Oh yes @mellielong, I realized that! Was just saying Thanks! But I have relatives in Florida that I can pass that info on to.

This is the time of year when we see a lot more shorebirds around our area; I'm even spotting juveniles at different stages of feather coloration.

Cormorants ....................................... Pied-billed Grebes


Tri-colored Heron ..... and juveniles-one of the juveniles kept chasing the other


Two White Ibises @ different stages ...... Snowy Egret, Tricolored Herons, Great Egret

How fun that must be to watch. The juvenile Tri-colored Herons sure are cute!

Those Tri-Colored Herons have really bright yellow legs! That will help me in identifying them if I see one.

All right, time to steal some thunder! I was driving to my therapist's office today and noticed a variety of birds in one of the cow pastures. On the way home, they were still there, so I pulled over. Now, this is where I got stuck in the ditch previously, so I pulled ahead past a person's driveway and onto an area where the grass is flat. I made sure to put on my hazard lights and then walked toward the birds.

The first one I came upon is one I've been seeing, and thanks to everyone's pictures, I've figured out that I'm seeing Anhingas. The one I saw today didn't like me getting that close and dove under the water. I saw it stick its head up like a periscope. I thought it looked like a snake and I see that on allaboutbirds.com, it says they are also called the Snake Bird. I didn't get a picture, unfortunately.

So I continued on toward the cow pasture and here's what I saw.



There were two Wood Storks. They sure are weird-looking. This one was hanging with an Ibis.



The other one was hanging with the Great Egret.



And the White Ibises hang with each other. Sometimes, I see one alone and I'm like, "Where's your crew?"



And then I realized there was a Little Blue Heron in the group! For a blue-gray bird in a green field, they sure do blend in.

It is amazing how the colored birds can blend in! Take for instance, the painted bunting male:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...
You can't imagine that bird blending in with anything! But they DO! Somehow all that bright color ends up acting as camouflage.

Melanie, the Anhinga & the Cormorant can often be mistaken for one another especially when in the water where you only see their neck & head.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...
I learned a neat little trick to tell them apart. C for Cormorant --- the Cormorant has a "curved" bill -- actually it's called a hooked bill but at the tip of it, it's got a curve so when you try to distinguish, remember the curved beak belongs to the "C" for curved & Cormorant begins with a C.

Melanie, great shots! Looks like you are seeing an abundance of Herons, Egrets and Storks! The Wood Stork is an odd looking bird, isn't it? I used to think they were so ugly but over time they've grown on me. It took me a long while to distinguish and remember the differences between the Anhinga and the Cormorant. The Anhinga has a long pointed bill while the Cormorant has a thicker, hooked bill. These are some older photos but you can see the differences.

Anhinga, male


Anhinga, female


Cormorant's

Very useful, Lin! Now if I can just get them to hold still for pictures!

Red-rumped Parrots bouncing around my garden as we speak. I wonder if they are escapees. They are distributed patchily and uncommonly this far east.

Pretty birds, Glen.

Hi Glen, haven't seen you around in awhile ... or maybe it's just that we don't visit the same forums. Love those pretty Parrots ... are they destructive? It looks like the one in the first photo is eating a plant leaf.

I bet they are escapees Glen & most likely soon to be expanding their numbers & territory. Pretty birds.

Bird news from the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail on Facebook:

Rare birds wander off course from strong El Nino

Migratory birds are often affected during an El Nino year and this seems to be the case in fall 2015. Several very unusual records have already occurred in Florida. Variegated Flycatcher, Northern Wheatear and Mountain Bluebird have been spotted in the state, far from where they should be at this time of year. It also appears that large numbers of Franklin's Gulls have wandered off course, pushed eastwards off their typical migration route by an El Nino induced winter storm. This species is not considered very rare in Florida, we usually see several of them a year BUT in 2015 higher than usual numbers have been spotted all along the Eastern Atlantic coast, and eventually these birds will reach our shores. Birders along the Panhandle coast have already spotted a few.
Read about the Franklin's Gull Fallout on eBird
http://ebird.org/content/ebird...

Hello Lin. I have been back three months. I have been adjusting lifestyle issues like how to be rich, thin and not diabetic. So far I have only partly achieved the second one.

I saw that post on FB about the birds getting blown off course.

I have been putting out peanut suet this week instead of the usual and birds are loving it! The Pleated Woodpecker has been coming and eating now. No photos yet of it. It detects movement very well and takes off every time I have tried!

Glen, LOL ... if you figure out those Lifestyle Issues, I'd definitely like to know the secret.

I totally forgot to tell you guys that Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary won the Audubon App download contest and won an iPad for the sanctuary. So thanks if you were one who downloaded it through the link I posted!

I have only put out suet twice this month and both times the house sparrows had it gone in one day. I sure would love to be able to put out more for the woodpeckers but it's just too darn expensive to have to feed the sparrows the suet. They have sunflower seed they can eat but they don't discriminate on what they eat. They'll eat anything they see.

Cindy, that must be very annoying for sure, I have about 6 House Sparrows that have been hanging around and so far they haven't been at the suet at all.

That is annoying. We have lots of House Sparrows here, but they do not get on the suet too much. I have a pair of Carolina Wrens coming to now.