Jeffrey A. Gordon

Wood Stork with tail up and landing gear down, Merritt Island, Florida

I’m back! Back home and back to the blog. It’s been two weeks since my last post. Jeez. The above photo may give you a clue, if you don’t already know, of part of what I’ve been up to: working the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida. But that was only for the last 8 days or so.

Before that, I was dividing my time between finishing up a new presentation I debuted at Space Coast and working on arrangements for some new trips I’ll be leading in the coming year (more on those soon). But I did find time to complete one good blog post, one I’d been wanting to do since last November. The rub is, it isn’t posted on this blog–it’s on 10,000 Birds. Charlie, Mike, & Corey were nice enough to let me guest-post there as part of their nearly-concluded Parrot Month. If you haven’t read it yet, please do–it’s about the Military Macaws of Jaumave, Mexico, two of whom are pictured below.

Military Macaws in flight, Jaumave, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Meanwhile, back in the States…

Female Belted Kingfisher in mangroves, Merritt Island, Florida

The new presentation I spoke of was entitled Kingfishers & their Allies. I gave it twice and I have to say I’m pleased with it. It was something of a departure for me. I’m not any kind of expert on kingfishers or the other coraciiforms (rollers, bee-eaters, motmots, todies, hoopoes, hornbills, and a few other families) but I have been a longtime fan. When Neta at the Space Coast Festival suggested that they’d be interested in a kingfisher-based presentation, as a kingfisher was the subject of the winning photo of last year’s digiscoping competiton (and thus this year’s festival program), I said, “Sure.” But I wasn’t really sure. I was a little worried about exactly what I was getting myself into. But I figured it would be a chance to learn something and to show people some pretty pictures. I was right on both of the latter counts and I am now pleased to have this talk, “in the can.” Now that the hard work is done, I’m look forward to presenting it again in the future. For instance, on March 5, 2009, at the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club in Philadelphia.

I was also co-presenter for one other program at Space Coast. I joined Lisa White, Bill Thompson III, and Paul Lehman for Roger & Us: Inside the Making of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, which I really enjoyed. I also got to help Bill a little during the field portion of his birding with kids program and tagged along with Alvaro Jaramillo for an impromptu bird walk around the festival grounds. Both of those short walks were a lot of fun–I hope that Space Coast will feature them regularly next year.

Rounding out my Space Coast duties were time at the Leica booth with my buddy, Jeff Bouton, and co-leader slots on three festival field trips. It was a busy week, and I have a number of pictures and stories to share from it. For now, I’ll close with a self-portrait of part of the gang of festival buddies that make these events so much fun for me. I took it along the wildlife drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge as the sun set last Sunday. Left to right: me, Lisa White, Marci Fuller, Bill Thompson III, and Liz Gordon.

Tags: 10000birds, alvarojaramillo, billthompson, florida, jeffbouton, kingfishers, leica, lisawhite, lizzie, macaws, marcifuller, merrittisland, spacecoast, storks

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