A New Life Bird

Skip and I took advantage of the warmer temperatures to go birding yesterday here on the island.

It was overcast and sprinkled rain from time to time but it proved to be excellent conditions for birding.

This reddish egret looked rather grumpy. However, I think he was just ruffling his feathers to establish dominance as there was another reddish strutting around nearby.

Again, I can't not take pictures of some of these common birds. Especially when sitting atop a post on one leg.

This red-breasted merganser was cruising around alone. We don't usually see them so close to shore.

And we certainly don't usually see them snoozing on the shore like we did today. Admittedly, it kept opening and closing its eye and ruffling its tail feathers.

Racoon tracks are seen all over the mud.

This clapper rail spent quite a bit of time out in the open ruffling its feathers and preening. We don't usually get such a long opportunity to look at this species.

There were two black-necked stilts over in the pond where the roseate spoonbills frequent.

I love their bubblegum pink legs.

The water was like glass.

I whittled my photos down to these four.

 Rather than complete the loop and exit to the parking lot, we decided to retrace our steps and see if we could see anything else on the way back to the birding centre.

Sure enough, we turned a corner in the boardwalk and spotted this green heron who sat there for quite a long time until he got spooked by a swooping gull. He then started screeching his head off and flew over to his usual spot at the small pond where the mama gator hangs out.

Just a bit farther along we spotted this least bittern which appeared to be snoozing. It's only the second time I've ever seen one and was pleased to get this photo in spite of it being hidden behind reeds.

Then we saw another clapper rail right out in the water of one of the ponds. Rails are usually much more secretive.

The coot is very common here. We don't often see them out of the water walking around so I took this photo to show the lobed toes which make them very efficient swimmers and allow them to take off by scooting across the water.

I spotted a life bird today but didn't get a photo - the elusive and secretive marsh wren in its winter habitat.