Archive for February, 2009
Florida Scrub Jay
The Florida Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is only found in the scrub habitat of Florida. It is the only unique species of bird to the state and is currently under a threatened status due to their shrinking ecosystem. Scrub Jays are very social birds and show almost no fear of humans as I found out as I took these photos when one decided to land on my head. I will be adding a Florida Scrub Jay gallery to my website soon but until then you can view them here. I decided a few months ago to make the Florida Scrub Jay a photo project for me to help do my part to raise awareness of their situation. My Scrub Jay photos have been some of the most rewarding for me and I feel privileged to be able to photograph such a beautiful bird. I hope to share more photos soon of the Scrub Jays and I hope that if you ever have the chance to see these birds don’t pass it up.
Sandhill Cranes
One of the benefits of going out to Lake Woodruff on my last few photo trips are the Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). They seem to be everywhere and do not really appear to care that you are taking photos of them. I always try to keep my distance to not disturb them but sometimes they have the habit of coming to you.
Her First Trip
On warm sunny day last May I was able to convince my wife to come with me for her first trip to Black Point Drive. With it being a warm day I had a feeling that it was going to be a slow day for photos but I really just wanted to show her around. When we got to the entrance I stopped and grabbed one of the brochures for her so she could read it over to learn about the drive.
While we drove through first portion of the drive we observed Stilts, Skimmers, Blue Herons, and a Red Wing Black Bird. We soon arrived at the part of the drive where you can park and get out and walk to a few of the bird watching areas. We walked down the one trails and we soon came across a pelican in the canal and I commented to my wife that I thought it was strange to see him there because I had never seen any pelicans there. We soon found out he had an injured wing so we turned around so he would not try to fly and possibly do more damage to his wing. When we got back to the car my wife called to the Refuge office to report the pelican and while she was on the phone I read the brochure I picked up for her.
After we left there we drove through the rest of the drive and came along to one last spot that I wanted to stop at and there was Tricolored Heron searching for food in the canal. We got out of the car and walked down past the heron and started taking a few photos of him. When I was done with the photos I suggested to my wife that we walk back to the car and call it a day. As we started walking back the heron took of and started flying down the canal towards us. I started panning with him and started to take a photo when all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw something jump out of the bushes and grabbed the bird out of mid air and both of them splashed down into the canal. As shocked as I was I ran up to the edge of the canal just in time to see what it was. Unfortunately it was not big foot but after the results of my photo I can understand why all of the photos of big foot are blurry, something hairy jumps out of the woods attacks something and scares you equals a blurry photo.
In the end it turned out to be a Bobcat and it also turned out to be one of the most exciting things I have seen in nature. I was also glad that my wife was able to see it because if she had not been there I don’t think anybody would have believed what had happened. The funniest thing about the whole story was when my wife was on the phone and I was reading the brochure it listed wildlife you could see on the drive. The Bobcat was listed and I said to my wife Bobcats yeah right.
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