Holiday Beach Butterflies

Migrating Blue Jays

I stopped by Holiday Beach with the family this afternoon and had a pretty good time. Jim P, the official Hawk Counter at Holiday Beach pointed out some very high flying Broad Winged Hawks that were basically invisible to the naked eye and just tiny pepper flakes in 10x binoculars. There were hundreds flying by but very difficult to get a good view of. At times, some large flocks of Blue Jays flew by the tower which was pretty cool.

A Northern Flicker in the distance, I did not use my 500mm lens today

I then walked towards the beach hoping to see something a little more warbler-like but did not see much. A small flock of Chickadees and a few Redstarts and little yellow warblers flew by at one point, but I did not really pursue them. Rather, a small sandy dune with some Goldenrod was buzzing with butterfly activity. I'm still new to Butterfly watching but took some shots anyway. I attempted to label them, even if only generally labeled.

At a few times today, I saw Sharp Shin Hawks overhead, and instead of photographing them, I looked at them through my binoculars. I've really enjoyed using the binoculars in the last few days. I love them!

Good birding,
Dwayne

Bonus: Snake on the road! This was tiny, probably less than a foot long.