What I saw on MY Spring Break (Part 7)

And a few odds and ends...

While photographing the Red-tailed Hawk in the parking lot at Forsythe, I turned toward the visitors' center and saw a Wild Turkey heading over to check out the bird feeders for any easily obtained seed that may have been spilled by the smaller songbirds.

Wild Turkey

And this bird had me puzzled for a bit because those that I thought it might be are usually found high in the tops of trees and not near the ground. Checking All About Birds, however, proved I was correct in calling it a female Scarlet Tanager.

Female Scarlet Tanager

One of their photos of the female is in almost the exact pose as mine! (Just scroll down on this page to Field Marks and select either the male Tanager or the Female Tanager. The photo labeled "4 of 6" is the one to which I refer.)

This ends the series of photos from my trip. I saw lots more birds whose photos I either didn't take or whose photos didn't come out quite as expected. In total I had approximately 75 species from Tuesday afternoon through Friday evening without looking for things like owls or rails or nighthawks.

There may have been a few birds I saw that I didn't/couldn't identify. For example, I'm not sure if that was a Chimney swift I saw with the Purple Martins, Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows over the ponds at the Lighthouse, but it sure looked like a flying cigar! And those black and white birds that took off as I topped the dunes at the Lighthouse SP...were they Black Skimmers looking for a nest site? All in all I think I did alright. Certainly the species count was not too shabby, in my opinion.