BIF-Palooza Season is Back!

Well the winter months in Florida mean the birds are back in town to nest...which means it's bird-in-flight paradise again. I call it BIF-Palooza...bird photographers elsewhere would be jealous of the conditions here...warm, sunny, clear skies, and standing in one place for 45 minutes can net 3, 000 birds of at least 30 species all flying past you as close as 5 feet away. It's the laziest birding you've ever heard of...you could bring a lawn chair and plop down with a beer at your side, and just fire away in all directions - and come away with more species and more amazing close detail shots of in-flight birds in 30 minutes than some folks in other states get in an entire year of hiking and searching and sitting in hides.

So thought I'd just share a selection of some recent bird in flight shots over the past couple months...all taken at a place called Wakodahatchee Wetlands, with my A6300 and FE100-400mm lens:

Great blue heron soaring low:


Great blue heron doing an impression of a Sky Crane helicopter, hauling back nest materials:


Ibis flying past:


Anhinga cruising past the sunset-glow trees:


Snowy egret coming in to land at dusk after the sun had dropped below the trees:


Red-shouldered hawk flying straight on and fast:


Belted kingfisher watching the water below and preparing to dive bomb:


Osprey flying overhead:


Flock of Egyptian geese flying by:


Anhinga flying low:


Mottled duck flying high at dusk, catching the last reds of sunset glow:


Cattle egret making a close pass at sunset:


Cormorant hauling nesting materials at sunset:


Great egret soaring past fall colored trees:


Black-bellied whistling ducks cruising by in formation:

 

Thank you. This is prime time down here for birding as they're wintering, nesting, mating, and all very active. We increase our bird population about 4x compared to summer.

 

Nice! Hawks are always fun in the backyard...for us. Not so fun for the smaller birds in your yard, otherwise known as 'lunch' to the hawk.

We may soon have some baby red-shoulder hawks around our wetlands - this mating pair has been hanging close to each other for weeks now:

 

And just to continue the BIF-palooza season...a few more recent ones taken over the past few weekends...I had 13 different species in flight in the first post, and adding at least 6 additional species here, along with some additional shots of species already shown. That's 19 species of birds in flight taken from essentially one spot over just a few hours total time...that will give an idea of the diversity here this time of year!

Another great blue heron in some funky cloudy skies:


A new species for this thread - a little blue heron high above:


I know the GBH and this ibis almost look pasted into the scene - but I assure you they're not! A weird sky, plus the sun directly behind me lighting up the birds, gave an almost fill-flash type look (no flash was used):


Another new one for this thread...a glossy ibis:


How about a juvenile black-crowned night heron...another new one for the thread:


And here comes another new one - a tricolor heron flying low:


This big guy is the giant wood stork - they just arrived in early January to begin nesting...and when they arrive, they arrive en masse, with about 400 of them all arriving in this spot to start building nests:


This is one of those 'barely caught' shots - I was photographing this nice, rare American bittern in the reeds walking around, when he suddenly took fight - I had 2 seconds to switch my camera to BIF settings and grab a shot as he flew off - but I rarely get bitterns in flight:


Another snowy egret flying past in late sunset light:


A double crested cormorant looking a bit silly as he drops in to land right in front of me:


To give an idea how crowded the wetlands become during nesting season - here a great blue heron brakes to land, trying to find a spot among the numerous wood storks, the cormorants, and the anhingas behind and in front of him: