We took a sunset cruise around Pelican Island NWR yesterday and saw lots of birds.

Ospreys everywhere







Pelican Island





Other islands nearby









Mother dolphin and calf hunting in the shallow water





Couple of days in Colorado this week.





At home, things are wonderful, and terrible. Wonderful because there are more hummingbirds and painted buntings than ever! But terrible because they are leaving soon. So I will enjoy them while they are here!





I was wondering if this might be a female broad-billed. Will have to try and get some better photos.



Lots of ruby-throats.

While I have been up north, spring is here in South Florida. In my garden, coral bean plant is covered with blooms, the trees are flushed with bright green growth, and the hummingbirds and painted buntings are feeding up for their migration. Yesterday we saw our first Swallow-tailed kite, a sure sign that summer is on the way.









Screech owl waiting for the sun to go down (not in my garden unfortunately!)





I just got back from a work trip to Texas. While out there I was able to visit the Bracken Bat cave, which is the largest gathering of mammals on the planet. Up to 20 million bats roost in the cave and emerge at night to feed.



Bats only beyond this point



Predators also gather to prey on the bats as they emerge.



I recently bought a digiscoping adapter for the spotting scope and it has worked amazingly well. The Snapzoom attaches a cellphone camera to the scope for photo or video capture. I have the scope set up on a favored hummingbird perch in the garden, and here's the result:



Pretty good, considering it's a phone camera!

Great horned owl nest in the visitor center parking lot at Everglades National Park





Another parking lot nest, this time Barred Owls





One parent kept a close eye on the nest





The other one stayed nearby



It has been a bit of a crazy week. From flood, to freeze, to fire.

Last Saturday we got over 10 inches of rain.





Then I headed up to Canada, with temps of -10 and an ice storm







Got great looks at snow bunting and horned lark. Also had a drive-by short-eared owl!



Got home, thawed out, and enjoyed my butterflies. Lots of monarchs this week. Painted buntings and hummingbirds still here.



Then it got up to 92 in the Everglades on Friday. Kind of a shock to the system!