After I started my new bird photography pastime on Jan. 1, I created a catalog of all the different types of birds I’ve been able to shoot.
The other day I tallied the total and realized I was approaching 100 different birds. After a recount, it turned out I was very, very close – just one bird away from hitting the century mark.
It’s been quite the journey.
The very first bird I photographed this year was a Roseate Spoonbill at Orlando Wetlands Park. The colorful pink bird was a great one to start off a new hobby.
Since then, I’ve visited the Orlando Wetlands again, again and again to take a lot of bird pictures. I have also photographed birds at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, at random spots in Osceola County and at Fort DeSoto Park near St. Petersburg. I even took some bird photos on the islands I visited while on a Caribbean cruise.
Those trips brought my bird total to 99. Not all of them are fantastic photos — there are definitely some birds I want to have a chance to photograph again. But, still, 99 birds.
But what would be my 100th bird? Would it be be something exotic? Or rare? Or maybe even one that was endangered? I was eager to find out.
On Friday evening, I went to the UCF Arboretum to search for lucky No. 100 — hoping to maybe photograph some Purple Martins I’ve heard there at sunset. But the lighting was bad, and the birds were too fast and too high to get a clear picture.
On Saturday morning, I went back to my familiar spot, the Orlando Wetlands. About 80 percent of the birds in my catalog have been photographed there, but I wondered if I could really find a new bird I haven’t already photographed — and at this time of year when most birds are leaving instead of arriving?
After a lot of walking and searching, I found what I thought was a Cape May Warbler, a cute tiny bird flittering about in the trees. This could be No. 100! As I was trying to photograph it, a group of noisy bicyclists came by on the trail and immediately scared the bird away. Dang it!
It looked like the century mark would elude me for another day.
Just as I had given up hope and was driving out of the park, I spied a bird I had not photographed before.
Surprisingly, it’s a pretty common bird, but it was not in my catalog.
My 100th bird photographed was … a Wild Turkey.
This turkey was roaming around in a pasture near the OWP entrance and was much easier to photograph than most of the birds on my list. It looked like a young bird or possibly a female.
So, my 100th bird was a real turkey, but I am oh, so thankful for it. I’ve been able to photograph 100 different birds in 140 days. Not bad!
Below is the list of my 100 birds but you can see the list and the pictures of the birds in my catalog at this link.
| American Avocet |
| American Bittern |
| American Coot |
| American Goldfinch |
| American Robin |
| American White Pelican |
| Anhinga |
| Bald Eagle |
| Bananaquit |
| Barred Owl |
| Belted Kingfisher |
| Black Vulture |
| Black-bellied Plover |
| Black-bellied Whistling Duck |
| Black-crowned Night Heron |
| Black-Necked Stilt |
| Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher |
| Blue Grosbeak |
| Blue Jay |
| Blue-Winged Teal |
| Boat-Tailed Grackle |
| Brown-Headed Nuthatch |
| Borwn Pelican |
| Brown Thasher |
| Carolina Wren |
| Caspian Tern |
| Cattle Egret |
| Cedar Waxwing |
| Chinese Goose |
| Common Gallinule |
| Common Yellowthroat |
| Double-Crested Cormorant |
| Downey Woodpecker |
| Eastern Meadowlark |
| Eastern Towhee |
| European Starling |
| Florida Scrub Jay |
| Glossy Ibis |
| Gray Catbird |
| Gray Kingbird |
| Great Blue Heron |
| Great Egret |
| Greater Yellowlegs |
| Green Heron |
| Herring Gull |
| House Sparrow |
| Laughing Gull |
| Least Bittern |
| Least Tern |
| Limpkin |
| Little Blue Heron |
| Loggerhead Shrike |
| Magnificent Frigatebird |
| Marsh Wren |
| Merlin |
| Mottled Duck |
| Mourning Dove |
| Muscovy Duck |
| Nanday Parakeet |
| Northern Cardinal |
| Northern Flicker |
| Northern Mockingbird |
| Northern Parula |
| Northern Shoveler |
| Osprey |
| Osprey (Bahamas species) |
| Painted Bunting |
| Palm Warbler |
| Peafowl |
| Pie-billed Grebe |
| Pileated Woodpecker |
| Prairie Warbler |
| Purple Gallinule |
| Red-Bellied Woodpecker |
| Reddish Egret |
| Red-Shouldered Hawk |
| Red-Winged Blackbird |
| Roseat Spoonbill |
| Royal Mute Swan |
| Royal Tern |
| Ruddy Turnstone |
| Sanderling |
| Sandhill Crane |
| Savannah Sparrow |
| Semi-palmated Plover |
| Swallow-tailed Kite |
| Swamp Sparrow |
| Tree Swallow |
| Tricolored Heron |
| Tufted Titmouse |
| Turkey Vulture |
| White Ibis |
| Wild Turkey |
| Willet |
| Wilson’s Plover |
| Wood Stork |
| Yellow-crowned Night Heron |
| Yellow-Rumped Warbler |
| Yellow-Throated Warbler |
| Zenaida Doves |
