Overhead

I love living in Florida! Where else in the USofA could you live (except maybe Hawaii) and see something like these guys in the McDonalds drive-thru?  Actually, I heard them first, then stuck my head out the window to see them on an overhead power line.  But there they were, and they were kind enough to wait until I pulled out the camera to take some pictures.  But they never hang around very long when they aren't camouflaged in some foliage.  They took off unexpectedly and I was only able to get a shot or two of them in the air.  Oh, these are Quaker Parakeets, they aren't native around here, but they have established wild colonies all over this part of Florida and points south.  They're really something to see.  It's really neat when a whole flock of them fly by, flashing those green wings at you up in the air, and the occasional red tailfeather.

You know what, I shot wild parrots in San Francisco once, so I guess I have to take back what I said about only in Florida and Hawaii.

Little Green Birdies

Well, I tried for a couple of hours last night to post some content to the old blog, but Picassa just wouldn't cooperate. She seems to be a little more agreeable tonight, so let me see how much of my weekend I can share with you before she conks out again. I had stopped in front of the public library on Fruitville Saturday morning to take some pictures of a giant book (which you may or may not see later) when I heard the incessant chatter of quaker parrots. I'm always hearing these guys, but they're difficult to see and even harder to shoot because of their green coloration and rather reclusive behavior. So I got really lucky when I caught this pair working on a new nest. You can see both of them above, checking out the interior, and just one of them below, weaving some new sticks onto the outside. And all the way at the bottom is one of the pair just hanging out, waiting for just the right time to take off on a new stick gathering mission. These guys are not native here, but there are dozens if not hundreds of wild flocks around here, eating all sorts of natural foods and making tons of noise. But it's pretty neat to have wild parrots flying around, noisy or not!