Egmont Key NWR: 6-16-18

Today is Friday, June 29th, and the email we sent out this morning was returned from all 132 folks on our email list.  We’ll try to send it out later.  Happy Friday.

Royal Terns

During the winter months, the northern populations of this species migrate to Peru and Argentina.

Greenback Minnows were plentiful and the parents are taking full advantage returning to the beach to feed their single chick.

These terns feed primarily on fish rather than crab, more than any other tern.

Nesting in the grass

Many, many of their chicks are on the beach waiting to be fed

Deck shots

Mourning Dove

Blue Jay waiting for Lindsay to put out peanuts

Juvenile Brown Pelican swallowing its fish dinner

and off to look for more fish to eat

Mottled/Mallard Hybrid on our neighbor’s pool deck

Part of the Gang

Deck, Yard, Tank shots: 6-22-18

Turkey Vulture flying low over the shoreline smelling for dead prey.  As opposed to Black Vultures which rely primarily on their eyes to find prey, Turkey Vultures rely more on their sense of smell.

Bird Wrasse

Lemonpeel Angelfish

 Love that blue eye ring

Adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron drying its wings

Young-of-the-year recently fledged

We miss hearing “our" Martins 

 All 16 of their gourds have been emptied of old nesting material,  cleaned with a weak solution of water and Clorox and stored away until mid-January when “our” birds return from their wintering grounds in Brazil.

Texas Bar Signs

Circle B Bar Reserve: 6-8-18

Female Anhinga

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

These ducks tend to nest in tree cavities.

Adult Bald Eagle near its nest

Tricolored Heron

Male Boat-tailed Grackle

Young Boat-tailed Grackles

Scratch that itch!

Red-shouldered Hawk

By the time they are 5 days old, nestling Red-shouldered Hawks can shoot their feces over the edge of their nest so bird poop on the ground is a sign of an active nest.

Notice how light the breast is on our Florida subspecies

as compared with the much darker color on the breasts of west coast birds