Only a week in to Spring and here we have more babies!

I was pretty psyched about finding two young Barred Owl unexpectedly.

This was the first one I saw, waaaay up there in a tall tree…

I was especially surprised to find the second one, in another tree, too hidden by leaves and shadows to bother with a photo. But so cute to view with binoculars!

Then, I figured with two babies about, the parents could not be far off. I looked for a long time and eventually found one on the outskirts of the park. Majestic!

We are fortunate to have a Great Egret rookery in a lovely little park in the middle of town. The park is in a neighborhood, with the majority of the nests being in a tree that is hanging over the road, and up against power lines. Sometimes, I’m just like, really birds? This is the best you could do? But whatever, now I get to enjoy them. The park also has a lot of nesting Anhinga, and I noticed one Great Blue Heron nest with chicks in it.

The adult above is in all it’s beauty of breeding colors and plumage.

An egg fallen to the ground. Beautiful color!

The beautiful Sandhill Crane’s are common around here. I love Spring, when the pairs start nesting and turning up with adorable little yellow chicks. Then you get to watch them grow all Spring and Summer. Of course the first few weeks are the best, I could watch these babes all day…

While I was in North Carolina I saw some ducks. I wondered, all the ducklings in Florida have already grown up, but in North Carolina things happen a bit later in the season… might there be ducklings? And then! A bit after the parents came out they were followed by many adorable ducklings!

My favorite thing about Merritt Island right now is the Green Heron’s nesting in the mangroves. There are also Boat-tailed Grackle’s with chicks in the nest, and a pair of Eastern Kingbird’s building a nest last time I was there.

At this point you can see all ages of Green Heron’s there. Some are still sitting on the nest, others have little fuzzy heads poking out, while various sizes of chicks perch on branches.

I love this time of year! Cuteness.

There are a lot of Sandhill Cranes hanging about Viera Wetlands right now. Last year I was happy to observe one couple with it’s young throughout the Spring and Summer, starting with this absolute cuteness:

That was the only pair around then, but last weekend I saw two pairs with little babes, a pair on a nest, and two other pairs wandering around… it’s pretty cool to go and see all the pairs doing their thing.

More and more butterflies and flowers popping up, birds building nests all over the place. Spring is coming!

I went to Viera Wetlands last Friday. Not too many photos from the trip, but I did see lots of little ones, and some cool sights as always… the Great Blue Heron wrestling a Giant Salamander definitely stood out! Sorry I didn’t get a photo of that, it was something that could not be seen without the help of my amazing binoculars!

This is my first summer spent bird watching and I have to say that even though there are a lot more birds in winter, there are some amazing things to see in summer. I’ve seen birds courting, nesting, and babies growing up!  It’s also given me more time to focus on observing individual birds. Definitely worth the time to bird watch year round.

Red shouldered hawk, and moorhen with youngin’ above.

This morning I went out to Viera Wetlands for some bird watching. It was a beautiful cloudy morning, and there were chicks everywhere. The most exciting was a pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks with 15 ducklings!

Adorable!