I don't know what this little blue heron was straining so hard to look at. Was it me? Seems it would just be easier for him to turn his body around rather than sticking his neck out in what looks like a very uncomfortable way. And then to do it to both sides...
After I was through shooting the funeral procession, I wandered back towards my car, taking the long way around, which involved going under the 41/301 bridge. On the far side, there's a little park that celebrates the restoration of a small area of estuary, and it was there that I found this little blue heron. Little blue's are usually pretty skittish, but this guy let me get some nice closeups before he flew off. I know he's not really blue, but he's not exactly black, either. I think the people who got to name some of these birds often went in rather fanciful directions.
I took these detail shots of an old mural hanging over the former Pelican Man Bird Sanctuary on City Island in Sarasota last night. It's currently being run under the name Save Our Seabirds, and I really need to get out there again and take some pictures. I liked the way the old mural is fading away and showing more and more of the wood grain in the plywood underneath. I think that's why you always use a good primer coat under your murals. Anyhow, that's a great blue heron above, with a little bit of pelican to the right.
Here's the rest of the pelican that you're missing in that top picture.
And this one shows an anhinga drying his wings.
This panel manages to squeeze in a little blue heron on the left and a roseate spoonbill on the right. Oh what I wouldn't give to get all of these birds into the same picture.
One of the few local waterfront species I haven't shown you already today is this little blue heron. He was a shy fellow, not holding still when I tried to take his picture. But I did get a couple of shot when he was on an old post out in the water. That's the city of Sarasota in the background of both shots. In the picture below, you can see the big purple Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, a local landmark. Well, I think it's a landmark because they painted it purple, but it seems to have worked. Sorry about the darkness of this guy. They are naturally quite dark, and it was getting late. The city behind him is well lit, though. Perhaps I should have tried a flash. Didn't think of that. I have so much to learn when it comes to taking good pictures.
I mentioned that I shot a pair of roseate spoonbills this afternoon. What I didn't mention were the myriad of other creatures I shot at the same time. There was a fairly large flock of glossy ibis feeding in the shallow water. Look close at the bird closest to center in the shot above and you'll spot a little blue heron that snuck in for a few bites. There was also some plain white ibis, a tri-colored heron, and a few pairs of moorhens. I didn't get any decent pictures of them though.
I had almost made it all the way around the lake when I saw this red-shouldered hawk on a tree branch nearby. He had his eye on something, but I never did find out what. Three shots after this one, I caught a frame with only his feet in the shot as he headed out after something. I saw either him or his mate a couple of minutes later being pursued by a murder of crows. No luck getting a picture of that, though.
This being Florida, you always have to keep your eyes open when you're near the water. Why? Because you never know when you might run into one of these fellows. This gator was about 6 feet long, and he was laid out in a storm drain right off the lake. I kept my distance once I saw him, but if I hadn't been paying attention, this could have spelled trouble.
As I mentioned just a few seconds ago, I'm trying to catch up and show you my monthly calendars before the start of the new month tomorrow. This post is the pictures for February, which technically aren't late, since it's still February for another 3 hours or so... Anyhow, the shot above is a statue of Lincoln near the library in downtown Cleveland. I'm not entirely sure what Lincoln's connection to Cleveland is, but there he is. If you're wondering about the little red S&B logo, that's the company I work for. They're hanging the complete set of calendars on the wall at their various plants both in Florida and Ohio. These quite the conversation starters with the customers, except when the customers want to know why they don't have pictures of stuff we make. But that's neither here nor there. The shot below is a little blue heron looking for a spot of dinner near Ballast Point on Tampa Bay. The out-of-focus cityscape in the background is downtown Tampa, Florida, about 5 or 10 miles in the distance. Maybe I should check that, since I'm really not sure how far it is...
