striking mixture of iridescent blues, greens, and purples contrasted by white stripes and patches. Its coloration has made it the most sought-after duck by hunters and birdwatchers.
It is known in Florida as the "summer duck" and the "acorn duck."
By the early 1900s, this highly desirable species was near extinction because of improper hunting regulations and habitat loss. With the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, hunting of these birds was restricted. Also, wildlife officials developed a management program to increase wood duck numbers. This program consists of yearly monitoring of the population, appropriate hunting regulations based on monitoring data, captive breeding, and the use of nest boxes. Due to the success of this program, the wood duck is now one of the most abundant waterfowl species in North America.
Both drake (male) and hen (female) wood ducks can be distinguished from other flying ducks by their relatively large head, short neck, and long square tail. These ducks also have a long, slicked-back head crest. Male wood ducks have larger chins than female wood ducks, and they have finger-like extensions on the chin and neck. Like most duck species, the male is more colorful, with a red bill and eyes. Females are mostly gray and brown with a white ring around their eyes. The drake's high-pitched whistle, "jeeeee" and the hen's low, owl-like "whoo-w-eet" call can be heard as they fly.
Wood ducks are commonly found throughout North America from British Columbia and Quebec, Canada, as far south as Mexico and Florida. The wood duck is one of the few duck species that breed and nest in Florida. In addition, wood ducks that nest in higher latitudes migrate south and overwinter in Florida and other states bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Some individuals migrate to Mexico and Cuba. Migration back north occurs in mid-March.
I found this Hen and Drake in Lake Pierce. Polk County, Florida.
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Carolina wrens are active during the day and spend the majority of their time on or near the ground searching for food, or in tangles of vegetation and vines. They also probe bark crevices on lower tree levels or pick up leaf-litter in order to search for prey. Carolina wrens are wary and are more often heard than seen. When on the ground, they move in jerky hops pillaging through various objects, whether man-made or natural. While moving abruptly, they pause momentarily for chattering or singing. When stationary, they move in twitched motions, jerking their breast around. They also sun- or sand-bathe. Other movements involve being capable of crawling like a creeper and hanging upside-down like a nuthatch. Their flights are generally of short duration, rapid, low-leveled, and wavelike. They are also capable of flying vertically from the base of a tree to the top in a single wing assisted bound. After finding a mate, pairs maintain their territory throughout the year, moving around and foraging together. Both males and females give out alarm calls, but only males sing to advertise territory. Males alone produce the 'cheer' call, which can sound indistinct. In southern regions of their range, the sound males use in alarm disputes is a ringing 'pink' or 'p'dink' sound. Females are the only ones that can perform the paired 'dit-dit' or chatter sounds often used in territorial disputes with predators. The chatter is used exclusively with territorial encounters with male song, and the song can either follow or overlap her mate's song.
Found this one in my backyard
Polk County, Florida.
Tags: Bird Birds Carolina Wren outside outdoors nature wildlife fly flight feathers wings sing song bird image photograph Florida Florida Wildlife Polk County Lake Wales water lake yard trees perch log Lake Pierce ghelm4747 Gary Helm animal song Looking out my back door USA North America South Carolina State Bird insect Canon EOS 7D Sigma 150-600 mm
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The Northern Mockingbird is one of the most iconic birds of the South. It is probably the bird that people see the most as they travel around in their everyday lives. It’s also the state bird of five states, one which is Florida.
It’s most famous of course because it’s a very vocal bird. They imitate the songs of at least 50 or 60 other species of Southern birds and they even mimic car horns and car alarms. But probably the reason why we see them most often is that they’re extremely aggressive. They attack almost anything they view as a threat including cats, including crows, hawks and even people. In fact, they really seem to take a particular dislike to some people; they attack them over and over again and seemingly ignore other people.
The Florida Museum of Natural History did a study based on this observation and they reported the following.
When we saw this we became curious about why it is they seem to really only dislike a certain number of us. So we decided to do an experiment when we were studying the Mockingbird nesting behavior. We divided up our students into two groups: one of whom would stand next to the nest and not touch it; and another group would stand next to the nest but actually touch the nest. We found that after a single trial the Mockingbird learned which humans were a threat and which ones weren’t, and they would start attacking the ones that touched the nest and they would ignore the ones that didn’t. They did this over and over again, and the more the students did this the stronger their reaction became, until eventually we found that they could even pick out the people who had touched the nest from a crowd of a hundred people. And they would ignore everyone else, go right for the person who had touched their nest, and it didn’t matter what clothes they were wearing, how they were wearing their hair, whether they were wearing a hat; they were obviously learning to recognize the face of these people.
I found this rather calm one (No nest around) along Joe Overstreet Road.
Osceola County, Florida.
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