_DSC1163-Northern-Harrier

_DSC1163-Northern-Harrier, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

20120205_3058-Snack-Time

20120205_3058-Snack-Time, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

This shot was taken at Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando Florida.
This is Mom bringing in a squirrel for the babies lunch.

_DLS9906 Bird Tower

_DLS9906 Bird Tower, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

Well I drug myself out of my death bed this morning to head to MINWR with the hubby, I figured I would go for the ride to get out of the house being I didn't think I would be able to lift my camera with the big lens anyways. So as we headed into Merritt the skies looked awesome and every time we pass this tower of birds in the morning I say I will stop next time, well it was next time. I sure wouldn't want to be any of the birds on the bottom. Next we headed to Bio Lab to see if we could find the Bob Cat with her 2 kits or cubs, I guess I need to find out which it is.

Well here we are at the beach off of Bio Lab road and so far the only tracks or signs of a 4 legged critter is this, 

Yes raccoon tracks and this is one big raccoon from the size of his feet.

Then back on Bio Lab rd to continue our quest

We then came across this beautiful 3-4 year old Juvenile Bold Eagle.  These are our most favorite bird to photograph, both Brian and I think these are the most amazing birds to watch and of coarse all the birds of the raptor family are awesome.

 Then we have Red a beautiful Reddish Egret on Black Pointe Dr that always puts on a show for us hunting for food, one day I hope to get a little bigger fish.

I was able to get one shot off of the spoonies flying into the mangrove area at Ducks Unlimited.

Here is some of our regulars, Nancy Elwood, Kathy Urbach ( the one jumping up and down to try and get the birds to fly or something ), then we have Sally Tomlinson, Mike Libby and somewhere is Michael Godwin, and sorry I do not know who the gentleman on the left is. We didn't stick around real long with the gang as I don't know if i am still contagious or not and would feel terrible if I passed this on to others.

Then we have our famous little Horned Grebe which hangs out by the restrooms.  This little guy or girl if you notice has a broken off top beak but he or she doesn't seem to have a problem fishing.

Our last stop of the day is on our way home leaving MINWR. This eagles nest almost always has some kind of action. Today as we were driving up the road there was an eagle fight between the male eagle and an intruder it seemed like they were flying and fighting going in the opposite direction and we just couldn't get close enough to jump out of the jeep and fire off a few shots, so I opted for at least a shot of the female sitting in the nest. We should have babies pretty soon.

_DLS9688 Sora

_DLS9688 Sora, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

The birding season has started and this little Sora was one of the 2 we found at MINWR Thanks to Frank Salmon for pointing it out and then hubby Brian Schmidt found the other one just a few feet away. So I now can check this little bird off my lifer list.

_DLS8285-Coyote

_DLS8285-Coyote, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

Also taken today with the Nikon D700, F 4.5, SS 800, Iso 2000.
I this was kinda a funny picture as nature has to take it's coarse even if you are being followed by a crazy photographer.

_DLS8287-Coyote

_DLS8287-Coyote, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

This Image was also taken today at Greenwood Cemetery but with my D700.
F4.5, SS 800, ISO 2000 and very little noise same lens as last pic, Nikon 500mm.

_DLS0936-Coyote

_DLS0936-Coyote, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

Taken today at Greenwood Cemetery with the new D7000, This isn't the best exposer pic but the composition and story I love. I'm not sure if I am happy with this camera being the ISO is suppose to be such a great feature to this camera and I'm not seeing it. I hope that there is a setting I am missing or something because this image was taken at 1600 ISO, F5, SS 1600 and the noise was terrible and even Topaz De-noise didn't take care of the problem as nicely as I would have liked, but I also could use some lessons in Photoshop and how to post edit better.
Thanks for looking.

20111210_2204-Pied-Billed-Griebe

20111210_2204-Pied-Billed-Griebe, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

We had a great day shooting at Viera and Merritt Island despite the horrible weather. This is a Pied-Billed Griebe walking on water, they just crack me up.

_DLS6764-Eagle-in-flight

_DLS6764-Eagle-in-flight, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

_DLS7273-GBH-Couple

_DLS7273-GBH-Couple, a photo by dschmidtphoto on Flickr.

The chill is in the air and nesting season has begun, this image was take at Viera December 3, 2011 Let the birding season begin.