On a recent trip to Osceola County, I spotted two male Snail Kites in two different locations. At both spots, it was the first time I had ever seen male Snail Kites there.

I saw the first one near a housing development outside Kissimmee and the other one along the shore of Lake Kissimmee near Kenansville.

It’s always a treat to photograph these birds as they scan the water hunting for apple snails, drive down to snatch their prey and then land nearby to feast on their catches.

And it’s worth repeating how rare these birds are. Audubon issued a report in January noting that because of drought the past two years, only 30 successful Snail Kite nests were found in Florida in 2025. “The population estimate for 2025 has dropped to about 2,000 kites total. The 2026 population estimate is expected to be even lower,” the organization reported.

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The group had two hens and at least 10 poults — baby turkeys. This seems to be common behavior, according to AllAboutBirds.org. “Newly hatched chicks follow the female, who feeds them for a few days until they learn to find food on their own. As the chicks grow, they band into groups composed of several hens and their broods,” the website said.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says there are two types of wild turkeys in Florida — the eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) and the Osceola or Florida wild turkey (M.g. osceola). I think the ones I saw were Osceola turkeys.

I saw two more hens a few days later, but without any poults (or they could have been hiding in the tall grass).

The FWC is asking residents to report turkey sightings now through Aug. 31 for its Summer Brood Survey. More on that here.

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AllAboutBirds.org notes, “The Bobolink is one of the world’s most impressive songbird migrants, traveling some 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometers) to and from southern South America every year. Throughout its lifetime, it may travel the equivalent of 4 or 5 times around the circumference of the Earth.”

In addition to be well-traveled, they’re also pretty birds. The Bobolink males are black with white bellies and a cream-colored patch on their necks. The females are pale brown, looking a little similar to female Red-winged Blackbirds.

I am guessing the group I saw was enroute to the north for breeding. Hopefully I’ll spot them again in the fall when they head back to South America for the winter.

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It was April 1, and it was the first attempt to launch the rocket with its four-person crew. Amazingly, the rocket did fly on its first try — something that is pretty rare across NASA history.

The mission was a success, and the crew sent back some amazing photos from the journey.

Just yesterday, the crew for Artemis III was announced. Hopefully I will be able to photograph their launch, too.

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While many migratory visitors have moved on, there is still a tremendous variety of birds to photograph across the area. It’s just a bit more uncomfortable with the heat, humidity and omnipresent mosquitos.

Here are just a few of the summertime Florida birds I have photographed recently:

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So far I have photographed four of the five: Barred Owl, Burrowing Owl, Eastern Screech-Owl and Great Horned Owl. Still missing from my catalog is the American Barn Owl.

Over the past several weeks, I photographed some Barred Owls at Orlando Wetlands, a Burrowing Owl in Osceola County and a red-morph Eastern Screech-Owl on Merritt Island. (I also photographed a Great Horned Owl at MI, but I wasn’t happy with the results).

So, here are some of my recent Florida owl photos:

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I’m not scientist — let’s make that clear from the start. But I am avid nature observer and bird lover. Since I starting visiting Emeralda back in the fall, there appear to be more Snail Kites hunting in that area. And among the Kites there now are some banded ones I had not previously seen.

Back in January, Audubon released an interesting report titled, “Snail Kite Population Showing Strain in Dry Years.” Since the kites feed on Apple Snails, those snails need water to reproduce. If there’s not enough water, there’s not enough snails and not enough food for Snail Kites. With very dry springs in 2024 and ’25, Audubon said it found only 30 successful Snail Kite nests in the entire state in 2025.

Fast forward to 2026. Florida is again in the midst of a serious drought. One place in the Kites’ historic range that is lowest on the drought index is Central Florida, which includes Lake County near Emeralda. Maybe the Snail Kites are migrating farther up the peninsula looking for Apple Snails — and finding them at Emeralda?

Hopefully, someone with proper training and credentials will look into this hypothesis. But for now, I’m just happy to have more Snail Kites to photograph. Here are some from recent trips to Emeralda.

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I’ve previously only taken still images of these amazing pink birds. Photographs can be amazing, and I am proud of the ones I have taken of these birds over the past couple of years. But a still photo can’t convey the incredible movements these birds made as they spent their morning walking, feeding and resting around Bird Island in the Indian River.

The video starts with one of the flamingos dancing in a circle, presumably feeding. I had never seen that behavior before, another great reason for me to start including video. I hope you enjoy it.

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There were nine there when I last visited them on March 27, but there are way more now. I counted 20 flamingos, and another photographer said he counted 21.

What exactly does this population boom mean? I’m not entirely sure. But last year the number of flamingos at MINWR steadily grew during the spring, with the flamboyance reaching more than 30. The number of birds went down as the summer progressed, with the remaining ones eventually leaving the Haulover Canal area for other parts of the refuge.

One thing I did learn is that flamingo are very active a night and that’s when they usually migrate. So, there could be more morning surprises in the future.

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It appears they never actually left but were residing in less remote parts of the 140,000-acre refuge. There had been a couple of reported sightings of flamingos in the past six months, in New Smyrna Beach and areas mostly north of Haulover Canal. But during the week of March 19, a group of them returned to their previous hangout at Bird Island off the heavily traveled Haulover Canal.

I went to visit them on a Friday evening as the sun was setting. It was great to see nine flamingos around the island and many of the other birds who are there. Hopefully, like last spring, more flamingos will join the Merritt Island group. Fingers crossed.

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