Katie's Snowy.

This article is about the Bird, and the Baby. My KT is a wonderful girl. I know that I've got the greatest kid in the world ;-) but she is constantly surprising me with what she does. As I've mentioned, she went to the beach for the first time last month, and one thing we did there was chase birds. I don't know if we've got a junior twitcher on our hands or what, but she definately enjoyed persuing the birds at the beach, even if they weren't exactly rarities. When we arrived, there was an interesting dynamic amoung the birds. The Snowy Egret shown in this picture hunted the surf. Female and male Boat-Tailed Grackles dabbled in the surf, getting whatever tidbits they could off the retreating waves. I was amazed at the snowy, it seemed to be extremely successful in catching things in the surf. I watched several small minnows meet their end at the "tip of the spear" at it were. The grackles noticed this success, and as grackles are wont to do, harried the snowy from time to time to try to get in on the action. They weren't so successful. When KT got down to the surf, she chose the biggest bird to chase first. The snowy flew off, obviously use to such harrassment because of the grackles. Then my baby turned her face to the grackles, and began to squeal with delight. I don't know if it was because there were so many of them (about a dozen in the immediate area) or because their dark bodies contrasted more with the light sand, but she definately gave them a run for their money. The snowy allowed me pretty close observation while KT chased grackles about.
There is something special about the beach, and birds in the surf.

GB and KT bid you "Good day."

Here's My Girl!

It occurred to me that I don't have a photo of myself and KT up on any of my blogs. My wife has one, but the pic is a little old, 4th of July.
So here's my picture, and my girl too!

An Attempt at Some Pictures...

Ok, So this is a picture I took on Last Monday's outing. I call it Two Blues because it features a Little Blue and Great Blue Heron. Camera was a Digital Rebel, stock zoom lens at f5.6, 55mm. Don't remember the speed, and I used an image editor to colorbalance and crop the picture. It's an experimental picture with interesting subject Matter. Earlier in the month, Katie, Mommy, and me went to Daytona to visit my parents. They have a timeshare there, and I actually got some good pictures there too. One picture I consider to be a quality image is of a snowy Egret. I had to crop it to get the right composition, as I only have one lense at the moment. i think I might offer prints of it for sale to help raise money for lenses, bicycles, bins, scopes, etc. so you guys can have something really great to read and look at and not just my usual drivel.
Well,
I'll post the snowy on another post, keep the downloading easy. We rode today also, and I'll have to look at the pictures I took of an anhinga. With a 600mm lense, it would have been a snap to get a good one.
Have fun with yer Kids, it's the best time I've ever had!

GB and KT

Yes, I have been Birding...

But this is primarily about my Daughter's recent birding adventures! :-)
Little Katie Rosie is a great observer of the birding scene, more so
than you may even realize. She's 17 Months old now, and went to the
beach this last Sunday for the first time. What a great time! I don't
know if you've ever been to the beach with a small child, but they give
you a whole new perspective. We observed some of the usual beach
birds, peeps, willet, and Brown Pelicans were abundant. Boat Tailed
grackles foraged in the surf. These fascinated little Katie. She
chased them and chased them and chased them until they got tired of it,
and flew way on down the beach, and then, Katie, squealing like a happy
little piglet, ran as fast as she could to get them. We also chased
around a Snowy Egret that was catching minnows in the surf. I actually
got some good video showing that.

Riding has been sporatic. We can't ride Tuesdays and Thursday
because I have school. We went once last week, on Monday, and Today.
I'll try to make it out at least every Mon, Wed, and Fri. There are a
lot more coots now at Hollingsworth than the last time Katie and I rode
out. I guess migration is in full swing for this quaint little water
chicken. Saw some wood storks today, and a ring billed gull. Other
than that it was the usual suspects, Moorhens, Gallinules, Grackles,
White Ibis, an Osprey, limpkin, Great egret, Tri-colored heron, and
blue Jay. Saw an unidentified tern, and a new (for lake
Hollingsworth) Raptor: Red-Shouldered Hawk.
I might try to get out to Carter Road Saturday. My bike needs to be
ridden.
Until then!

GB and KT say to you: "Happy Trails!"

Heat, Rain, Sick Katie...

All conspire against me like nobodies business.
But we finally got a chance to at least take a walk around the neighborhood. Katie saw Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers for the first time, but that was our only real new bird persay. If a flicker would have appeared we would have a woodpecker trifecta, as DOWO and RBWO were both in abundance and active like nothing goin'.