Friday, December 27, 2013

Neighbourhood birding

The last couple of days have been spent doing the family thing with my wife's relatives in Kissimmee, so birding has not really happened beyond taking short walks around the neighbourhood.  That said however, Florida is so stuffed full of avian megafauna that it is ludicrously easy to see impressive-looking birds such as Bald Eagle (one over the house and another on the way back from the neighbourhood supermarket), Great Blue Heron (two highly approachable birds seen in central Orlando), Roseate Spoonbill (two over the highway between Orlando and Kissimmee), White Ibis (regularly seen in the neighbourhood), Wood Stork (often seen plodding about in roadside fields), whilst a single scruffy ditch next to a house a few doors a way held a pair of Sandhill Cranes, a pair of Glossy Ibis, a Snowy Egret, two pairs of Wood Duck and a female Hooded Merganser.

In additional to these the Pileated Woodpecker has been frequenting the garden, whilst an open field at the end of the street held a flock of at least 23 Killdeer this morning.

The biggest grip came on Christmas evening over dinner when a friend of the family told me he's seen a Florida Panther on his land a few times.

Berry 'pecker


Great Blue Heron

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