Viewing post #1023975 by mellielong

Birds have been making the news here in Florida! There was an editorial in the Tampa Bay Times from one of our state legislators who has introduced a bill to make the Florida Scrub Jay our official state bird. Right now it's the Mockingbird, but as he pointed out, that was set by a non-binding resolution and is not official state law. Here's hoping it gets changed!

Dad read where there were rare sightings of Wood Storks in the Keys. I got confused because for some reason when I hear "Wood Stork" my mind interprets it as "Whooping Crane". Although, when I see a Wood Stork, I know them. Saw two of them a few weeks ago - remember the pics? Well, I guess they aren't seen in the Keys much, as they prefer to stick to the Everglades. Here's an article about it: http://www.heraldtribune.com/a...

Now, if you thought I was bad at bird photos, my dad is worse. To be fair, his camera is not nearly as good. We're working on upgrading him. So he went to the neighborhood immediately north of us today, Land O' Lakes, FL. Sadly, I learned as a child that it's not where the butter comes from. But it is where my favorite Starbucks is located. He was checking out an Elephant Ear tree (woodturners call it "monkeypod") that is being taken down. His wood friends want to salvage the wood. While he was there, the owner and my dad both spotted what Dad called "bluebirds". Dad actually knows birds pretty well; he duck hunted for a long time. He said there were two and they were in the Brazilian Pepper. That stuff is highly invasive and the property owner is removing it, but it's a constant battle, especially when birds spread the seeds! Anyway, he aimed his camera in the general direction of the birds and got one photo where you can almost tell what it is. I blew it up so it's pretty pixelated, but look on the left side of the picture and tell me what you think.