Friday, 15 April 2016
It looks like just about everyone is here now. We may have a few Cattle Egrets and Tri-colored Herons arriving still though. Many are building nests and are in peak plumage. Our first clutch of Great Egrets are fledging but there are still eggs from them as well. Snowy Egrets have chicks and eggs. The Little Blue Herons are here also; they are not as “showy” as the others so keep a sharp eye and you’ll find them. Cormorants and Anhingas have eggs and chicks. The sun rises over a distant cypress head so the lighting in the mornings has been very nice. There’s a lot of feeding going on all day long. We have 20 Wood Stork nests this year. This is a significant jump from our usual 13 to 14 so the birds are thriving with the protection of the alligators. Every morning, usually between 8:30 and 9:00, the alligators have been bellowing; this makes for some great pictures. I have felt their rumbling while sitting up in the office even! Don’t forget to stop by for the Saturday evening photography time. Many hundreds of birds fly in to our rookery to roost for the night (in addition to the birds that are here nesting). With so many birds jostling for a good perch to stand and sleep on, there are plenty of opportunities to photograph some birds in action. I usually try for some nice fight or flight shots during our evening time although the photo above I took in the morning. See you soon!
Adam Hall
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