Brown Thrasher and a few more Florida birds.

 Racoon

I have photographed Common Grackle before but never as successfully as this.

The irridescent qualities of the plumage of these birds makes them very attractive. A mixture of purple, magenta and blue on a dark background.   

I had a fabulous afternoon at Okaheelee Nature Park, Palm Beach County today.  We had gone because we hoped  to see and photograph the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds that have been known to visit the feeders at the nature centre.  In the winter, a small colony of Painted Finches are regular visitors here as well and I  photographed them on my last Florida trip in March and April 2012.  Both of those species have yet to arrive so unfortunately i had to content my self with some othe very impressive residents.  The Brown Thrasher is a species that I have never ever seen before so you can imagine my excitement when, as we sat there watching the comings and goings right by the Visitors Centre a largish speckled brown bird crept forward to the seed spilt from the feeder above. This was a very smart bird, a close relative of the Northern Mockingbird apparently.  It was easy to see the family connection.  I have now, in the three days here, photographed three "lifers', that is, 3 species that I have never seen before.  Thi is a very satisfying result.

 

Brown Thrasher

On my previous trip to South Florida, I had taken a dodgy picture of an Oven Bird but I had hardly seen it properly let alone photograph it.  Today was different and I finished up with another series of pictures of the very interesting species.  This is a ground loving bird which crept around like a tiny rail with a cocked up tail.

 

 

Oven Bird

Blue Grey Gnatcatchers are a tiny little bird that are not as easy to see as you would hope even though you can hear them constantly (if they are around that is). It seems that they are very territorial because I watched them chasing each other aggressively.  Eventually patience was rewarded and one posed in front of me as it looked to feed.  They are "tit" like and creep around the branches acrobatically. 

Blue Grey Gnatcatcher.

Blue Jay

A female Red Cardinal

A male, I dont know enough about this lovely species to guess at the age. The plumage is worn so I doubt that it is a 2013 bird.

 The common dove species, a very attractive small bird, considerably smaller than the Collared Dove.