The Nanny…

Haven’t I always claimed that photographers are a remarkably helpful and friendly group?  In general I mean.  Yesterday I made a stop at the rookery since I was shopping at that shopping center anyhow, and when I went to take my step stool out of the car it wast was, sob, missing!  I had taken it inside and dragged it all over the house in my curtain hanging frenzy.  Even though I still have a couple of windows to go I put the step stool back in the car as soon as I got home, because I was determined to head over there today.  I did take pictures yesterday, and they weren’t all that bad considering that I was shooting through the openings in the chain link fence.  But they weren’t what I wanted.  When I arrived at the rookery this morning there were photographers already there.  Short people like me!  So I offered to let them shoot from the ladder before I got up there, and they were amazed at how nice it is to shoot over the fence.  Then someone said, “Oh look, the alligator is out!”  Now I had seen the alligator there in a friend’s photo once, and in person once, but wasn’t able to get a photo.  You can imagine me peering through the fence and asking where it was, and saying that I’ve always wanted to get a picture of it.  So whoever it was who was on the ladder hurried down so I could get some shots, then he got back up again.  I made some new Facebook friends today, and had such a nice time talking about photography and places to shoot.  And I did get a couple of pictures too.

I call this one The Nanny, because those are Great White Egret chicks who appear to be being watched over by a wood stork.  I could spin a heart warming tale about egret chicks having been abandoned and then adopted by this wood stork, but truth isn’t quite so dramatic.  That wood stork is actually standing at his or her own nest directly behind the egret nest.  I didn’t see any adult egrets come to that nest while I was there though.  So maybe truth really is stranger than fiction…And the real wood stork chicks are growing fast.  I have to wonder if there is a safety in numbers factor to why these birds choose to nest in colonies like this.  It sure makes for nice photo ops.