Wordless Whistlers on Wednesday

Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo.  Enjoy!

 

Wood Storks in The Villages

I am seeing a lot more Wood Storks right now here in The Villages, Florida.  They prefer wading in marshy areas like the edges of ponds lakes.  Wood Storks are aquatic meat-eating (small fish are preferred) birds and rarely will dine on seeds.

Wood Storks are terrific flyers and roost in tall trees in colonies.  These birds generally live about 11-13 years.  The juveniles are the ones with the bony plated head with light brown fuzzy feathering and light-colored big bills.  Wood Storks remain a threatened species here in the USA.

Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

 

Tri-Colored Herons

Tri-Colored Heron was recently seen at a small pond here in The Villages, FL.  These medium-sized wading birds actually are members of the egret family and are lovely.   Tri-Colored Herons have a steel-blue color with cream and rust on the chest and neck and greenish yellow legs and feet.  These birds eat fish, frogs, small turtles, aquatic snails, crayfish, baby alligators, and larger aquatic insects.

The Tri-Colored Herons are excellent flyers but usually fly short distances by themselves or in very small groups.  They mostly flock up when flying long distances.  They roost in tall trees that are close to ponds, lakes, marshes or rivers.  I especially enjoy spotting the Tri-colored Herons here.   Tri-Colored Herons are not often seen around the local community except during the breeding season in Winter.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photograph.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

White Pelicans &  Wood Stork at the Nancy Lopez Legacy Golf Pond

I took these pictures early last evening 10/21/19 in The Villages, FL.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

Cormorants, Geese, Egrets, Herons at Freedom Pointe Lake

Wood Storks at Freedom Pointe Lake

Double-crested Cormorants at Freedom Pointe Lake

 

Great Blue Heron at the Nancy Lopez Legacy Golf Course Pond

Double-crested Cormorant at the Nancy Lopez Legacy Golf Course Pond

Great Egret at the Lopez Legacy Golf Course Pond

Wordless Fri.: Flying Waders

Juvenile White Ibis

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo.  Enjoy!

Great Egret

Tri-colored Heron

Wood Stork

 

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Wood Stork

Some of the More Unusual Birds That Have Visited Us

Limpkin

Roseate Spoonbills, Sandhill Cranes, Wood Storks, Limpkins, a Black Crowned Night Heron, Egyptian Geese, White-phase Little Blue Herons,  and Green Herons have all been photographed in freshwater marshes (sometimes referred to as “Prairies”), ponds, and small lakes here in or near The Villages, Florida.  I love seeing these birds!

The Roseate Spoonbill (only seen here once in the four years I have lived here, the Black-crowned and White Little Blue Heron have to be the most seldom seen here of all of the above mentioned wading birds.  The most common are the Wood Storks and Sandhill Cranes among the ones I am featuring today.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

Egyptian Geese

White Phase Little Blue Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

 

 

Roseate Spoonbill with Great Egrets

 

Wood Storks

Green Heron

Sandhill Cranes

Great Blue Herons

Great Blue Herons are now beginning to raise young and are molting (losing breeding feathers) so they are mostly on their nests unless hunting for a meal.  They wade in shallow water in the early morning and late afternoon to catch fish, frogs, ducklings, shoreline snakes, lizards, and nearly anything else they can catch to eat.

We have a year-around population of Great Blue Herons here in The Villages, Florida.  These birds nest in colonies way up in sturdy Oaks and Pines near ponds or lakes.  Many are now proud parents and will be raising chicks for several more weeks.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo.  Enjoy!