I’ve been looking through my bird photos, trying to come up with my favorite birds of the last decade. I’m saving that list for another post, but I managed to pick out some favorite photos of birds that didn’t make my top ten list.

These twelve photos were taken in four different countries between 2006 and 2009 (since I haven’t been birding all that long and have only had my (super-zoom point-and-shoot) camera since ‘06).

Can you guess what they are? They all link to Flickr where you can find out, or scroll to the end for a list.

Indian Pond Heron: Kota, India;
American Robin: Great Smoky Mountains National Park USA;
Common Coot chick: Starrevaart, Netherlands;
Black-headed Ibis: Ranthambhore, India;
Blue-winged Teal: Viera Wetlands, Florida USA;
Rufous Treepie: Ranthambhore, India;
Chaffinch: Munster, France;
Red-breasted Nuthatch: Illinois USA;
Great Crested Grebe: Voorschoten, Netherlands;
Red-shouldered Hawk: Viera Wetlands, Florida USA;
Red-vented Bulbul: Jaipur, India;
Tufted Duck: Flevoland, Netherlands.

I haven’t been out birding much lately, but I hope that will change in the coming weeks. In the meantime I’ve been reflecting on the past year’s birding. I thought about the Loggerhead Shrikes we saw when we first arrived at Viera Wetlands on a visit in November. A pair was hanging out at the entrance and seemed to welcome us. Later, during the same visit, this shrike gave me a giggle when I watched it chattering from its treetop perch.

After watching the launch of STS-129, we left KSC and followed traffic back towards Titusville. Instead of going to our hotel, we headed to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to have a quick spin around Black Point Wildlife Drive. It was getting close to sunset so we mostly kept moving, knowing we would be back the next day for a longer, slower visit.

We spent the entire next day at Merritt Island. Again we started on with Black Point Wildlife Drive, this time taking it easy.

After this Killdeer took a bath, it ran to the shore for some serious preening action.

I was cracking up watching these busybody American Avocets foraging in the shallow water.

We visited Canaveral National Seashore too. On the way in, an Osprey ambassador reminded us to park in designated areas only.

From one of the viewing turnouts we could see launchpads 39A and 39B. 39B is closer to us, on the left side of the photo, surrounded by three towers. It is now undergoing modifications to accommodate launching the new Ares 1 rockets. STS-129 launched from 39A (right side of photo) as will all of the remaining five Space Shuttle missions.

We had a nice long walk on the beach, enjoying the lovely late afternoon weather and the birds foraging and posing in the surf.

An informational sign told us: “Often mistakenly referred to in general as “sandpipers,” shorebirds include many species that delightfully challenge birdwatchers.” (emphasis mine, ha ha ha)

It was getting late but we couldn’t resist another go around Black Point Wildlife Drive. On our way there, we were treated to a great sighting of a pair of River Otters crossing the road. We were very excited to see this life mammal but unfortunately did not get a photo. Our second Black Point sunset was predictably beautiful.

We finished the day with 55 (bird) species and three lifers including Florida Scrub-Jay which we were thrilled to finally see.

Here’s another Viera bird. During our first visit we heard a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk calling, over and over. The next day I watched an adult polishing off a meal on a post at the back of the wetlands.

More photos of this bird at my Flickr stream here.

When the meal was done, the bird joined another RSHA in a tree further from the road.

Later we saw this RSHA perched over the wetlands.

More photos of this bird at my Flickr stream here.

Red-shouldered Hawks range where we live but I have never seen one around here before. With so many of the birds at Viera and in Florida in general, you can get such good looks. The birds seem so much more relaxed and approachable. It was great to see these hawks at the wetlands. This was not a lifer but among our best looks at this bird (besides a couple of other times – in FL of course!).

This post has been submitted to Bird Photography Weekly, hosted by Birdfreak. I love BPW because not only can I see great bird photos, but I can read the cool reactions people have to them. There might be a bird I would consider common that is a lifer for the poster. Yet other posts will be of birds that would be a lifer for me, taken in someone’s back yard. Then there are the familiar but far-away European birds that make me feel homesick for Holland. It’s always a great mix. Check out this week’s submissions. While you’re at it, why don’t you submit your own BPW post?

Can you tell I like Viera Wetlands? We visited twice last week and it was great, much better than our previous visit mosquito-wise too. What a relief, we could drive with the windows down and not get eaten alive. We had 48 species over the two visits, including our lifer American Bittern (in flight, no photo unfortunately). Here are some other Viera highlights from 15 and 18 November.

Today Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at Kennedy Space Center after an 11-day mission to the ISS. Here are a few photos I took back on Sunday, 15 November and again on Monday, 16 November when we spent most of each day at KSC and viewed the launch.

There’s more to see on the grounds besides the technological wonders.

At the observation gantry, the grackle-racket was impossible to ignore.

Atlantis was also hard to ignore. This was taken about 30 hours before launch.

While waiting to board the bus at the Apollo-Saturn V Center I spotted this Osprey.

Monday morning we arrived at KSC bright and early. Cloud cover looked bad but the signage was promising.

The skies clear up just in time. Our scope was great for viewing the launch. Photos below were taken right before lift-off and shortly after.

No photos of the launch itself; I was watching it. I could never take any photos or video as fine as what NASA makes publicly available, anyway.

It was awesome to watch the launch. So glad we didn’t go bust, honey!

During one of our visits to Viera Wetlands, we saw this Anhinga playing with a piece of pipe. Anhingas hunt by swimming under water and spearing fish with their sharp bills. They then have to manipulate their prey in order to eat it, which usually involves tossing the fish into the air from the perpendicular and catching it as it falls parallel into its throat. These photos I found on Flickr show the toss and catch process. We were both enthralled and amused watching this Anhinga’s antics as it practiced its prey-flipping skills.

I admit I had fun watching the American Coots at Viera Wetlands last week. American Coots look a lot like Common Coots, a familiar bird I saw almost every day back in Leiden. They remained relatively solitary on the city canals so seeing coots in a big amicable group (raft) was new to me.

Besides the coot photos I shared yesterday I also took a couple of videos, which I put together here. The first part of the video shows a group feeding calmly together. After the transition the coots are on high alert. I am not sure what spooked them but I found this looking-in-all-directions behavior very cute. Despite the alert level there is a teeny tiny mini standoff between two of the birds starting at about :15 (look on the left side). That’s more like the coot behavior I am used to seeing!

We returned home late on Friday from an 8-day road trip down to Florida to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis lift off for the ISS. The launch was scheduled for Monday, November 16th and, unlike last time we tried to view a launch, there were no delays and the Shuttle took off right on time.

Of course we couldn’t pass up the chance to do a bit of birding along the way. While staying on the Space Coast we visited Viera Wetlands twice and spent a day at Merritt Island NWR (which remained closed during our last Florida visit, when the Shuttle was delayed, and delayed, and delayed…). We took our time driving home and stopped at Great Swamp Sanctuary in South Carolina and even drove through Great Smoky Mountains NP.

To start off what will probably be a handful of blog entries about our trip, here’s my Bird Photography Weekly submission for this week. American Coots summer up here in Illinois, but we rarely get to see them up close. At Viera, they were tooling around in large rafts all over.

nom nom nom

Bird Photography Weekly is a regular collection of user-submitted bird photos from all over the world. The new edition comes out every Sunday. Go have a look at this week’s submissions!

Where I live now, in northern Illinois, there is only one normally occurring species of vulture: the Turkey Vulture. I see these birds flying on thermals quite often here in Lake County during the summer. In honor of International Vulture Awareness Day, taking place on Saturday, September 5th, I’ve been thinking about all the vultures I’ve had the privilege to see. These are the eight species of vulture on my life list, in random order.

White-backed Vulture

I saw this bird on a week-long trip to the Gambia in January 2007. My husband and I spent 4 days with some very experienced birders from Finland, with whom we shared our Gambian guide. We were totally out of our league with these guys, who had spent months before the trip preparing, learning the calls of the local birds and practically memorizing their Gambian field guides. We had a great time and tried our best to stay the heck out of their way. Unfortunately this is the one vulture on my life list of which I have no photo.

Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vultures I see here seem to love flying, because that’s all I ever see them doing. When I’ve seen these birds in Florida, it was a different story. There, TVs seem to be everywhere, hanging out in groups along the roadside or in open spaces in nature preserves. The photo was taken at an interpretive lookout in the Everglades.

Palm-nut Vulture

This is another vulture we saw in the Gambia. I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t remember the circumstances under which we spotted this extremely striking bird. Yes, the trip was a bit wasted on us – there was a lot of running around and nodding as we looked at the birds that were pointed out to us. We would have a different experience making the same trip today, that’s for sure.

Egyptian Vulture

When we visited Rajasthan in March 2006, we saw Egyptian Vultures several times. This photo was taken at the Taj Mahal. I remember we were starting to be interested in birds, especially since we were seeing so many that were unfamiliar to us. We saw this large bird perched on one of the outbuildings by the Taj and wondered what it could be. I took a few photos and we looked it up later – eureka, an Egyptian Vulture!

Rueppell’s Vulture

Another beautiful vulture we saw in the Gambia, near Tendaba. Unfortunately I cannot remember much about this sighting either. Shame on me!

Black Vulture

My second North American vulture is another Florida favorite. These guys also seem to hang out nearly everywhere we’ve been. On our last visit to Florida in June we spotted this large group milling about at NASA.

Griffon Vulture

This is another bird I spotted in India. This photo was taken in Jodhpur but we also saw these birds on several other occasions during the trip.

Hooded Vulture

Another Gambia bird! This time I remember exactly where we were when we found this lovely. Our hotel in the coastal resort area was a short walk from the beach. The walk took us down a sand-covered alley between the backs of several other resorts, and there was trash everywhere. Besides this bird we also saw Cattle Egrets feeding on the piles of garbage and a few unlikely birds like Red-cheeked Cordonbleus and Red-billed Firefinches.

What vultures are on your life list? I’d love to hear about them, so please leave a comment!

This post is participating in the International Vulture Awareness Day 2009 Blog for Vultures. You can click on the badge below to see the other participants in this meme.