I thought I’d post a few more photos from last Saturday’s trip to Osceola County. I hope you enjoy them.
Florida cow country: Joe Overstreet Road goes right through several cattle pastures. I imagine they look the same as they did a hundred years ago.
Snail Kite launch. We usually see one at the landing and it may be the same bird each time.
Killdeer in flight. I normally find these on the ground. This is the first time I’ve managed a flight photo of one.
Bird on a wire 4 – American Kestrel. I rarely catch sight of these and was excited to spot several on this trip.
Sandhill Cranes on final approach. There were more Sandhill Cranes (~50+) in the pastures along Joe Overstreet that morning than I’ve ever seen in one place before. I’m guessing the extras were winter migrants in from Wisconsin. Several of the cranes were banded.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Not a great photo, but this is a life bird (first sighting) for me – so I’ll include it. There were two and they stayed quite far away from us.
Osceola County / Joe Overstreet Road is a wonderful place! In addition to the eagles and these birds, we also spotted Purple Gallinules, Ospreys, Eastern Meadowlarks, Loggerhead Shrikes, Palm Warblers, Eastern Phoebes, Savanah Sparrows, our normal wading birds and others. We looked for Bobwhites and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (at Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area), but didn’t find any.
You can view more of my photos from there in this album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157670869688025
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2020, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
Birds all very different from anything we get over here – great to see!
Hi Rhona!
I’ve been to the UK a few times on business, but it was before I paid any attention to birds. It’d be nice to go back over and try to spot some of your different ones.
Ed
Beautiful images…thank you for the view!
You’re very welcome, Dorothy – and thank you!
Ed, thank you for a wonderful post. It went very well with my morning coffee.
That area is among my absolute favorite on earth. I grew up fishing on Lake Kissimmee and absolutely jump at a chance to ramble around Three Lakes WMA. Joe Overstreet road always produces a surprise or two and lounging along the shore at the landing recharges one’s batteries.
If you haven’t already, and are so inclined, read “A Land Remembered”, by Patrick D. Smith, who spent his latter years as a resident of Merritt Island. Great story about that area of Florida from the Civil War to the mid-1960’s.
Again, thank you for sharing your wonderful photographs of a piece of Florida I cherish.
Wally,
Thank you for reading my blog and leaving such a nice comment. Osceola County is one of my favorites too, although I don’t get down there as often as I should.
My wife has a copy of all of the Patrick Smith books and they’ve been on my list to read for a while. I think you’ve motivated me to read that one next.
I’ve enjoyed getting to know you a little bit on-line. We should get together in real life sometime at least for coffee or maybe even to make some photographs together.
Ed