More birds - Bahama Bay

The little pied-billed grebes were present on a couple of the ponds, but were seriously shy birds. When they dived they were under for quite a while, so this first shot was the result of a quick sprint 15 yards from cover, a dive to the ground and a short wait for it to pop up again. After a couple of shots it saw me and drifted further out. The second (with the one swimming a bit uphill!) was when I had been crouched down in my camo kit - reason yet to be disclosed - for about half an hour.
Next is a mourning dove - superficially like a collarless collared dove,
then we are into the scary bit of American birdwatching - sparrows and warblers. They have so many! I think this is a chipping sparrow .....

this a palm warbler ........
and a common yellowthroat.
Finally the bird I thought was the most amazingly coloured small bird I would see in Florida (I was wrong, but the male is still a real cracker). The male northern cardinal became a must-get shot. You could find them through the song, or more often their hawfinch like 'Tic', but getting close was more tricky. The female was a bit more obliging, but favoured heavier cover.
Eventually the male popped out. What a crazy colour that is. Could anything really be more striking?

Wait for the pics from Bok Gardens .........