Today started a little more cloudy than the previous ones and in a way, that made it a little easier to get better photos . Bright sunshine produces harsh light which really tests your skill. I hoped to carry on photographing the common birds that I have seen since my arrival. To my mind, it's no good searching out rarities if you you haven't managed good pictures of the common birds. Blue Grey Gnatcatchers have been far more noticeable than in previous visits, but being a tiny little bird, they are hard to get photos of, but more of them later on. The warblers have been keeping me interested and as you will see below, I did get some nice pictures of them today. There was some real excitement as I walked back to the car, a "tiercel", (that's a female), American Kestrel swooped down and seemed as though she was really interested in grabbing a warbler, at least that's what it looked like. I took a few photos and then tried to get a bit closer to her, but as expected……..off she went. The warblers were very agitated by her presence and suddenly they were calling from everywhere. What a lovely bird, when I see them I always love them. This was the closest that I have ever been to this species.

It seems as though I spend all of my time photographing birds but that's not the case. I ws back home by 10.30. But in my short session I finished up seeing aan Eastern Pheobe, Palm Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Red-winged Blackbird, Great White Egret, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-throated Warbler, White Ibis, Turkey Vulture, Coot, Blue Jay and of course the Kestrel. A nice little session!

I am in Florida staying with my sister and her family and today was fun as we celebrated Christmas again with opening of presents etc. It eems strange with the temperature touching almost 25c.

Blue – Grey Gnatcatcher
This is an Eastern Pheobe, a flycatcher species, by all accounts a common bird in Florida but not a bird I see that often but I probably should. Now some Palm Warblers, in one the bird flew down to grab a small damselfly and you can see it disappearing "down the hatch".