Ronald Kotinsky Photography

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Ronald Kotinsky Photography I am a self-taught landscape photographer from Tampa Bay, Florida. My passion for photography blosso

Wanted, the Masked BanditDescription: black mask, bright yellow throat, olive jacket. Smaller than your hand, and much f...
10/25/2026

Wanted, the Masked Bandit

Description: black mask, bright yellow throat, olive jacket.

Smaller than your hand, and much faster.

Last seen: LLP, Tampa, October 21, 2:55 PM.

Known accomplices: a black and white warbler, an American redstart and a yellow billed cuckoo.

Approach with: a 600mm lens and patience.

Relax, he does not want your wallet. This is a male common yellowthroat, and the only thing he is stealing is insects.

Here is how to catch one yourself. Stand at a brushy edge and listen for a low, husky chuck coming out of the tangles. Then make a soft pishing sound. Yellowthroats are curious, and one will often pop into the open to see who is talking. You have a few seconds. Keep the shutter fast.

He was one of four birds I photographed in under two hours that afternoon. The full story is the new Patreon article, Three Warblers and a Rain Crow. Inside:

Where each of the four is headed for winter, from southern Florida to Argentina.

Which one climbs trees like a nuthatch, and which one flashes its tail to scare insects out of hiding.

Why the cuckoo is not the cuckoo clock bird.

Every camera setting, and why only shutter speed and ISO changed all afternoon.

A field plan for finding all four at Lettuce Lake yourself.

Not ready to join? Follow the page. The birds are free here too.

Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/5000 second, ISO 3200.


Athena has no idea what is about to happen. Valrico - Florida - 10-23-2026 Athena is a red shouldered hawk. The blue jay...
10/24/2026

Athena has no idea what is about to happen.

Valrico - Florida - 10-23-2026

Athena is a red shouldered hawk. The blue jay above her has decided she has stayed long enough. Feet out, bill open, dropping in from above.

This is called mobbing. Smaller birds dive at a hawk and call at it until it leaves. It tells the hawk it has been spotted, and a hunter that depends on surprise has little reason to stay once everyone knows where it is. The racket can also bring other birds in to join.

Blue jays have an extra trick. They are known for imitating hawk calls, red shouldered hawks among them. Nobody is certain why. One theory says it warns other birds. Another says a fake hawk call clears the bird feeder for the jay.

Is Athena in danger? Probably not. The Cornell Lab says mobbing usually harms neither bird. The jay is smaller and quicker, and it knows it.

Did the jay connect? The next frame goes up tomorrow. Hit or miss, tell me in the comments, and follow the page so you see how it ends.

Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/2000 second, ISO 2000. October 23, 3:52 PM.



Yesterday's mystery bird is a yellow billed cuckoo.Hillsborough County FL - October 21st 2026 Look at the clues in the ...
10/23/2026

Yesterday's mystery bird is a yellow billed cuckoo.

Hillsborough County FL - October 21st 2026

Look at the clues in the photo. The lower half of the bill is yellow. There is rust red in the wings. The tail is long, with white tips underneath.

Not that typical cuckoo. The cuckoo clock bird is a European species that lays its eggs in other birds' nests and leaves the work to them. Ours raises its own young, and fast. From incubation to fledging can take as little as 17 days.

The clues, answered.

Hairy caterpillars: it is one of the few birds that eats them, and it can eat as many as 100 tent caterpillars at one sitting.

Rain crow: its knocking call often comes on hot, humid afternoons and sometimes after thunder.

South America: it migrates at night, through Central America, to winter east of the Andes, some as far as Argentina.

Is it rare in Tampa? No. It nests in Florida every summer. It is hard to see. It sits motionless on a hidden perch, hunches to hide, and goes quiet by day during migration. Late October is the tail end of its time here.

Worth noticing while you can. The species has declined about 34 percent since 1966, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/5000 second, ISO 1000. October 21, 4:01 PM.

Did you guess it?

Tell me in the comments, and follow the page for the next mystery bird.

This warbler climbs trees like a nuthatch.Hillsborough River - Florida Black and white warbler, photographed in Florid...
10/23/2026

This warbler climbs trees like a nuthatch.

Hillsborough River - Florida

Black and white warbler, photographed in Florida on October 21. Most warblers flit through leaves. This one creeps along trunks and thick limbs, probing bark crevices for insects, and it moves in every direction: up, down and sideways. An extra-long hind claw and heavier legs than other warblers let it hold onto the bark.

It breeds across the eastern United States and much of Canada, as far northwest as British Columbia and as far east as Newfoundland. In fall it heads south, traveling mostly at night. Some spend the winter in southern Florida. Others keep going to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and northern South America.

In spring it is one of the first warblers to head back north. If you see a zebra striped bird creeping up a trunk early next spring, this is a good bet.

The clean white throat on this one points to a female or a young bird. Adult males show black streaking on the throat and darker ear patches.

One more surprise for a bird that lives on tree trunks: it nests on the ground, tucked into leaf litter at the base of a tree, stump or log.

The oldest on record was a female at least 11 years and 3 months old, banded in North Carolina and found again in Pennsylvania in 1968.

Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/5000 second, ISO 1600. 2:27 PM.

Fall migration is passing over Florida right now, mostly while we sleep. Follow the page to see who shows up next.

10/22/2026

Yesterday's mystery bird is a yellow billed cuckoo.

Hillsborough County FL - October 21st 2026

Look at the clues in the photo. The lower half of the bill is yellow. There is rust red in the wings. The tail is long, with white tips underneath.

Not that typical cuckoo. The cuckoo clock bird is a European species that lays its eggs in other birds' nests and leaves the work to them. Ours raises its own young, and fast. From incubation to fledging can take as little as 17 days.

The clues, answered.

Hairy caterpillars: it is one of the few birds that eats them, and it can eat as many as 100 tent caterpillars at one sitting.

Rain crow: its knocking call often comes on hot, humid afternoons and sometimes after thunder.

South America: it migrates at night, through Central America, to winter east of the Andes, some as far as Argentina.

Is it rare in Tampa? No. It nests in Florida every summer. It is hard to see. It sits motionless on a hidden perch, hunches to hide, and goes quiet by day during migration. Late October is the tail end of its time here.

Worth noticing while you can. The species has declined about 34 percent since 1966, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/5000 second, ISO 1000. October 21, 4:01 PM.
Did you guess it?

Tell me in the comments, and follow the page for the next mystery bird.


Name this bird. It spends the summer in Florida woods, and most people never notice it. Three clues. It eats hairy cate...
10/21/2026

Name this bird.

It spends the summer in Florida woods, and most people never notice it.

Three clues.

It eats hairy caterpillars that most birds will not touch.
Old timers called it the rain crow.
Within weeks it will be in South America.

Photographed in Tampa this afternoon. Guess in the comments. The answer, and why you have probably walked right past one, goes up tomorrow.

Follow the page so you see it.



10/20/2026

A quick video of this morning's launch as viewed from Plant City, Florida. Marlene manned the monopod with the Canon USA R5 and the RF100-500mm while I fired the 600mm Canon USA mounted to the R5 MK2.

Please Pass the Jelly! A tighter crop and view of the jellyfish. There are two lights inside this bubble. One is the ...
10/20/2026

Please Pass the Jelly! A tighter crop and view of the jellyfish.

There are two lights inside this bubble.

One is the rocket's second stage engine, still burning on its way to orbit.

What you are looking at is the exhaust from this morning's Falcon 9, more than 100 miles from where I stood. The sun was still below my horizon. Up where the rocket was, it was already daylight, and the exhaust lit up against a sky that was still dark.

The bubble is the plume expanding into air so thin there is almost nothing to hold it back. The glow is mostly water from the burned fuel, frozen into ice crystals and lit by the sun.

Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/250 second, ISO 2500.

7:08:34 AM. Plant City - Florida

Don't be jelly. Seventeen seconds after that wide shot, the 600mm on my second camera found this. Bell. Tentacles. Glowi...
10/20/2026

Don't be jelly.

Seventeen seconds after that wide shot, the 600mm on my second camera found this.

Bell. Tentacles. Glowing core. Eleven days early for Halloween and already in costume.

The science in one breath: rocket exhaust more than 100 miles away, high enough to catch sunlight while Florida was still in twilight, ballooning into that bell because there is almost no air up there to hold it in.

Frequently asked questions.
Does it sting? No.

Is it real? It is a photograph. Canon R5 Mark II, 600mm, f/4, 1/250 second, ISO 2500, 7:08:36 AM.

Can I keep it in a tank? It is bigger than your house. Considerably.

Tag the friend who swore they saw a UFO this morning.

Follow the page so the next one does not catch you by surprise.

Canon USA Meteorologist Valerie Mills FOX 13's Paul Dellegatto Meteorologist Nash Rhodes Matt Devitt Weather

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