egrets – A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens

a second look, attention to detail, attitude adjustments, birds, egrets, Florida wildlife, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, Natures little dramas, perseverance, photography, Tricolored heron

A beautiful day…

April 26, 2024April 25, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

It may not have been exactly the day you might have pictured when I describe it as a beautiful day. It’s a little early to be dreading the hot weather already this year, but that was my first thought when we decided to head to the rookery at about 3 PM yesterday. Scorching sun was on my mind, with my recent and seemingly unending visits to the dermatologist lately I slathered on sunscreen and donned a hat and off we went. Much to my surprise the sky was hazy enough that the sun wasn’t an issue. And another surprise came when I looked at my pictures. I wish you could see them as I see them in my computer because I think the foliage looks amazing. The birds are nice too of course, but that foliage looks so good. It wasn’t any talent on my part, or my nice but middle of the road camera and lens, it was the light. And you can’t buy that!

You see the ‘kids’ carrying on in the feature photo. This is the nest that we saw last time. Mom looks exasperated.

Then mom decided she’d had enough for a while. Can’t say that I blame her.

This Woodstork pranced around and flapped his wings and he finally got his lady love to notice him, and he bowed down before her.

And then his moment was spoiled by an interloper grabbing the attention.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Yes I love the snowy egret, but the foliage really got me. Have you ever heard the sound snowys make? If you haven’t you ought to google it. They may look elegant, but it took me a long time to decide that it really was the snowy making that silly noise.

I thought the tricolor heron had just taken a drink, but it seems he got a nibble too.

If a dragonfly chooses to pose then I’ll always choose to take his picture.

We only found one other nest with two younger great white egret chicks.

This nest was further into the foliage and even the photoshop tricks weren’t going to be able to let me get the branches out of the way without ruining the picture.

This little guy is trying to be not so little.

On the drive home we were lucky enough to be stopped for a traffic light with a family of sandhill cranes moseying along the side of the road.

Even if there was a place to pull over I wouldn’t stop for pictures of them on this road. I’d be afraid I’d disturb them and cause them to head into the street. But I wasn’t going to miss my chance to shoot out the car window.

When we were getting out of the car and I heard the decibel level of the birds out there I was sure we’d finally see the numbers of nests that we’ve seen in the past. And I think they are there this year too, but deeper in the foliage or on the other side of the ‘island’. I’ve heard that the later toward sunset the better the rookery gets, but we were ready to head for home, and dinner.

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, birds, Close encounters, egrets, Florida wildlife, life goes on, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Back in business…

March 4, 2024March 3, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

The rookery that is. A couple of weeks ago there were just a few birds to be seen and I thought that maybe this rookery had been abandoned. But the visit last night disproved my theory, lots of birds are back. Of course the plants are again choking out the water, maybe even more so than a couple of weeks ago, but hopefully that doesn’t matter.

Many egrets in breeding colors and displaying their availability for all to see.

I appreciated this one posing with a nice yellow flower.

We saw no wood storks last time, but they were back en force.

The wood storks always have taken this high spot, and I guess it was still waiting for them this time.

I suspect he was going to grab some foliage to feather his nest.

You know what else was back? Fire ants! It took only seconds to realize I’d been bitten. My own darned fault for wearing flip flops. When will I learn?

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, birds, coping, egrets, facing facts, Florida wildlife, in the neighborhood, life goes on, live and learn, nature, perseverance, photography

Nature’s mysteries…

February 23, 2024 naturecoastimagesblog

Yes, there were birds at the rookery that we have enjoyed going to visit, especially because it was fairly close to home, but not nearly in the numbers that we have seen in the past. Our frequent trips to Wild Birds Unlimited to replenish the stock of bird food take us right past it, so we have stopped a few other times also and were disappointed to see few birds. But we were encouraged by postings from other photographer friends that suggested that the birds might be back. Our stop a month or so ago had been pretty discouraging, in that there were almost no birds there. And we have heard similar reports about the other rookery that is in ‘our’ area. So I looked up info on Google about birds abandoning rookeries and found out that yes, they will if a disturbance has happened. And they might set up shop again not too far away, but it didn’t sound as if they would return to the former rookery. As densely populated as this area of Florida is I’m wondering where they would find another area to go to nest and raise their young.

This egret at least seemed to be gathering nesting material.

We saw a few anhingas also, but the trees weren’t full of their nests as they have been in the past.

And so the few that were there had lots of real estate to themselves.

Wood storks seemed to have had the first hatchlings in the past, but we saw no wood storks at all that afternoon. The only excitement was that tricolor heron from the feature photo. He was tiptoeing through the, um, I’m not sure what those water plants are but they certainly weren’t tulips. There were nests of tricolors at this rookery in the past, but this one was the only one we saw, but at least he seemed to be happily hunting a snack.

attitude adjustments, birds, egrets, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, nesting, perseverance, photography

The rookery…

June 6, 2023June 5, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

When we want to go out and take some pictures the rookery is the closest place to go. Not exactly close mind you, but only a half hour or so away. The overall scene is still full of birds, and the decibel level is still at its peak, but if I didn’t know better I’d think all the birds were adults. Most of these babies still stand in the nest calling for food, or I assume that’s what they are doing. All except for the tricolor heron chicks who are all over the place. They fly in and out, or just perch in plain sight. A nice difference from when the adults were nesting and they were tucked way into the shrubbery and we could see them for only a few seconds as they flew in and out. These guys are still small, or I might have thought they were also adults.

I wandered down to the far end of the area in search of dragonflies. Much to my surprise I found I’d been standing next to one of these young tricolors for a while, but he didn’t seem to mind.

I argued that this bird on the tippy top of the tree was a great blue heron, and then he struck this pose and yup, it’s an anhinga. Lost that argument.

This posture doesn’t happen often. A Woodstork, not sure if it would also be a juvenile.

I used to think this log was reserved for the anhingas to perch on. Then I took pictures of some turtles on it. Now this egret seems to have taken over. And, speaking of taking over, the vegetation is so thick you can’t see the water. There is water there I presume.

Here’s a close up of that wild and crazy guy from the feature photo.

I wasn’t excited to go to the rookery. I thought there would be nothing new to take pictures of. But there is always something to see, I would think I’d have learned that by now.

attitude adjustments, ducks, egrets, Florida wildlife, in the neighborhood, nature, perseverance, photography, rain, Rise and shine, sunset

After the rain…

June 4, 2023June 3, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

First of all let me confess that the sunrise this morning wasn’t quite as colorful as this picture makes it look. I always use my iPhone when I head to the park in the morning, mostly because of the extra wide angle it gives me, and when I put the pictures into Lightroom this morning and clicked on ‘auto’ it gave me the feature photo you see. It was too pretty to tone it down, so I left it alone.

I barely made it to the park in time. I had looked out the back window at the last minute and saw that the clouds left over from the torrential rain last night were breaking up. And there was some faint pink color in the clouds. But by the time I put some shoes on, grabbed the phone, and walked to the park, the colors were already fading. In my rush I saw that the walkway into the park was covered with puddles, so in my hurry I walked through the grass. I’m pretty sure the the water was deeper in the grass than the puddles were. The weatherman now says that our drought that has been a subject of conversation on the news for quite a while now will be over soon. So, for now, the rain is welcome.

As the sun came up the red colors gave way to yellow-oranges.

When it was time to leave I saw that part of the walkway was dry so I headed that way, but I disturbed some ducks who were using the little playground as a swimming pool.

a second look, adventure, attention to detail, attitude adjustments, birds, egrets, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, life goes on, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Figuring it out…

April 29, 2023April 29, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

My trips to the rookery have been disappointing for a while now. Nests that I knew were there were tucked into the foliage, making them impossible to see. But I have now discovered the secret to seeing the chicks that were growing up in those nests. Just wait for them to grow up and leave home. Maybe they are teenager-equivalent now, and mom and dad are having trouble keeping them at home. So it was a couple of days ago that I ‘found’ them, sort of. We were there earlier in the day than we usually are, so maybe that’s another secret I figured out. It was a fun day at the rookery. That’s the snowy egret chicks in the feature photo, not hiding anymore.