Wild, Wild Life

I invited myself over to my parents' home in paradise for five days, and we spent a great deal of time peeping at wildfowl through strangers' powerful spotting scopes.  This is perhaps not quite as strange as it sounds; I'd offered to buy my parents a scope just a few months ago, and they were trying to figure out what kind would work best for them.  A decent pair of binoculars (which they now have) makes all the difference in bird-watching; but a good mid-range scope is a game-changer.

Absent a scope, we could not identify this bird on the far side of the refuge.  Based on its behavior and location, it was almost certainly a bird of prey.  Based on its apparent shape and size, my parents thought it might be a peregrine falcon -- and who am I to contradict them?

Distant Bird in Silhouette

By far the most common bird of prey locally these days is the osprey.  They were rare at one time; but  they are still cool even though they've made quite a comeback.   (Unlike ibis, which were briefly exciting several decades ago and then rapidly descended to the status of chickens.)  I even overheard someone who claimed that the osprey are nearly "at capacity" locally.  If that is true, I'm still not worried - surely they'll find cool places in neighboring locales.

Head-on view of an osprey: Here's looking at you, kid.

Here, as the osprey obligingly looks the other way,
we get a view of the stripe on the back of the head and neck

Another successful landing!

Shell imprints

We didn't see many roseate spoonbills this time - perhaps only a total of six.  They're year-round residents, according to a bird talk we attended, but they apparently go elsewhere to breed.  So they weren't hanging out (roosting) in their usual spot on the Indigo trail.  At one point, we were able to pick out a few very distant spoonbills in a crowd of white pelicans, using a top-of-the-line Swarowski scope.  They would be visible closer up - within binocular range - from a viewing location a mile or two down the road, so we went on.  And got there just in time to see four spoonbills take off, spooked by an eagle!!!  However, I happened to be looking through our good binoculars at the moment, so I got to see two spoonbills' beautiful pink wings backlit by the sun.  Really lovely.

Roseate spoonbill, glimpsed among the mangroves.
Note the clearly visible dark claw gripping the branch.

This is the more typical view of spoonbills in the refuge - standing at a distance, in shallow water, to feed or groom themselves:

The clouds were thick, nearly solid-looking, and highlighted underneath in yellow as the day waned.

We saw a few reddish egrets this time - or at least two, because one was definitely not carrying a transmitter.  Thanks to the Audubon Society lecture, we focused on the two-tone bill: pink, tipped with black.  Apparently, the pink color is a lot stronger during breeding season.

Reddish egret, during breeding season.
Pink bill, tipped with black.  Reddish head and neck.
(The funny-looking "feather" sticking out from its back is a transmitter.)

Flock of birds under a heavy cloud