Southern Florida - Part Three - Dec. 17 & 18, 2012

Wrapping up an awesome trip to Florida to visit some of my favorite family members.  You know who you are! ;D  Thanks for an awesome trip!


Uncle's House:

Blue Jay - Lifer!

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Lauderdale by the Sea: 
(Swimming in the ocean in Dec.? Sooo great!)

Ringed-Billed Gulls, going nuts over a fish one caught, dropped and caught by another.

Boardwalk

 Uncle's House:

Male Northern Cardinal - Lifer!

"Yellow" Palm Warbler - Lifer!

Huge Iguana - in their backyard! Wild! Crazy place... :)

 Lauderdale by the Sea:

Red-Bellied Woodpecker - Lifer!

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Not pictured:

• Herring Gull* - Lauderdale by the Sea
• Ruby-Throated Hummingbird* - female - Uncle's backyard
• Cattle Egret* - South Beach

*Lifers!!!

Southern Florida - Part Two - Dec. 16, 2012

Once again, I'm a little behind, but I'm catching up... do enjoy :D

Cont...
Kayaking at John D. MacArthur Beach Park in North Palm Beach, FL. with my brother and uncle.

Great city views while kayaking!  Brown Pelican.

A motley Red-Breasted Merganser, female.

A single Sanderling.  On the way back to the shore, to return the kayaks, we came across this sandbar that was virtually underwater on the way out.  Now, it was teaming with bird activity! (pictured in the next several pics.)

A Royal Tern... Awesome! (And a Lifer!)

A friendly confrontation among the Laughing Gulls*.
*Lifer! Of course... :)

A juvenile Ring-Billed Gull in the mix.

Smaller than the gulls, and much smaller than the Royal Tern, Forster's Tern.

In the distance, we see the city getting drenched.  Soon after, it was us. 

Oh my gooooodness!  The bird we all hoped to see, just as we reached the end of kayaking.. The Roseate Spoonbill!!!  LIFER!!!

A raised boardwalk across the kayaking water, to see the ocean.  A storm is a-brewin'

Another single Sanderling.

Also seen on the kayak trip:

• Belted Kingfishers
• Great Egrets
• Bonaparte's Gulls
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Common Yellowthroat
• Red-Shouldered Hawk
• Great Blue Heron
• Red-Tailed Hawk

 And, pictured in post one : Southern Florida - Part One - Dec. 14-16, 2012

• White Ibis + Juvenile
• Osprey
• Common Loon
• Little Blue Herons + Juv.s
• Double-Crested Cormorants
• Turkey Vultures

Southern Florida - Part One - Dec. 14 - 16, 2012

The intent of this trip was not to go birding, but one cannot help one self when the birds find you.  Plus, it helps that last time my uncle was in town, I kinda helped him get into birding.  Yay!  It's always nice to convert people. ;)
The real intent of the trip was to bear witness to my uncle's graduation.  Congratulations Uncle P., for earning your Master's Degree!  Such a tremendous accomplishment! 



Uncle's Backyard:

Turkey Vultures - they're there year round and in GREAT numbers, like I've never seen before.

South Beach:

Common Grackles - a lifter! :)

Monk Parakeet - Not an introduced species,  which I would have assumed.  Apparently they were blown over in a giant storm and stayed and thrived. 

Uncle's Backyard:

Northern Mockingbird - a lifer! :)

Another view of the Northern Mockingbird

White-Winged Dove - another lifer!

North Palm Beach, on the way to John D. MacArthur Beach Park to go kayaking - with my brother and uncle. 

My first White Ibis.  On the side of a busy road... I would have never guessed! (Lifer!)

Next sighting of White Ibis was in the parking lot of the wildlife area.  Two adults, one juvenile.

Ahhhhh!  This was crazy! And a couple walked by and said, "Oh, a small one."  I stared at them for a moment, checking for sarcasm.  Finding none, and probably with a look of shocked horror on my face, I said, "We're from the NW..."  Later we saw several, larger ones, and it was confirmed; no, they weren't being sarcastic.  haha! :)

This next section is the actual kayaking portion of the trip.  So much fun!!! (All photos taken from the front of the kayak, while my uncle was kind enough to steer and paddle.  Thank you Uncle P.! :D)

Osprey - year round resident of Florida.

Osprey

Common Loon.  I was a little thrown off by this.  I've only seen them on the west coast in the winter, and here, in S. Florida, in Dec., it was so hot.  When I saw it, I couldn't piece it together at first.  Florida is full of surprises, that is for certain!

Little Blue Heron.  Like most birds in Florida, a lifer! :)

We were SO thrown off by this one!  Looks like an Egret, but doesn't quite fit the criteria for any one Egret.  Later, I researched and found it's a young Little Blue Heron.

Brown Pelican perched high in a large, bushy tree.

Double-Crested Cormorant perched close to the Brown Pelican.  It was interesting to see birds I've seen many times before in Oregon, in a whole different environment. Almost like a new bird altogether.   

Turkey Vulture.  At this point we had parked our kayaks on a shore and found a short walking trail.  This guy was so close! =)
(We also saw Black Vultures! -further away, not pictured :(, but Lifer!:))

Continued in next post: 

Southern Florida - Part Two - Dec. 16, 2012

Tillamook Area

12.04.12
Tillamook Bay Wetlands
A new place I look forward to visiting again.

Horned Grebe

Fox Sparrow - notice slight eye ring... I hadn't realized they had that.

Profile view of Fox Sparrow.  Btw, this place was crawling with these guys!

Ahhh!!! White-Tailed Kites!  A lifer!!!  Also, they're a lot cooler looking than I thought they would be.  Not the best photo of them, but I like the set up of it.

A typical example of trying to take pictures of a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet... Always on the move...

The first thing we saw was a group of Red Crossbills (Lifer!) in the very tippy top of a tree.  They quickly flew away, but we saw them again when we were leaving. Yay!

And....

• Northern Harrier 
• Great Blue Herons
• Song Sparrows
• Canada Geese
• Steller's Jays
• Bald Eagle
• Red-Winged Blackbirds - males
• Downy Woodpecker - male
• Black-Capped Chickadees
• Northern Flicker
• Black Phoebes
• Common Mergansers - females
• Common Ravens
• Oregon Juncos
• Spotted Towhee
• Bufflehead - female
• Pine Siskins
• Hairy Woodpecker - male
• American Coots
• Mallards

Barview Jetty

I had been there one other time, this time we visited the opposite side.

• Western Gulls
• California Gulls
• Brown Pelican
• Pelagic Cormorant 
• Varied Thrush
• Common Goldeneye - male

This shot had the potential of killing me.  If you zoom waaay in, at the end of the jetty are several shore birds.  Expected to be either Rock Sandpipers or Surfbirds.  Unfortunately, we never got close enough to find out, as the ocean licked our faces.

Whitaker Ponds

11.27.12 (Cont.)

As is almost tradition with my cousin and I, when we go to one spot, we must go to another, ESPECIALLY if there were lifers at the first spot.  It's almost hard to stop birding after one starts.

Right off we see this male Downy Woodpecker.

 Additionally we saw:

• Oregon Juncos
• Black-Capped Chickadees
• Bushtits
• Ruby-Crowned Kinglets
• Mallards
• Gadwalls
• Hooded Mergansers 8+ pairs!
• Buffleheads - females only
• Canada Geese
• Ring-Necked Duck
• Northern Flicker
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Spotted Towhee

I think I was getting tired, because I completely missed out on Golden-Crowned Sparrows and a Brown Creeper!  Plus, I hardly took any pictures.

Tunnel through the woods.

Broughton Beach

11.27.12

After already going to Broughton Beach a previous day and getting the sought after birds, my cousin was kind enough to take me back there with him, to get said birds.  So nice of him! 

Red-Tailed Hawk

Western Meadowlark - the only one, a pleasant surprise. 

After so many Scaup, the Common Goldeneyes stood out to us like crazy! (Pictured about center)

This American Kestrel was hoovering quite close to us.

A fraction of the hundreds and hundreds of Scaup out on the river that day.

 After 4 hours of scoping the distance birds, and walking the beach (I'd say at least 2 miles), we finally saw the Tufted Duck* among the ridiculous amount of Greater and Lesser Scaup.  By then I was so excited to see it, I forgot to try to take a picture of it!!!  I'm sure it would've sucked anyway, it was so far away.

Probably the same Red-Tailed Hawk from before.

A nice view of Mt. Hood.

We also saw:

• Double-Crested Cormorant
• American Pipits*
• Great Blue Heron
• Red-Breasted Merganser - female
• Horned Grebe
• Ring-Necked Duck

*Lifers!!!