Sunny, windy and cool with temps in the low 60’s
Reports of a Florida rarity, the Cinnamon teal, have surfaced on the Florida rare birds network aptly named “Bird-brains”. The bird, normally strictly a resident of the western half of the country, this bird has for some reason known only to the teal ended up sharing the waters of Merritt Island with a large number of Blue-winged teal, Pintail ducks, Northern shovelers, and White pelicans.
While we had pretty specific directions as to where the duck was located, it took us along with more than a dozen other birders quite a while to locate it. Teal are small in stature and being the one and only in a group of perhaps a thousand other larger ducks, it is easily hidden among the rest of the crowd. Still, we eventually managed to pick it out of the crowd, get it into the field of the scopes and afford views to all hoping to see it. Now, the downside……the bird is small, it is very distant, it is tucked in with many other ducks….in other words, no pictures of the Cinnamon will be found on this blog today unless you care to play “Where’s Waldo” and can find it in this photo. I know I can’t.
So, today’s photo of the day goes to a bird quite a bit larger and easier to photograph. A hapless Coot appears to have been hit by a car and ended up on the side of the road. Not letting this delicacy go to waste, a Turkey vulture was busy making a meal of the coot when we happened upon the scene. It was interesting to see the vulture protecting its prize from several other TVs which we hovering nearby. One aggressive individual actually moved in and made an attempt to liberate the coot from its rightful owner. A short but nasty confrontation ensued with the vulture which had originally laid claim to the bounty coming away the winner.
So, while not exactly a photo of a rare visitor from the west, it did make for an interesting image to record and share with our readers.
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| Turkey vulture "food fight" |
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