I am currently doing the ’30×30 challenge’ which I learned about through the blog resurrection fern. The challenge is for Canada, but I just loved the idea so I decided to do it personally without officially signing up… The challenge is to spend 30 minutes outside for 30 days, that is the month of June.

At the same time there in a challenge among birders to find as many different species within your selected county during the month of June. So these challenges go together perfectly!

Here are some of my highlights from the first week:

June 1st, Roseate Spoonbill at Lake Geneva (rare to see so inland)

June 2nd, two Swallow-tailed Kite’s

June 4th, Northern Parula mama with fledgeling

June 4th, gorgeous field of flowers along the shores of Lake Harney

June 5th, Brown-headed Nuthatch

June 7th, a very pretty juvenile White Ibis at Lake Jesup

June 8th, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher after a Red-shouldered Hawk… personally I thought it a bit daring for this tiny bird to be flying around the hawk like this!

June 8th, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at the Econ River… I love to see a hummingbird in the wild!

I haven’t been out too much lately, either “life” or weather has been getting in the way venturing of outside. I’ve only had a few little walks outside, but luckily I always find something cool even on those little walks. Here are a few photos from the last week.

Brown-headed Nuthatch. I love them!

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. One of the few birds I’ve seen often around my new neighborhood. The whole family was in the tree chattering the day I took this, but only this fledgling would come down to the low branches near me.

Red-shouldered Hawk chilling out in the shade.

I saw this couple of Red-shouldered Hawks and I was wondering how you could tell the difference between the male and female. Apparently the only identifying factor is that the female is larger than the male. So who knows…

I hadn’t been to Viera Wetlands in a few months so I went to check up on it. There are more birds at Merritt Island this Winter, but I am so excited to visit Viera this Spring! Why? Nestlings!! The Great Blue Heron’s are already setting up on the palms and the platform, and there are even more nests than last year…

Here are a few more shots from the day:

I was amused by the Gadwall and Coots having a tussle over this snack.

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.