Tag: Clapper Rail | Central Florida Photo Ops

This is the best time of year to visit Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I made another rewarding trip a week ago and came home with many images I like. Here are some of them.

Clouds added a dose of drama to early scenes along Gator Creek. And with the calm winds and long exposure, the water surface doubled the golden light.

Dawn across the creek.

Once it was brighter, I headed over to Black Point Wildlife Drive and one of the first things I came across was a group of Black Skimmers doing their thing. The iBird app says these are along our coast year round, but I hardly ever see them except in the winter. This one showed off some fine form as it flew right in front of me. I was able to capture a number of frames – this was my best and it’s only slightly cropped.

Black Skimmer

The header image is from the same time / place. You can view a higher res version here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/53507251801/in/dateposted/.

In Central Florida we only see American White Pelicans in the winter months. They’re very large and it’s always fun to spot them. They can be difficult to photograph. Be careful with your exposure if you want to preserve detail in their white feathers (and black primary feathers too). These four were preparing to land along the trail at the SW corner of BPWD.

Final approach

This group / pod was preening in the shallow water along the same trail near the first bird blind. I liked this framing with the mangrove in the foreground, so I made two exposures (one focused on the mangrove and one on the pelicans). Then I was able to blend them in photoshop so both are sharp.

Preening Pod and mangrove

And two last birds, both also winter only around here. They aren’t easy to find as they usually skulk around in the mangrove roots and / or reeds along the canals or shorelines. They’re also a bit of a challenge to photograph since it’s dark back in there where they hang out! I was lucky to see them both!

Clapper Rail

Wilson’s Snipe

To close out this post, here’s a bonus landscape photo. This one is after sun up near the entrance to Black Point Wildlife Drive. I like the way the mist looks in the distance.

A little mist in the marsh this morning

For more info about conditions at MINWR, you could look at Wally Jones blog (https://ournaturalplaces.com), and the Birder’s Journey blog (https://birdersjourney.com). Both have recent articles about the refuge.

MINWR is a treasure and I’m very lucky to live so close. You should visit it if you can!

As usual, you can click on most photos in my blog to see higher resolution versions on Flickr. If you’re a glutton for photo punishment, I have (way too) many images from MINWR collected in this folder: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157627776386723/with/52112652632

P.S. I walked around Orlando Wetlands Park for a little bit yesterday. Bird activity is starting to pick up there too! I’m planning to revisit over the next month or so and hope to catch some of the bird courting / nesting activities. They started to pick up around this time last year.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog – I really appreciate it. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, check out a NWR close to you. And make some photos!

Four of us from the Photography Interest Group visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge yesterday for the first time this year. It was a beautiful Florida morning and this place is rockin’!!

As usual, we looked for a sunrise photo first. We found this old house behind the Brevard Community College and the sky cooperated.

Old house and sunrise

It was really hard to decide on the highlight of this trip. Before I left yesterday morning, I Googled MINWR, and saw a report of “a Great Horned Owl on a nest on the left near 402 and SR 3”. Sure enough, we drove right up to it and it was there waiting there for us! The internet is really handy, isn’t it?

Great Horned Owl on nest

The second contender for highlight of the day was a Clapper Rail. I’d seen reports of these too, but I’d never seen one before and didn’t know what to look for. We parked at the first parking area on Black Point Wildlife Drive and were exploring when we met a tourist from Brazil. He pointed out the bird for us, but it was back in the shadows and with the glare from the sun it took me a while to see it even with him pointing right at it! Fortunately, it moved a bit and I was able to get a photo. We eventually saw three in this area and one more at the second parking area.

These Clapper Rails are hard to see…

There were more people / cars on BPWLD yesterday than I’ve ever seen before. A couple of times there were real traffic jams! There were also more birds than I’ve seen there in a long time – maybe ever. We saw Ospreys, Clapper Rails, Pintail Ducks, Coots, Moorhens, White Pelicans, Mottled Ducks, Green Wing Teals, Belted Kingfishers, Anhingas, Cormorants, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Reddish Egrets, Little Blue Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Savannah Sparrows, Tree Sparrows, Tricolored Herons, Woodstorks, Roseate Spoonbills, a Great Horned Owl, Painted Buntings, various gulls, Red-winged Blackbirds, and others.

After BPWLD, we drove by the owl again and it was still there. Then we went by the visitor center to check on the Painted Buntings. There were at least two of them at the feeder. After that we had to return home – a couple of us had things to do in the normal world. 🙁

If you’ve meant to visit MINWR and haven’t made it yet – get out there now. I’ve never seen it better! You can click on the photos above to go to Flickr, where you can see a larger version as well as any comments and discussion about them. Click here to visit my Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge set, and click here to visit my Black Point Wildlife Drive set on Flickr.

By the way, I started an “Ed’s Life List” page to record the bird species I’ve seen in the wild. I’ll keep my list there and try to keep up to date as I go. Please visit if you get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Central Florida Photo Ops

What and where they are and how to photograph them.

Tag Archives: Clapper Rail

MINWR: 2/2/24