Fort De Soto Spring Migration, 11 Apr 2024

Bird photography was slow today because of the weather. In the morning it was overcast with strong 25 mph winds. I started late while waiting on some light to come into the sky and brewed a pot of coffee. About 45 minutes later I started walking towards the fountain next to the Ranger station. Along the trail I got pretty damp from the sea spray coming off the water. No one was at the fountain when I got there, and about 5 minutes later I realized I didn’t have a CF card in my camera. I hurried back to the van, got a card and also picked up my 1.4x teleconverter, and got back to the fountain. About 10 minutes later another photographer joined me and soon a Prothonotary Warbler landed on the fountain. It got a few sips of water, ate a Roly poly, then took off. I waited another 45 minutes and enjoyed a conversation with the other photographer, Fred. Fred is from Canada, retired, and visits Florida annually. It was nice to meet Fred.

Prothonotary Warbler. Nikon Z8 with 1.4x TC and Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 lens at 1120mm, f/9, 1/1250 sec, ISO 7200.

Next I went to the East Beach turnaround. There I saw the Prairie Warbler but because of the violent thrashing of the tree branches the bird was perched on I didn’t really get a better shot than I took earlier in the week. I then went over to the East Beach Picnic Area.

There I found a Scarlet Tanager - probably the same one I’ve been seeing all week. It’s been hanging out with a group of Northern Cardinals and European Starlings. When I first approached it was on the ground and it flew up into an oak. After a few minutes it flew out of the oak onto a nearby bush. I managed to get a few shots before it quickly left the area.

Scarlet Tanager. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 lens at f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 1600.

I walked around the picnic area some more but didn’t see anything. The weather was only getting worse, and with work to do I called it a morning. As soon as I got back to my campsite the clouds opened up and down came a heavy rain. It lasted only about an hour, and with the front through the wind died down significantly. I went out later that evening to the North Beach and there were large standing puddles of water all over the place. Surprisingly, shorebirds such as Willet, Snowy Egrets, Greater Yellowlegs, and Marbled Godwits were in these puddles feeding.

Greater Yellowlegs. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 lens at f/8, 1/2500 sec, ISO 1100.

Snowy Egret. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 lens at f/8, 1/2500 sec, ISO 500.

Willet. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 lens at f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 560.

The wind really put a damper on the morning, but I am very hopeful the following day will be better. The forecast tomorrow looks great.

Happy birding!

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Fort De Soto Spring Migration, 12 April 2024

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Fort De Soto Spring Migration, 9-10 April 2024