Birding at Home

We live in a housing development neighborhood, like most of central Florida. Our unincorporated development, built in the 1970s, contains houses on a golf course (soon to be a park), on canals, on wooded areas, and for a very few, on a creek. We chose a house on the creek. Across this tidal creek less than ¼ mile south is a county park and kayak launch, with a conservation area across from that and all along the creek on the opposite side. We live a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico, and in spite of the 6 lane very busy state highway with the famous Florida sprawl just over a mile away, we get a lot of wildlife, especially birds.

This year our water stations attracted a flock of Yellow-rumped warblers, who took up residence in the wooded areas along the creek and visit daily. Our resident Blue Jay does a fairly good imitation of a Red shouldered hawk, just good enough to clear the watering stations so he can have them to himself. I know spring arrived when I hear the Chuck Wills Widow calling just before dawn from a perch on our back fence as I get my coffee and try to wake up. In the warmer weather while I swim late afternoons, I can often look up and see the American Eagles soaring overhead. They nest about a mile from here as the birds flies, but a much longer distance for those of us who take the roads.

Our formerly feral cats, now happy house cats with no desire to venture outside, still love to pretend they are the great hunters in our screened in back yard. Or perhaps not so great, I think that is why they were so eager to get rescued. One recent morning we heard loud chattering and looked outside. Midnight sat looking up, sometimes crouching down as if to attack, and making the low chatter noise cats do. Looking up we saw a Great Blue Heron standing comfortable on the screen. The heron peered briefly downward and eyed the cats, then resumed its pose for at least half an hour as both Sassy and Midnight postured.

As usual, both stopped when they saw the camera. I laid down on the concrete with camera in hand waiting for them to start again, and finally Midnight, not able to resist anymore, came back to let the heron know she was still there. Getting both in the shot proved difficult, but I waited and finally managed to get it. It is only a snapshot, but a start at the challenging process I mentioned a few months ago of getting our cats used to the camera enough that we can start doing some photography with them.