Wood 'n' Spoon

Haha - get it? Wooden Spoon (Wood Stork and Roseate Spoonbill)!

I was up at dawn this morning and decided to take a quick trip over to Boca Ciega to see what kinds of birds were out and about. I saw my first snake - a tiny Eastern Ribbonsnake. The pictures I took of it were crap since it was still too dark out for Big Daddy to function even remotely well. Still, it was cool to see it, draped on a big palm frond trying to warm up. I saw a hawk come within inches of catching a small rabbit and another hawk perched on a snag watching for prey. Lots of ibis, herons and egrets getting about their days. But when I saw a flash of pink in the sky, my pulse took a jump - roseate spoonbill! The coolest of the FL birds, in my estimation. I was so intent on trying to get an even halfway decent in-flight shot of the great pink one, that I failed to notice the "other" bird in the frame. When I got home, I realized that the bird out front was a Wood Stork, also one of my very favorite of the FL birds. So, the blip choice became easy.

Apparently the Palm Warblers have started arriving as I saw many of them flitting around in the trees. They winter in FL so I am sure I will have many chances to photograph them; however, I couldn't pass up a few snaps today. this one being my favorite. The other cool songbird this morning was a white-eyed vireo, showing it's namesake pale eyes.

The rest of my day has been work and chores. Last night's butternut squash soup was so good that we will be eating the leftovers again tonight. Which makes dinner easy. Which means that I may just take a quick trip over to Lake Seminole to see if there is anything interesting lurking about. All in the interest of research, of course!

Tomorrow morning hubs and I have an appointment at the DMV to get both cars registered and for hubs to (finally) get his FL license. I think that after we are done there, I may head down to Ft. DeSoto again to see if I can find some more shore birds. It is such a neat place and there is so much of it to explore!

Thanks for sending my Little Blue to the spotlight page - I appreciate all the comments, stars and faves so very much.

Happy Hump Day, people...

Debbi

And while today is not Saturday, I would still like to dedicate my spoonbill today to BCAM