Florida March 2009 (images)
Essentially a family holiday but there is always time to put in a few hours birding. In and around the Highland Reserve, Davenport where we were staying was a very good place to start.
Early mornings after a quick cup of coffee I strolled around the reserve looking for something interesting. Most of the birds in the area were new to me and almost every day I found a new species for me to photograph.
I didn't take a scope but most of the birds were close enough to view well with just binoculars. Normally I would have digiscoped but I found my DSLR plus 70-300mm zoom adequate in most circumstances.
We found the reserve called James G. Bourbeau Memorial Park along the St. Johns River by chance. This was a great place to visit for birds as well as aligators! The aligators were very close!
Here you can take an airboat ride through the reserve and see a lot of aligators and birds. It was at the reserve I saw crested
caracara and bald eagle. Also common yellowthroat, tricolored heron, wood stork and greater
yellowlegs.