Green Heron

 Earlier this month I returned  from my annual summer trip to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. I love it up there and I'll have to post about birds seen there later. But by the end of the trip I was eager to get home, to see the family, and once again to sit with my morning coffee, watching my bird feeders and pond.

And my very first morning back I had a visit from a *green heron*. This was amazingly cool. Green herons seem to be a shy and secretive bird, and I see them rarely. If I see one a year that's a good year! And I can never predict when and where I might see them. I have never seen one at my pond before!

So having a visit from a green heron on my first day back was pretty special. Naturally I didn't have my camera handy, but he was perched for a while so I snuck off to get it, hoping he would hang around a bit longer.

And he did, and I managed to snap a few shots. I nearly witnessed a nature tragedy that would really have upset me though. As I watched suddenly one of my local red-shouldered hawks came screaming in for a landing, making a dead set at the green heron! Fortunately the green heron flew off with a squawk and made his escape. I'd have been super upset if my first-ever pond sighting of a green heron ended with him becoming lunch for the hawk.

Meanwhile the hawk landed on the branch vacated by the heron, and sat there for a bit, looking around with a haughty "I meant to do that" sort of look.

These pictures are not very good as I was shooting through a screen, so could not get the precise focus I needed. The green heron came back on and off for several days. In fact one day I even had a *pair* of green herons, my first-ever sighting of more than one at a single time.

But anytime I tried to sneak quietly out of the sunroom to get an unobstructed photo of them they took off as if the red-shouldered hawk was after them again, so I had to be content with these through-the-screen shots.

They haven't been around for a while now, I sure hope they come back.

Vilano Boat Ramp

Vilano boat ramp at sunset, St. Augustine, FL

I haven't posted in a bit, but life got interrupted by a week at Disney World. It was a fun week, and perhaps I will have to post about it.

I live in Clay County, and I certainly love my house here. But so many of my favorite birding spots are over in St. Johns County. I love to head over towards the ocean and the salt marshes when I have enough time to devote to birding other than at my house or the mall.

And one of my early discoveries was the Vilano Boat Ramp along A1A. It's a perfect stationary and car birding site. You have the water in front of you, salt marshes to the right and left, some trees and shrubbery. It's just a wonderful place to pull up in your car, or to sit at the picnic bench.

Being on the water you naturally have lots of water and shore birds, although the place is a haven indeed for the standard rock pigeon, or "city" pigeon.

royal tern, Vilano boat ramp

But after the pigeons, gulls and terns are the most common birds there, particularly the ring-billed and laughing gulls. Terns can be seen there too but not as common.

leucistic ring-billed gull, Vilano boat ramp

And sometimes amid the often dozens and hundreds of gulls you'll spot one that is just a little different, like the leucistic ring-billed gull who hung around Vilano for a few weeks. I love his blue eyes.

black skimmers, Vilano boat ramp

Sometimes you can come here and find hundreds and hundreds of black skimmers. Black skimmers are such odd looking birds. It does make them rather endearing. :-) 

osprey, Vilano boat ramp

You can almost always plan to see ospreys when you go to Vilano, perched on the poles, soaring overhead, perched on trees in the hammock across the marsh. They are such haughty-looking birds, proud and free. I love to see them swoop down into the water and come up with a fresh catch of fish! It's always an amazing performance.

roseate spoonbill, Vilano boat ramp

Roseate spoonbills have been seen nesting in the hammock also. They are another endearing bird - with a rather ugly head, truth be told. But their glorious pink color makes up for their other shortcomings, LOL.

cedar waxwings, Vilano boat ramp

But you never can be quite sure what you will see at Vilano. Sometimes you go there and there are hardly any birds at all, or just a few of the "usual suspects". But then you will see something amazing, like a flight of 100+ cedar waxings flying overhead.

lark sparrow, Vilano boat ramp

This bird, however, was my most amazing sighting, a lark sparrow, a very rare bird indeed for this area! Everyday birder that I am I hadn't the least clue what the bird was, though I was at least skilled enough to realize I was seeing something unusual. Fortunately I managed to get a fair number of photos, and got help from people more knowledgeable than I am in IDing the bird. Rarities do not come my way every day, that's for sure. I'm much more a pigeon and starling and house sparrow kind of gal.

black-crowned night heron, Camachee Cove, FL

After I had been going to Vilano for a while I learned from Audubon Society contacts that across the road from Vilano, by the marina at Camachee Cove, there is a colony of black-crowned night herons. Now whenever I make a trip to Vilano I also drive up the road at Camachee to check out the night herons. They are not always there, but I love seeing them when I can.

So far my Vilano boat ramp "patch" contains 67 species of birds seen. I'm sure it would be higher if Vilano was at close as the local mall. But since it's almost 40 miles from home I don't get there nearly as often as I would like!

My Florida Yard

My yard seems to be a perfect place to start with in regards to my favorite stationary and car birding locations.

It was two years ago Labor Day weekend that I moved to Florida, after spending most of my life in New Jersey. Talk about big changes - but New Jersey is expensive, I had been laid off from my job of 36 years, and my son had just taken a job in Jacksonville, so events conspired to move me down here. Luckily I was moving from a higher priced real estate area to a much lower one, but I was still nervous about what sort of home I could afford, and whether I'd find myself living in some sort of tacky shack or hovel somewhere. When I looked around with a realtor I was struck with all the retention ponds, and the houses on ponds, and thought how cool that would be - but figured that would be out of my price range.

  my pond, facing west, Fleming Island, FL

But I was lucky! I found a house in a neighborhood I loved that was on a pond! And at a great price.

 my pond, facing east, Fleming Island, FL

I've been here two years now and each day I love my home more and more. I was only in a week when I first put up bird feeders - though it took MONTHS before birds found them. But eventually they did. With money I got from the sale of my NJ house I had a sunroom built off the kitchen which now gives me great views of my feeders and pond. 

my sunroom (and grandson John), facing the pond, my yard, Fleming Island, FL

I start every morning out there with my coffee, and keeping lists of the birds that show up. It's my time for morning meditation and renewal.

And eBird.org statistics show me that in the past two years I've seen 81 different species of birds here, and that's just from sitting in the sunroom drinking my morning coffee! And I've had the thrill of seeing bluebirds and wood ducks nest in the yard, as well as numerous other babies - cardinals, Carolina wrens, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers.

I've had visits and flyovers from all sorts of cool birds also - pileated woodpeckers, swallow-tailed kites, bald eagles, blue grosbeaks, indigo and painted buntings, anhingas, cormorants, all sorts of herons and egrets and white ibises galore.

 two anhingas, my yard, Fleming Island, FL

two red-shouldered hawks, my yard, Fleming Island, FL

two hooded mergansers, my yard, Fleming Island, FL

 ruby-throated hummingbird, my yard, Fleming Island

 eastern bluebird, my yard, Fleming Island, FL

                                         pileated woodpecker on a rainy day, my yard, Fleming Island, FL 


I don't take any of it for granted. I count my blessings every day. Selling the house I had lived in for 30 years and taking a huge leap into the unknown was a major stressor for me - but it seems to be working out well. I love my home, I love my birds. I get to paint and sing and see my grandkids and work for conservation issues with Audubon...It's amazing the twists and turns your life can take.

dawn over the pond, my yard, Fleming Island, FL