Tag Archives: fulvous whistling duck

Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive – Jan. 7 2023

My good friend Kevin M. was in town a week ago and wanted to visit LAWLD. We also invited Lutfi and the three of us met and drove up together.

It’s about the same distance for me as Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and has a wide variety of birds to see (especially at this time of year). It’s one of my favorite places but I struggle to make landscape photos there. I think this is mostly because I like the light before sunrise and the gate doesn’t open until 7am. Anyway, I did make this one shortly after we arrived. It’s two RAW iPhone frames, stitched together and processed in Lightroom / Photoshop. I like the color contrast of the winter Cypress trees against the blue sky and water.

Winter CypressWinter Cypress

Small birds were plentiful near the entrance. Here are a couple I was able to make reasonable photos of:

On the rocksSwamp Sparrow on the rocks

Blue-gray GnatcatcherBlue-gray Gnatcatcher – more orange / blue contrast

And here are two more that we spotted near the Pump House:

Eastern PhoebeEastern Phoebe

Palm WarblerPalm Warbler

The marshy area across from the Pump House parking is a very good spot to watch birds nesting. Last year, we saw Anhingas, Cormorants, and Great Blue Herons nesting in April. It must be early for all but the herons – I spent several minutes Saturday enjoying this couple’s home renovations:

Great Blue Herons nesting - incoming branchGreat Blue Herons nesting – incoming branch

Raising offspring is hard for most every species. Seeing these birds cooperate to bring new life into the world is spellbinding and makes for a great photo op. I think my favorite photo of the trip is this gentle, back-lit handoff:

Great Blue Herons nesting - handoffGreat Blue Herons nesting – handoff

There’s almost always other action on LAWLD too. The Anhingas are adept anglers and with a little luck you can freeze action like this:

Anhinga Angler

LAWLD is the only place I’ve ever seen Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, so I was happy to spot them this time too.

Fulvous Whistling-Duck TrioFulvous Whistling-Duck Trio

We also saw: Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, a Painted Bunting, a Common Yellow-throat, Black-crowned Night Herons, Northern Harriers, a Red-shoulder Hawk, Tree Swallows, and many of our more common birds.

The header image title is “A very wild smile”. It’s a 3 frame panorama and looks impressively close. But I made it with my long lens from across a canal. You can see a larger version here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/52612944732/in/dateposted-public/

Winter’s such a fabulous time to visit! If you’ve been thinking about it go! It’s open to cars between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays. You can find much more info at this link: https://www.sjrwmd.com/lands/recreation/lake-apopka/. And you can view many more of my Lake Apopka photos at this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157656060310175. Finally, this eBird page lists bird species that’ve been observed there.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  I hope all of you are doing well and that you have a wonderful 2023! Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make a few photos!

©2023, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive – 13 December 2019

If you’ve been a photographer for any length of time, you might be familiar with “new gear jinx”.  It seems whenever we get new photo equipment, the weather turns bad for a while so we can’t use it.

The day was a little dreary and the light was dimThe day was dreary and the light was dim.  Lots of clouds, some fog and haze, and rain later in the morning.

Kevin M. and I both wanted to try out some new gear and in spite of the poor weather we’ve had lately, decided to defy the jinx and venture out to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive on Friday morning.  I’m very glad we did.  Here’s some of what we saw.

Fulvous Whistling-duckFulvous Whistling-duck.  There were quite a few.  I’d never seen one before, so this was a great addition to my life-list.  Thanks Kevin!

Common YellowthroatCommon Yellowthroat.  I posted a photo of one a few weeks ago, but this bird is much more colorful.

American BitternAmerican Bittern – in their classic frozen statue pose.  It eventually realized we could see it anyway and left.  By then, I wasn’t paying attention and missed the flight shot.

Eastern PhoebeEastern Phoebe. This must be a young one – it hasn’t learned to hide from photographers behind twigs and branches yet.

Black-crowned Night-Heron in flightBlack-crowned Night-Heron in flight.  We saw 4 or 5 of these on Friday.  They’ve been on Black Point Wildlife Drive too and  seem more common than usual this year.

There were hundreds (maybe thousands) of birds on the water – I haven’t seen that many in a long while.  Lots of coots, but also Redheads, Northern Shovelers, Blue-wing Teals, and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks too – among others.  We also saw a few alligators, all the other usual wading / water birds along with an occasional Belted Kingfisher, one young Bald Eagle, Red-winged Blackbirds, many Red-shoulder Hawks, and even one fast flying snipe.

Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive undoubtedly lives up to its name.  If you’re planning to go, it’s usually open Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays between sunrise and sunset. That poor light on Friday was a good test of our new gear but I ended up with a lot of photos I like.   I think we broke the jinx!

You can look through my blog posts about this wonderful place at this link: https://edrosack.com/category/photo-ops-in-florida/lake-apopka/.  And I’ve collected images from there in this album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157656060310175.  Also please click on the photos in these blog posts to view them in higher resolution on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos -even when the weather’s dreary!

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved