The 2007 edition of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival was, by all measures, successful for me personally and, I believe, for the organizers as well. I had a great time, met a lot of new people, and look forward to next year's edition (January 23-27, 2008). Thanks to Laurilee, Neta, Barbara, and all the volunteers who make it happen. A special thank you to my friend Reinier's daughter, Stephanie, who kindly watches my booth when I am off at a presentation, workshop, or seminar and always seems to sell more of my stuff than I do. I wish I could have attended more of the keynotes, but with Roxie cooped up in the trailer for most of the day, I have to get home and miss them.

Those who know me know that I am something of a techno geek and, while I always come away from the festival with something new - a book, t-shirt, or hat usually. This year it was impossible for me to pass up buying a piece of software for my Palm called Handheld Birds. The feature that I find extremely cool is the fact that you can pick a region (state or province), month, and/or type of habitat and the database will give a list of the birds you can expect to find. The only downside is that, at least with the Palm model I have (Zire 72), it is difficult to read outdoors in bright light - and I can't seem to find a way to adjust the screen contrast. Still, it has so much information - including songs and calls - that I think it will get lots of use.

The day after the festival ended I moved back up to New Smyrna Beach for another chance to visit some friends and take care of the stuff uncovered in my check-up at the dentist's office last week. Too much fun. I also decided that I would use a little bit of the down time to begin a much needed expansion of the searchable database on my website. As usual, one thing led to another and I decided that the software I was using wasn't exactly what I really needed/wanted. So what would have been a major project has now developed into a daunting project since it will require not only preparing new images, but also moving the old ones over to the new software. I have a long way to go and getting it up and running involved much less hair pulling than I had anticipated (I'm sure due partly to the fact I had to buy this software while the other was freeware). It will take several months to get all the images together and over the next few weeks I'll have to figure out the extra features that made this package attractive to me. My (rather ambitious) goal is to have 1,000 images uploaded by the end of February. Check it out . . .

Last Thursday, just as I was heading out to teach an Image Editing class, I received a phone call that I had been anticipating for several weeks. In mid December I had applied for a volunteer position at Bryce Canyon National Park. The call was an offer for the position (I accepted, needless to say), which means I will be spending the entire summer in beautiful Southern Utah (I guess this is the point where I say "Woot!"). I have even been using my new Handheld Birds to learn about which species I should be on the lookout for while I am there.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, so it's Saturday night and I'm just now getting the quiz posted. When arrived back at the campground last night the WiFi system was down and it they didn't have it back up until time for me to head out to the festival this morning. Sorry we're a little late. Last week's bird was a Brown-headed Nuthatch; for this week, a shorebird species that you just might see if you were here at the festival. Good luck!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was the second day of the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival and, for me, it began when I arrived far too early for the opening of the exhibit area. At least I wasn't alone - my neighbors across the aisle from the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey (Maitland, FL) arrived a few minutes prior with their charges in tow. They brought along a Crested Caracara, a pair of American Kestrels (high strung little birds, those two), and beautiful Paige, a Bald Eagle who wasted no time letting the few people in the building know she was out of her carrier with a rather long call. With loads of free time on my hands I spent the morning visiting until the exhibits opened then, in the afternoon, taught the second of my 2 "Image Editing" classes. The bad news on the day for those participating in workshops and tours was the dreadful weather that lasted most of the morning though, while things cooled down as soon as the front moved through, the Sun did come out in the afternoon. The next few days should be clear but cool which should make things nice for all involved.

While there may be some others here who are unknown to me at present, other bird/birding bloggers in attendance at the festival are: Amy of Wildbird on the Fly, Bill from Bill of the Birds, Bill from Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, and Jeff, who earlier this month started The Leica Birding Blog.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Snail at A Snail's Eye View brings us the 41st edition of I and the Bird with wonderful introductions to another collection of great blog entries. Stop by, do a little reading, and enjoy!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 06:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was day 1 of the 10th annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival and it was a great day with the chance to renew old acquaintances, make some new ones, and visit with old friends - in between my leading a field workshop that began at 6 a.m., setting up my booth, and a 3-hour "Image Editing for Digital Photographers" class I taught in the afternoon. The only one who seems to be a bit put off is Roxie who hasn't had to put up with me being gone for such long periods since before we set out on the road. While the morning was pretty gray the group had the opportunity to shoot on of the largest flocks of Roseate Spoonbills I have ever seen out on Blackpoint Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I brought my gear along but, since teaching about photography was my real purpose, I didn't bring it out until just before the end of the session when a couple of the participants found a Clapper Rail out in the open. Since there is no accompanying photo, it goes without saying that I never got a shot - as soon as I got back it flew off toward cover in the surrounding mangroves.

The remaining days will be a little less hectic with only one "event" scheduled per day (field workshops tomorrow and Sunday, 1 IE4DP class today, and a presentation on Saturday). This festival is one of the largest - if not the largest - of its kind in the country and this is my sixth consecutive year as a participant and always have a great time.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 05:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With the days rapidly ticking down toward the start of the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival I took a break from my preparations yesterday afternoon to do some scouting for my field workshops. Hopefully the wind that has been blowing the past couple of days will lay down a bit (though I will put up with it if it means the sun will be shining). As I was driving along a pair of Roseate Spoonbills flew in and landing near the wildlife drive and began to forage which prompted me to stop and shoot a little.

Spoonbills have evolved with highly sensitive nerve endings in their bills and they forage by sweeping them, partially open, side-to-side in shallow water. When the bill makes contact with prey it snaps shut and the "Spoonie" snaps its head back quickly, throwing the food back toward the throat. I cropped the original tightly here - as near as I can tell it is a small fish that looks like the tail is curled back toward the head. I shot twice in this sequence and in the second image the fish is gone - shutter speed was 1/1250 second with 8 frames/second capability - an indication that this process happens very quickly.

While waiting for the Spoonbills to wander back my way I had a bit of a chuckle when some passersby stopped to ask if the pink birds were Flamingos. The driver seemed a bit put off when I replied "No, they are Roseate Spoonbills" by responding to my answer with disappointment in her voice, just saying "Oh" and driving on down the road. Too many plastic Flamingos in yards around the state, I guess.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 06:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Other than quizzes I have been ignoring the blog quite a bit since coming back to Florida (nearly a month ago already!). Between catching up with friends/family (& eating out far too much) and working on festival related projects things have kept me pretty busy. Yesterday we moved down to Mims (FL) and will be here through the end of the Space Coast Birding & Wildlifefestival.

it is kind of nice being closer than 40 miles from Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for a change; at least for the next few days can just pop over there anytime I please and arrive in a matter of minutes. A lap around Blackpoint Wildlife Drive did not reveal anything unusual this morning; some Roseate Spoonbills were near the road in one area but they were surrounded by photographers and I decided to take a rain check on them for today. On the way back to the campground I checked, as I almost always do, at Parrish Park where I came upon some Lesser Scaup that were (ususally) close to shore. The image at the top of the post is a drake (male) with a hen to the left of this paragraph.With a stiff wind blowing in my face made for some tricky image making as I had to try and time my shots when they were in a trough between wave. It was quite a challenge . . .

This male kept looking back at me while standing on a clump of vegetation with this look that seemed as if he was saying "and just exactly what is it you are doing back there, pal?" With hunting season winding down, maybe that shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Our bird for this week's quiz can be most often on pine woodlands around the southeastern U.S. - have fun and good luck!

Last week's bird, with only head and neck to look at turned out to be a little trickier than I had anticipated. The keys to identification here are eye color, lores color (the fleshy area between the bill and eye), and bill color.The possibilities for white members of the heron/egret family in Florida would be the following: Great White Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, white morph Reddish Egret, immature Little Blue Heron, and Cattle Egret. We can eliminate Great White Heron, Great Egret, and immature Little Blue Heron based upon bill color (the first 2 having yellow bills, the LBH bill is bicolored, grayish and black). Snowy Egret drops by the wayside because of yellow lores (which are red in breeding plumage) and also a dark eye. The Cattle Egret has a yellow bill and lores in non-breeding plumage; immature Cattle Egrets do have a dark bill but still have yellow lores. Light eyes, dark lores and dark bill leave us with only the white morph Reddish Egret - our bird for quiz #31!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The answer to last week's quiz was Semipalmated Plover (which gets its name from the partial webbing on it feet - as does the Semipalmated Sandpiper).

This week's bird is one of those sought after Florida birds (they are found in Texas, too). All you get is a head shot but there should be enough clues available to guide you. Good luck!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Craig at Peregrine's Bird Blog has served up an outstanding collection of entrees for this week's edition of I and the Bird, so pop on over and have a taste!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, I didn't go out for a "Big Day" and found 104 species of birds in 24 hours. That is the number of Junk Comments ("spam") I received from 11 p.m. Monday to 11 p.m. Tuesday here at the blog. It seems that nearly all of them (about 90%) originated from someone who thought I might be able to understand anything beyond the opening words "Buon giorno!".

It wouldn't bother me so much but I have to set the "junk" filter high to keep from having my email inbox fill up with this drivel. The downside is that it requires me to check daily because the filter will occasionally decide a legitimate comment - not that I get that many - is "junk".

Not that there is even the slightest chance that you will actually read this whoever you may be but if, by some strange quirk of fate, I decide I might be interested in viewing Italian porn sites, I am certain that I can find them on my own. Google can probably hook me right up. And I certainly don't need 700 reminders per week in a language that I do not understand (or the previous version - an incredibly pitiful attempt at English) to point me there. So either do something productive to help the planet and/or its inhabitants with your technical skills or F.O.A.D.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obviously I haven't been doing much photography (or blogging!) over the past 2 weeks, but this morning looked like it was going to be pretty nice and I just couldn't stand it. So I packed up the dog and my camera stuff and set out for Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It was at MINWR (mihn-wahr - rhymes with "jar" - to us "locals") that I was bitten by the bug a bit over 7 years ago and it is a place I have visited many, many times over that span of time. Blackpoint Wildlife Drive provides viewing and photography possibilities that are hard to find at a lot of the refuges (quite frankly, I think it should be the model for all the other refuges in how to design a wildlife drive/auto tour route). This Northern Pintail drake - along with a hen and rafts of Blue-winged Teal and American Coots - was probably not much more than 25 feet from the edge of the drive.

Just outside the main entrance to the refuge is Parrish Park along the shores of the Indian River. The park itself is on both sides of the causeway over the river; I often check the area on the north shore east of the drawbridge for shorebirds. This morning, in addition to this Dunlin, there were Ruddy Turnstones, Short-billed Dowitchers, Least Sandpipers, and Sanderlings. Not to mention "both" Blue Herons (Little and Great), a White Ibis, plus a Common Loon I saw about 300 feet from shore. (Without a Space Center pass, this spot is also a great location to watch shuttle launches if you get there early enough.)

And of course I never complain when I get a chance to grab a shot of a Roseate Spoonbill flying by in nice morning light while out on Blackpoint.

Should probably also mention that Merritt Island NWR is the centerpiece of the upcoming Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival. Stop by and say "hi" if your going to be there ("Or, better still, sign up for one of my seminars or workshops!" he says in a shameless bit of self-promotion).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The day almost got by me even though I'd had a conversation with a friend last night about today being "quiz day". After a couple of weeks featuring passerines ("perchingbirds"), we'll switch gears this week and have a look at another Winter visitor to Florida that you will most likely find on a beach.

Last week's bird was aPalm Warbler in Winter plumage (one of those badly mis-named birds - they nest in bogs in the boreal forests of Canada and in winter are usually found along forest edges or in fields).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)