Daily Musings

Failure to Meet Goals: Now What?

April 1, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Sunset over the Everglades - Everglades National Park, Florida

If you have read over my last couple posts, you realize that out of the eight goals I set for myself this winter, I accomplished about two and a half. On any scale, that is a pretty overwhelming failure. Does that mean the entire winter was a failure? I hardly think so… In fact, I think this winter was a very successful season for me.

Sure, I wasn’t successful with what I set out to do back in October. However, if you have been following the blog for the last few months, you have seen that I have had some success behind the camera. I also have had several amazing experiences while traveling in South Florida and the Everglades. So how did I turn a season where I only achieved a quarter of my goals into a success? Here are a few pointers that really helped me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Musings Tagged With: failure, failure to success, flexibility, goals, priorities, success, winter

Winter Goals: New York – Revisited

March 31, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Thayer's Gull (Larus thayerii) - Allan H. Treman Marine State Park, Ithaca, New York,

As you may remember, I had put together two sets of goals for the winter, one to focus on my time here in New York and one set aimed at my time in south Florida. Yesterday, we looked a how successful I was with the Florida goals and today we will look at the goals for New York.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Musings Tagged With: goals, New York, photography, Thayer's Gull, winter

Winter Goals: Florida – Revisited

March 30, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Now that I am back home and spring is just around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to revisit the goals I had laid out back in late October. That’s one thing about goals, people often set them, talk about them, but after things are finished, few of us go back and really examine our goals to see if we met our expectations or not. With that in mind, let’s take a look and see how I did. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Musings Tagged With: Big Cypress Swamp, Everglades National Park, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Florida, goals, photography, tree climbing, winter

Everglades: Songbirds of Anhinga Trail – Warblers

March 12, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Northern Parula (Parula americana) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Yesterday I looked at the flycatchers that can be seen and photographed on a regular basis at Anhinga Trail, so today we’ll look at the Wood Warblers. These small, typically colorful birds can be extremely difficult to photograph. Most prefer the canopy of tall trees and rarely come down to eye level. Well, at Anhinga Trail there are no tall trees so you can get lucky and get a canopy loving species like a Northern Parula at eye level.

Everglades: Anhinga Trail Songbirds – Flycatchers

March 11, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Anhinga Trail is known as one of the premiere locations to photograph Anhingas, herons, egrets, Wood Storks, and more. The place is so well known that on Saturday evening I witnessed well above $100,000 worth of lenses and camera equipment pointed at a single Great Blue Heron. It’s a popular place and I have been there so many times, I am much pickier where I point my lens these days. On Friday morning, I decided to focus on the often ignored songbirds of Anhinga Trail.

The marsh and reeds that line the edges of the canals can be extremely productive for a number of songbirds. On most visits, I see at least several species of warblers, a couple flycatchers, a couple blackbirds, and typically a handful of other species. Most photographers simply ignore these birds as they look for the charismatic herons and egrets.

Everglades: Unusual Birds

March 10, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) - Eco Pond, Everglades National Park, Florida

It’s always fun when you find an unusual or out of place bird when birding. I had the pleasure to do just that twice over last weekend. Now when I am talking about unusual birds, I’m not talking about the birds themselves being weird or strange, I’m saying that their mere presence is unusual. So this past weekend I had two pretty cool and unusual species show up in Everglades National Park.

Big Cypress: The Gators

March 9, 2010 By Drew Fulton 4 Comments

American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) - Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

It’s hard to come to Big Cypress and the Everglades and not take a few photos of the abundant American Alligators. I have hundreds in my files but they keep attracting my attention and my lens. This image is simple and I have little to say about it except that the reflections attracted my attentions and I simply love the deep greens in the water.

Filed Under: Daily Musings, Featured Photo Tagged With: Alligator mississippiensis, American Alligator, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, Loop Road

Big Cypress: Burned out Cypress Dome

March 8, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Cypress Dome after Wildfire - Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

At the end of last April, lightning ignited a wildfire in Big Cypress National Preserve, just south of Interstate 75 as it crosses the state. The fire burned for about two weeks and fire crews from the preserve worked hard to contain the fire. Now about 10 months later, I have been wading through the burned out dome photographing the charred trunks contrasted with the brilliant greens of new sawgrass growth.

Big Cypress: Dingy-flowered Star Orchid

March 5, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Dingy-flowered Star Orchid (Epidendrum amphistomum) - Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

This weekend I will be searching through Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in an attempt to find blooming orchids of any variety. I have no idea what I will find or if I will find any at all. This isn’t the ideal time of year for some of the most spectacular species but there should be some in bloom and I’m here now so I’m going to give it a try.