I once saw a Great Blue Heron and a Snowy Egret in a standoff over fishing rights. They face to were in a dead tree in swampy water that is part of a long abandoned trout farm. After a full 20 mins. the Egret blinked. It was a really cool thing to witness (amongst many others).
Saw a bald eagle being chased by a jay or something over 95 a couple of days ago on my way down to NY to see my mom
Welcome to Florida.... speaking of.... grocery store down the street had an osprey "couple" build a huge nest atop of a light post in the parking lot. you could seel all the shit splatter on the ground around it. Local peeps in the know would never park underneath said light pole so those 4 spots were always open (for obvious reason)...It was great seeing clueless peeps post up underneath and come out with their cars splattered on with digested mullet turds.....
They're nest raiders for eggs and chicks. Crows, red-tailed hawks, and Blue Jays will harrass them relentlessly to leave the area of the nest. Most times they succeed.
That would make sense, didn't realize they get to the size of a Pileated. Another strange bird related pic. Many stretches of road near me have Osprey nests on electric poles, one road there is a nesting pair around every 100 yds or so. Yesterday I noticed this one and it looks like the put a plastic owl up there in addition to some other "structures". The other nests are just nests. Terrible pic I know, going to try and get a better shot today of the actual ospreys
Owls eat the eggs, but this decoy is probably for either other owls or crows. Ha, crows, they're so intelligent, they're on to this shit in 10 minutes or less. Even if you're super diligent about moving the poser around, it may work with other opportunists for decent periods of time, but not those freaks. They make dummy nests on scarecrows in plain sight to flaunt their oneupmanship and gloat at the futility of farmers. They are literally saying see how I laugh, bitches.
Black Bellied Whistling Ducks, still throws me off seeing a bunch of these guys perched in a tree rather than floating in a pond. Not sure what was going on today but they were much louder than usual.
Great Blue Heron in my backyard hanging out with a bunch of Mallards. Tucked his head in, took a nap on one leg, took off.
Red Shouldered Hawk, not sure if it had a wing issue. Looked a little wonky and was staying low to the ground from low branch to fence and back to low branch
That's a beautiful raptor. Unfortunately you can't see the markings on the top part of their wings when they're flying (obviously), but you can get lucky when they dip sideways or when they're taking off. The bottom side is beautiful, too. I hope it's OK to fly. They just starve otherwise. The voles will be happy, though.
Ha, nice! I saw one that is now 2 years old flying right over the roofline of my house yesterday. We made eye contact, I love when that happens. It is 100% (roughly) the 5th successful hatchling to reach adulthood from a pairing that has been wintering over about 5 miles from here. It's definitely female. Even though I didn't have another Bald in proximity to gauge size differential, I've been raptor watching long enough to be able to tell on sight. I get so pumped when I see something that is so worth seeing that it straightens out my day if it's flying sideways. Heh. Balds are fairly common in FL, a lot of folks don't know that. What's not common at all are Steller's Sea Eagles, but they're there. They sometime stray off from their migratory path from Asia. I hope you get treated to a Golden Eagle sighting down there some day. Now THOSE are impressive. I've only seen one up close and personal because it was part of a Raptor rescue. It had suffered a broken wing at a young age that they were able to set but it can no longer fend for itself. There's blurry pictures some pages back. :/ It sounds like a really stupid thing to say, but your best bet really is to do some research on where you'll have the best luck. Birders can be an oddball breed, but they also tend to be a fck ton more respectful of boundaries and the security and safety of the birds than everyone else. Oh, and they know some sweet spots. They do a really good job of keeping things on the down low and they won't tell you shit until they trust you. Why? Disturbance. I almost joined a pretty prolific and really fun birding group up here in the NE but ultimately begged out of it because 1) I'm a bit of a loner. I go in the woods to get away from people, not engage with them and 2) my life is such that I find it impossible to commit to anything. Anyway, I'm sure you could fine some good groups down there that are fairly loose. Get yourself a decent pair of lightweight, mid-price range binoculars for starters and a basic birding book for your area. It can certainly be done solo if you're the more solitary type.
I used to go up to the landfill when I lived in Hernando, this time of year there would be quite a few eagles hanging out there. Have a few pair of binoculars but rarely ever think to take them with me when I am out and about.
