Birds from St Marks NWR

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge is an amazing place. Sandie and I often drove down from Tallahassee after work. I'd spend every free moment there if I could. It was not uncommon for us to log 75 species in a day of looking. Many full days we logged nearly 100 species and I'm sure we never left with less that 50!

BROWN PELICAN silhouette near the lighthouse at St Marks NWR.

BALD EAGLE silhouette at sunset.

This image of a SOLITARY SANDPIPER was digiscoped using a Cannon P3 and a Nikon land & Sky scope. Digiscoping is a process where you physically attach your camera to your spotting scope. It can be a little cumbersome, but sometimes the results are worth it!

This is the EASTERN KINGBIRD.

This is an immature WHITE IBIS.

This is the GREAT EGRET.

These baby GREAT HORNED OWLS were found living in an abandoned BALD EAGLE nest. The nest was along way off the main road in St Marks NWR so this Digiscoped picture from the car window tripod is very grainy.

This BLACK NECKED STILT was feeding in the mud flats. When we first "discovered" black necked stilts we had already been going to St Marks regularly. We thought we had found a new exotic. Later we found them to be one of the more common birds in the refuge. Once we saw but never photographed baby Black Necked Stilts. They were amazing, little brown speckled chicks with LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG legs. Too cute.