Skywatch

On a birding boat ride on the bay (huh, how do you like that?) during the Kachemak Bay Shorebird festival a Bald Eagle threw all these Black-legged Kittiwakes into a swirling cloud around Bird Rock.  It was a sight to behold!

Check out Skywatch Friday in other parts of the world.

Monk Parakeets

I stared at the movement in the grass.  I inched closer.  What was that?  The grass seemed to be moving.  One step more and the grass exploded with green wings.  I stood mouth agape.  Parakeets.

I watched as they dove squawking into the trees and like all parrots, disappeared.  Several minutes later, first one, then another flew back to settle on the grass.  They appeared to be eating or collecting grass.  Could they be nesting in July?   I have seen them in Florida before, and in New York, and in Punta del Este, Uruguay, but I never tire of them.  Being from the northeast, they seem exotic to me.

White Ibis-the garbage picker

When I think of Ibis, I think of heat, marshes, phragmites, salt on my lips and in the air.  And most definitely the south.  While on a business trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the dead of summer, I decided to go for a swim at 6am.  The heat had not yet set in and it was wonderful out.  As I trudged across the sand, stepping around people sleeping on the beach; I stopped in my tracks astounded when I saw several White Ibis digging through the garbage cans.  I had never seen anything like it.  Here I thought Ibis delicately probed in the muck for insects, fish or crustaceans.  But let me tell you these Ibis were fighting it out with the gulls for the tastiest morsels.  The shadow in the picture is the garbage can.  I wish I had zoomed out so you could see it.  Huh, who knew?  Ibis prefer stalking the garbage bins for food instead of working the mud.  Or at least these  did.

Spider in the Sky

Come into my parlor said the spider to the hiker….

So there I was hiking along the path in Bermuda, la-de-dah, not really paying attention, when I almost became lunch.  Luckily her last meal alerted me and I stopped just before I got entangled and destroyed her handiwork.  Let me tell you, she was a biggin’. She had somehow managed to string her web completely across the path.  I wonder what she was hoping to catch, hmmmm.

I found there were spiders EVERYWHERE in Bermuda.  If you love them.  Go there.

Check out the other SkyWatch Friday photos.