Ready to Play

 

Beautiful weather in NYC last week and the crowds came out to enjoy the weather. Street performers also came out in droves to get their share of sunshine and potential dollars. This guy in Central Park had some character and style. Always a nice time walking NYC in great weather. 

Skating in NYC

 

With snow left over from last week's storm, NYC had a bit of snow still around to give the Central Park ice rink a nice winterly look. 

The Right Light

 

I always think New York City looks amazing in the right light. This is from Washington Square Park (I think) on the way to visit the Strand, an amazing book store and a must visit for me when I am in New York. Unfortunately, I also like to visit Central Park and those two locations are very, very far from each other. The rest of my visit, I pay the price with pain in my legs and hips. Oh well. It happens.  

Painted Bunting

 

There have been a couple of birds that have taken my breath away as they standout in the crowd of colorful birds. This one, the Painted Bunting, has to top them all. The blues, reds and yellows, oh my! This bird has it all. You would think it was a tropical bird and maybe it is, living in a swath of Texas/Oklahoma over to Florida and south into Mexico and Central America. Just a beautiful bird. This one was an easy find as it is a feeder bird and therefore hanging around the Merritt Island Visitor Center. That area is well worth a visit if you are anywhere near the Space Coast area of Florida. 

A New Bird

 

You never know what a random Saturday will bring to the feeder. Mostly, it is the same birds over and over. At the thistle feeder, you get mostly American Goldfinch's, House Finches and on the ground below, Dark-eyed Juncos. Today, out of nowhere, 12 Pine Sisken's show up. Never seen them in the backyard before and actually, they are a lifer for me, as I never got a chance to see one yet in the wild. So, a two-for. A new backyard bird and a new bird!!! Not bad for a Saturday morning. They are a pretty bird, heavily streaked with yellow across the wing bars, similar to an American Goldfinch. With the 14 new lifers that I got in January and February in two trips to Florida, the Pine Siskin makes 311 birds (I think) and 35 backyard birds. Not a bad start to the year!!! 

Florida Birding

 

Got to do a couple of days R&R in Florida and joined in the Space Coast Birding Festival. Lots of fun and new birds to add to the life list. Still working through about 4,000 shots!!! This is a boat trip I took to Pelican Island, a federally protected refuge for birds. This is just one portion of the island, which has weirdly sorted itself out into groups of roosting birds, each species pretty much staking out parts of the island and returning to that some locations, night after night, year after year. This pic has a couple of brown pelicans in front (along with a wood stork with its back to us) and a brown pelican flying over, white pelicans stacked in their typically location and more brown pelicans in the trees. So, just pelicans and the one stork in this shot but other parts of the island just to the left of this shot you have white ibis, egrets, many more storks and a variety of gulls. Interesting area and a wonderful trip.