When I saw a few images that had red eyes, I thought it was the way the sun was hitting the eyes. So, I started to investigate and the only info I could find was on ibird pro app. While most of the times the eyes are black there can be color variations of dark brown, orange and red. There has been no explanation as to the color differences. Please click on image to view large.
Tags: HHR54275.CR3 Swallow-tailed Kite Central Florida Hank Halsey Photography
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Tags: HHR54107.CR3 Limpkin Central Florida Hank Halsey Photography
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For this juvi the approach was good, landing not so good. It was not graceful, but practice makes perfect. He/she has a long flight ahead to South America in a couple of weeks or less.
Tags: HHR54165.CR3 Swallow-tailed Kite STK Central Florida Hank Halsey Photography
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When you have a 4-foot wingspan you must stretch them out before taking to the sky.
Tags: HHR55270.CR3 Swallow-tailed Kite STK Central Florida Hank Halsey Photography
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For those that may not know this. There are thousands of STK roosting and as the sun rises, they start to wake up and go through a series of preening, stretching and shaking out those beautiful feathers. Then very few in fact will skim the water for a drink. Between 10 and 20 on any given day. So, it takes someone with knowledge as to the perfect placement of the pontoon boat so we can capture these images. Scott Helfrich longtime friend has been guiding for many years. A couple of interesting facts, again it is only a few that come down for a drink. If it rains the night before there is a good chance that none of them will skim and Scott and others figured out a long time ago that if the water is too flat (mirror like) they may not skim either. So, Scott and another pontoon boat would take turns making small ripples with the boat. I am guessing the ripples help the STK to judge where the water is as compared to a mirror. The STK migrates up to Florida from South America to breed, nest and raise their young then in August they return back to South America. Thank you Scott Helfrich for your expert guiding and it was great getting caught up and talking about good ole times.
Central Florida
7-26-2022
Tags: HHR55571.CR3 Swallow-tailed Kite STK Central Florida Hank Halsey Photography
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