Welcome to Week #42 of the Bird Weekly Photo Challenge. Week #42 challenge is Birds you have seen in the past two weeks. I hope you were able to go out and do some birding.
The feature image is a female Common Grackle who decided to join us for lunch uninvited.
Many of my shots are not crystal clear from this trip. Near the end of our 11 1/2 hours at St. Marks Wildlife Refuge, I realized my switch had been flipped on my lens for stabilization. It was OFF! I don’t use a tripod and I’m a bit shaky at times. Regardless, we saw 46 species and picked up 11 new species for the year, bringing our total to 133. This was a light day compared to our trip there in January when we logged 73 species in 9 1/2 hours.
We spent the whole day looking for the American Flamingo with NO SUCCESS. The bird had been seen for 4 days straight prior to our trip. A front came in and who knows where that bird was hanging out. So we are clear, there is only one flamingo! I have shared the distant photo from when we saw this bird last year.
Shorebirds
We only went on one birding adventure during our anniversary week. The weather didn’t cooperate for us to get out on the other days. We drove to St. Marks Wildlife Refuge and hiked to the back ponds behind the tower where we found over one thousand shorebirds. Sandpipers, Plovers, Dowitchers, Dunlin and a few others I’m still trying to identify. I’m not real confident that is going to happen.
We saw one adult Bald Eagle and a juvenile in the nest yelling for more food. The nest and birds were too far away for my 200mm lens to reach. I didn’t bother to take any shots. If they are small in the binoculars, they sure are not going to come out in a photo.
Greater Yellowlegs
This Greater Yellowlegs was foraging alone in one of the mudflats along the main road.
Black-necked Stilts
It was great seeing the Black-necked Stilts on this trip. They stick out like a sore thumb among other waders with their black and white feathers and pink legs.
Black-bellied Plovers
The Black-bellied Plovers were found in the back pond with all those other shorebirds, however they were separated from the crowd and I was able to get a little closer to them along the shoreline. While photographing these birds, I heard a loud splash to my left. I noticed a pattern and whatever was under the water was coming in my direction. Time to go! It was an alligator in the middle of the pond. I rushed up onto the steep part of the bank and the gator stopped the pursuit. Whew!
Dunlin
While I was taking photos of the Black-bellied Plovers seen all around, there was a Dunlin behind the one Plover in the center. All of these shorebirds in this photo are in their non-breeding plumage.
Common Grackle
We had set up our lunch with our folder chairs and folding tables near a small spillway along Lighthouse Road at St. Marks. It was somewhat chilly and breezy so we set up in the sun. There were no birds around until I opened the bag of potato chips. First came the male Common Grackle seen in the photo below. He started squawking and the female showed up seen above. He was hiding out over in the bush telling her to get lunch and bring it back to him. She was less than a foot from me at one point. I couldn’t even focus my camera on her with my 200mm lens. Both of these Common Grackles left empty handed because we didn’t even leave a crumb when we were finished.
Red-winged Blackbird
This male Red-winged Blackbird was perched high in this pine tree directly above me. I stopped on the trail to take a few shots and listen to him sing. His red and yellow wing feathers were really pronounced.
Next time…Week #43 – Birds with chicks
Our Eyes Open 
Comments
56 responses to “Bird Weekly – Photo Challenge – Birds Seen in the Past Two Weeks”
You had some great sightings during that two-week period! The Red-Winged and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds are back here now. I hope to snag an image or two myself.
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I haven’t seen a Yellow-headed since we were in Vegas 4 years ago. We don’t get those here. 😊
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Wow! So many different birds!
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Just a few but to get the new ones was a plus. 😊
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Lucky you!
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Luck has a lot to do with it but you got to get out there and look. hehehe! 🙂
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That is true😀
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🙂
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[…] Bird Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds Seen in the Last Two Weeks is brought to us by Lisa Coleman whose blog is called Our Eyes Open. […]
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[…] found a home here. Our recent spring visit certainly enabled me to take lots of photos to share for Lisa’s Bird Weekly challenge, all of them seen within the past two […]
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Looks like a great place to spot birds! It’s always interesting to see species we don’t get over here, i.e. most of these 😉 I especially love your Red-winged Blackbird. I’m fond of our own blackbirds, who sing so sweetly, but that flash of red is rather special. I saw one once in British Columbia (I have a very poor photo).
Anyway, for my contribution I am taking you to Bushy Park in West London, which we visited on the first day we were allowed to go a bit further afield after the winter’s strict lockdown. It was just under two weeks ago so squeezes into your timeframe 🙂 https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/discovering-birdlife-in-bushy-park/
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Thank you for taking us with you to Bushy Park in West London. I enjoyed myself. 🙂
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I see them all the time, but can’t get a photo. Maybe I’m to noisy
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Sometimes you have to be stealthy. You need a long lens. At least 200mm to be able to get some decent shots. 🙂
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Sounds like a lovely trip and a lot of cool sightings.
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It was so good to get over the St. Marks again. Not a lot of birding trips lately so it was good to get out. 🙂
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[…] Bird Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds seen in last two weeks […]
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[…] Bird Weekly […]
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[…] And, this fits very neatly into “Birds seen in the past two weeks“ […]
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I also have a photo of a single flamingo! But for this challenge, I have six pelicans. 🙂
https://elizabethkrallphotos.wordpress.com/2021/04/06/sextets-of-pelicans/
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Uuhhhhgggg! The Flamingo is a nemesis bird for me. So is the Magpie…for different reasons. We will be going back to try to find that bird once more before June and I look forward to seeing your single flamingo one of these days. 🙂
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Good luck with your flamingo hunt! Sadly, my flamingo photo is a scan of a bad print from 1999, and the bird takes up only a small fraction of the space.
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I can relate. You saw mine in my post. LOL! Oh, well….another day….another bird story. 🙂
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This is quite a good catch !
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Thank you so much! 🙂
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[…] Coleman’s Bird Weekly- Photo Challenge for this week is birds we’ve seen in the past two […]
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I like that spot of red on the Blackbird. too bad you did not see the flamingo…
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Yeah, the flamingo! One of my nemesis birds. LOL! 🙂
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if it was easy, you wouldn’t appreciate it as much 🙂
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That is true! The hunt is almost as fun as the find…I said almost! LOL! 🙂
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yes, almost is the key word 🙂
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keywords are good! LOL! 🙂
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I’m jealous of your black-necked stilt photos, Lisa. Love those birds. I saw some at Malheur on our way south and was going to photograph them on the way back home. Famous last words.
I finally got a decent picture of a magpie but it was slightly more than two weeks ago. I’ll post it another day. 🙂
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I tell Frank to stop the car when I see something that needs to be photographed. He doesn’t question me. If I see something, he is the one who says, “do I need to turn around?”. I hope you see them again and get your photo. I’m so HAPPY to hear about your magpie and can’t wait to see it! 🙂
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[…] Posted for BIRD WEEKLY – PHOTO CHALLENGE – BIRDS SEEN IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS […]
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Awesome captures here… love them all! Here’s mine from last week – https://myheart2heart.blog/2021/04/11/a-bright-eyed-visitor/
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Thanks so much! Your hawk is amazing! 🙂
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Thank you 😊
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Wonderful birds! I have never seen a Female Grackle! here are my spottings
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Thank you so much! They look very similar to a Female Cowbird and can be mistaken for them. If there is a male Grackle around and a brown bird with them, take care to notice and not assume they are cowbirds. I made that mistake when I first started birding. LOL! I ASSUMED! Ugh! 🙂
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I know next to nothing about new world birds, but dunlins, sandpipers and plovers are familiar (you must see completely different species). Your blackbirds and grackles are also completely different. Nice to see something entirely new.
I haven’t had time to look at what I photographed in the last two weeks, but here is a completely unexpected one from last month: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2021/04/10/a-stunning-sight/
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Such a lot of great shots here. Yet again I seem to have lost getting notifications of your posts – no idea why! But here I am again:https://margaret21.com/2021/04/13/a-cheery-post-for-a-cold-bright-day/
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Thank you! It was fun to get out and do some birding. 🙂
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[…] If you would like to join these weekly posts – you can find the info here – https://oureyesopen.blog/2021/04/09/bird-weekly-photo-challenge-birds-seen-in-the-past-two-weeks/ […]
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Nice sightings Lisa. Here is mine for the week
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Thank you. It was fun to go out birding. 🙂
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[…] Shared with Lisa’s Bird Weekly Challenge Birds seen in the past two weeks. […]
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[…] Birds Seen in the Past Two Weeks. I am loving being in Hawaii and seeing birds that we don’t have at home in California. I especially love the Red Crested Cardinal, because we don’t have any cardinals in California. […]
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BTW: I think you copied over your Bird Weekly Post from 3/21. The URL shows it was like-a-duck-to-water. I’ve done that before. Ugh!
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Wow you saw some wonderful birds.
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Thanks Joanne! I got yours in this morning but just now getting to all my comments. 🙂
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