Month: February 2016

Osprey at Fort Pickens bring in a still-wiggly needlefish.

She kept coming closer and closer, apparently hoping I would eventually throw her some bread or something. Sadly (for her) I was not well supplied in the bread department. So I just kept taking her picture. That orange/red eye is astounding.

Ain’t she purty?

With all the surrounding mating and nest-building going on around him (her?), this lone Great Blue Heron seemed content to just stand guard in the afternoon sunshine. This is along the nature trail at Fort Pickens (GINS.)

There are no fewer than eight or ten active nests within 200 feet of this guy.

Along a little-known trail at Fort Pickens, Saturday, 2/13, I found these two building their nest in the top of a pretty spindly pine. As the north wind buffeted them about he seemed to be sheltering her.

It’s subtle, to be sure. But this capture of a Laughing Gull taken yesterday at Fort Pickens clearly shows that the bird’s head is turning back to its normal pure black. Could be a young bird, or it could be an adult in the process of turning back to their Spring/Summer colors.