birdsbykim.com blog

The chickadees sure did!

Two winters ago Paul and I went to Amherst Island in Ontario Canada hoping to photograph Snowy Owls. Although we saw several snowies we didn’t get any decent shots because they were always too far away. I didn’t care though because I was having so much fun with the chickadees! If you hold out your hand with nuts in it, the chickadees will land on your hand and take a nut!!! Paul put some nuts on my head and they were landing on my head too!!! Check it out…

How cool is that?!!! Paul and I are going back next week and I can’t wait for the chickadees to land on my hand again!

In case you’re wondering how it is that I took the picture when I’m also holding my hand out with nuts in it, we were using really long shutter release cables.

Here are some more pictures from the same area…

Unfortunately these guys were too far away but this is a Rough-legged Hawk dive bombing a Snowy Owl…

There were about 50 Roseate Spoonbills hanging out at Ding Darling last week! Unfortunately it was too windy to get any decent shots of them in the water but I got some okay flight shots…

Here are some other birds from Little Estero in Ft. Myers, Florida. Little Estero is a lagoon between some hotels and the ocean and there are always birds there. If you’ve never been you should check it out, especially if you’re looking to photograph birds. It’s a great place for getting really close!

This was a pleasant surprise when this Marbled Godwit stopped right in front of me to preen! Unfortunately there wasn’t much light.

How many people knew that Wood Storks had black toenails?! I sure didn’t!
People are always saying how ugly these birds are but I think they’re so cool looking!

This Snowy Egret was having fun bathing.

Black-bellied Plover…

I just got home from a wonderful week in Florida where the birds are much friendlier than they are up north! One afternoon on my way back from Sanibel, I decided to stop by Little Estero in Ft. Myers just to see what was happening birdwise. When I was standing there checking things out a bird came flying in making a loud squawk which I’d never heard before. It turns out it was a Long-billed Curlew which I’d never seen before either!

I ran back to my car to get my camera gear hoping he would still be there when I returned. Luckily he was but he wasn’t being friendly like most Florida birds and kept moving away from me. After a while I decided to photograph some other birds instead of chasing the curlew around. After 30 mins or so the curlew landed right in front of me and started preening and eventually went to sleep! When he landed he was actually too close to fit all of him in the frame until I backed up!

This is a picture of him before I backed up…

What a beautiful bird!

Since the colors were so pretty at Brandywine Creek State Park this morning, I went back this afternoon. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of birds who were interested in being photographed but I did find some Northern Mockingbirds who didn’t seem to mind the attention. Actually I think there must have been a mockingbird convention going on today because I’ve never seen so many in the same area!

The first two pictures are of the same bird. I just moved about half a foot to the left and had a totally different background.

Here are some pictures of the Harris’s Sparrow that Andy Ednie found at Brandywine Creek State Park yesterday.  I saw the bird shortly after I arrived around 7:00 this morning and he was still there when I left around 11:30.  He’s actually pretty easy to spot because he’s larger than the other sparrows and his white chest really stands out, especially when he flies.

There are quite a few different types of sparrows at the park today and they’re all pretty much in the same area! There are Song, Swamp, White-crowned, White-throated, Savannah, Field and Lincoln. Also, the fall colors are really beautiful!

On our way home from the air show in VA Beach, we stopped at Kiptopeke State Park which can be an excellent location to see migrating songbirds and hawks. Since it’s at the southern end of the peninsula, birds will frequently stop here before they begin their long journey across the Chesapeake.

We checked out the bird banding station where we got to see some warblers up close and personal that we’d never seen before! We also got to see this cool Rough Green Snake…

And this cool green caterpillar. I forget what kind he is though.

Paul and I went to the Oceana Air Show in Virginia Beach the weekend before last where we saw lots of cool jets and other planes. The F-22 Raptor was definitely my favorite of all the performers, followed closely by the F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets.

This is the Raptor…

This wasn’t in the best light but it’s my first donut! When a jet is closing to breaking the sound barrier, it gets a ring of condensation around it like this F-18 Hornet…

This is what’s called the Heritage Flight which is a state of the art aircraft flying in close formation with a vintage fighter. In this case the F-22 Raptor and a P-51 Mustang from World War II.

These are the Geico Skytypers…

This C-17 weighs almost 300,000 lbs!!!

And of course the Blue Angels…

There are about a dozen Cattle Egret that have been hanging out at Bear Swamp at Bombay Hook recently. This guy wasn’t too happy about another egret landing to close to “his space”.

While I was photographing the Cattle Egrets, a flock of Great Egrets flew by…

Twice yesterday I saw a large group of gulls (50 or so) catching what look to be flies??? I’ve never seen this behavior before and am curious if anyone else has. Either they were really bored or really hungry!

Also some more dragonfly pictures. Not sure what kind these are…

Some dragonflies from the Armstrong Farm in Smyrna, Delaware. I love watching dragonflies and damselflies move their little heads around constantly checking things out! They’re so cool looking.

I think this first one is some type of saddlebags. Derek, are you out there?

This one is from the skimmer family and is eating a ladybug.

A different angle of the same type of skimmer…

A different type of skimmer or maybe a female of the above skimmer?

This I believe is some type of whitetail.

This Variable Dancer is a damselfly from Ashland this past Sunday. They seem to like hanging out on the boardwalk in the marshy area. He kept coming closer and closer checking me out.

This very cool looking fly? is from the Armstrong Farm. I would love to know what he is!