Friday, 3 March 2016
We are getting ready for peak time here at Gatorland. In the next few weeks, we should start seeing an increase in the number of active nests. Right now we have a good number of Great Egrets nesting. Many of them are very close to our boardwalk. The Great Egrets are still in all stages of nesting: displaying, nest building, laying, etc. There are a few nests with chicks and many with eggs. The image above was taken with my Nikon D90 (1.5x crop) with a DX 55-300mm lens at 300mm. The nest is about 8 feet from the boardwalk. I was standing behind a few other cameras so it’s possible to get closer if you don’t have 450mm of reach to play with. There are quite a few Snowy Egret pairs building nests also and possibly some eggs under a few that were lying down. I anticipate many more Snowys in the near future. I also saw nests for Wood Storks, Anhingas and Double-crested Cormorants. The eastern edge of the rookery is already busy with many nests. If you have the reach and a tripod, Saturday evenings may prove to be a rewarding outing. There are a few Tri-colored Herons and Cattle Egrets arriving with their breeding colors and plumage starting to richen. Plan some mornings and Saturday evenings to come out and see us soon!
Adam
Join me here in the rookery with your exclusive Gatorland Birding Photo Pass
