Category: Birds

From my office desk I can watch a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers who have selected a dead palm tree right outside the window to hollow out a nest cavity. Remember, folks, dead trees can be a home to wildlife just as easily as a live one. Keep that in mind before you cut down that old snag you think is an eyesore.


For the past few weeks they have been diligently excavating the cavity, oftentimes with excavated material being tossed out to the ground.





The pair take turns from working on the cavity to forage through the nearby trees looking for insects.




We put up an inexpensive bird feeder and the Woodpeckers took right to it. Oftentimes the Woodpeckers swoop straight from their cavity to the feeder. The often hidden red belly of this Red-bellied Woodpecker can be seen as the bird fetches a peanut out of the feeder. This…

A morning hike around the Indrio Savannahs Preserve in St. Lucie County turned out to be a bust. Not only were there few to no birds, but what birds there were kept to the deep shadows or were silhouetted against the Sun. Florida heating up into summer never portends well for bird sightings or photography.

I did not have to work at finding any Florida Scrub-Jays. They found me. But they coyly kept out of the light.

Lots of Red-bellied Woodpeckers around.

An Osprey drying its feathers in the Sun.

A Sandhill Crane between me and the Sun. You can see why the lighting is so frustrating.

The Sandhill Crane landed near this late season nest where another Crane looks to be incubating eggs.

A wider angle view of where the Sandhill Crane’s nest is located. If you look carefully you can see one of the Crane’s walking around in…