Best Regards, Debby

As some of you may know, Florida has been getting pummeled for the better part of a week now by a poorly organized, slow-moving tropical system that was eventually named Debby.  We've gotten well over a foot of rain now, and while it seems to be letting up now, it's by no means over.  All that water has to go somewhere, and while much of it's been absorbed into the ground, a lot of it is standing around.  And for whatever reason, it's making a lot of birds very happy.  For the past two days, I've driven past a cow pasture near my house and there have been a couple of flocks of roseate spoonbills roaming around.  I don't see these guys very much, and sightings are very unpredictable, so when I saw a large number of them right near the road, I turned around, found a spot to park, grabbed the long lens, braved the flooded sidewalk and went shooting.  But being very shy birds, soon as the saw me they hightailed it for the far-off corner of the pasture.  But I got a couple of decent shots of them on the wing, heading away from me.  The one above is yesterday, the one below from just an hour or so ago.  The rain was nice enough to let up long enough for me to get some shots, but it's rained a bit since then.


Also of interest in the same field was a pair of tricolored herons, one a bit younger than the other, I think.  That's the mostly brown one above, and the darker one below I think is the older one.  Most of the ones I see around are darker, so I think that's the mature plumage.  It's the time of year where the babies are finally starting to turn their final adult colors, so that's why I think the one at the top is still slightly different colors, he's just a teenager.  Anyhow, both these guys had staked out a spot on the edge of the pasture where the water was flowing over the normally dry sidewalk, looking to see what hapless creatures were being swept up in the floodwaters, then eating them.  They were pretty mad at me because I was hanging out and trying to shoot them while they were working, and they eventually flew off in protest.  But I got some good pictures first.

Oh, and then there was this. I saw a disturbance out in the shallow water that I couldn't quite identify.  I finally spotted some fins and a tail, so I knew it was a fish and not a gator, but I still couldn't tell exactly what kind of fish.  They (I could tell it was three of something from the trails it was leaving on the surface) eventually got close enough to me that I could see down into the water, and it looked to be three garfish!  I would lot have expected that, but there they were, swimming around in the four or so inches of water covering this part of the pasture.  I'm pretty sure I could have grabbed them if I'd wanted to, but they have some nasty teeth in those big jaws.

Pretty In Pink

I almost never see roseate spoonbills when I'm out looking to shoot bird pictures. So I was quite surprised when I came across this one in a canal next to a busy park at the shuttle launch on Friday. He was going about his daily search for lunch, totally oblivious to the thousands of people hanging around waiting for the imminent launch. Good thing I had my long lens on.  FYI, those plain old white birds are white ibis.  Not nearly so exciting, but they help round out the picture, I think.

Pink-tacular

One of my favorite birds hereabouts is the roseate spoonbill. But they're pretty few and far between, so it's rare I get to shoot them. I was up at Cockroach Bay a couple of weeks ago, or at least the road that dead ends into Cockroach Bay, and I stopped to shoot some birds near a fence. They turned out to not be very interesting, but way out in the flooded fields were a few spoonbills, just chilling out. As I watched them, they decided to fly from one spot to another, one at a time. I shot and shot and shot, and I got this when the very last one finally joined the rest of the flock. They were pretty far away, so it's not the best shot, but I thought it was nice to get one of them with wings outstretched like this. Now if I could just get a similar picture where he's close enough to fill the frame...

Old Birds

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.

In The Pink II

You know it's a good bird picture day when you come back with shots of one of these guys. This is a roseate spoonbill, and for some reason, I hardly ever get pictures of these guys. It's not that I don't see them occasionally. I saw one flying out of a drainage canal earlier this morning, but when I've got a camera in my hand, they're rare as hen's teeth. But today, I got one. He was just sitting there in the small rookery on City Island, so I shot a few dozen pictures. He didn't move much, so don't expect any action shots. I'm pretty happy with most of these, though. Well, except for the one below. The camera is focused on some leaves in front on him, but I included the shot anyway, since it's the only one where he had his beak open. And what a beak it is!

Pink Birds (Not Floyd)

What else did I see at the beach tonight? How about four roseate spoonbills? These guys are always a treat, and they're fairly rare. I followed them around for about half an hour. They're fairly skittish, and once or twice they took to the air, flying around in a big circle until they felt it was safe to land again. So I got some nice shots of them in the air. Beautiful!

In The Pink

On the way home from work tonight, I drove past that lake again. And sure enough, I spotted the roseate spoonbills again. I almost didn't stop, but I thought better of it and turned around. I happened to have my really long lens in the car, so I was able to get some nice shots of these bright guys. Shame they aren't so pretty when you get up close to them...

Pinky

Before I left the shop tonight, one of the guys on his way home called me and told me there were three flamingos in a pond near his house. I asked if they were really flamingos, or maybe roseate spoonbills, which I had seen there before. He wasn't sure, so when I left work, I had to drive by there. Sure enough, there were two spoonbills out on the far side of the pond. I grabbed the camera and started walking. It had rained all day, and was still drizzling, the ground was pretty soggy. About halfway around the pond, the two birds got spooked by something and took off. For whatever reason, they headed towards me, and that's when I got the shot above. I only wish it could have been a bright and sunny day, but in this case, I'm going to be happy with what I got.

More Of March

For your enjoyment this week, the calendar page features one black and two pink birds. Sometimes, you get real lucky when you are shooting. I stopped at a drainage pond on the way home because I saw the roseate spoonbills. The glossy ibis was just a bonus. I think the light was just right, too. I walked around the pond shooting for over an hour that night. I still go by that same pond fairly frequently, but I rarely see any birds there anymore.

The Gang's All Here

I told you that I saw all these birds together tonight, and I wanted to prove it to you. Here's a good shot of three different species, all together in the water. I also spotted a little blue heron, a white ibis, a great egret and a juvenile little blue heron, which meant he was white instead of blue, with occasional blue feathers popping out making him look spotted. I would have stayed and got his picture but he didn't fly in until I was in the truck and pulling off.

April 2005-Week One

This week's calendar page shows us some roseate spoonbills feeding in the bayou between Sanibel and Captiva Islands. These birds are pretty few and far between. These are the most I'd ever seen together. They were pretty skittish, and flew off pretty soon after I took this shot. The one bird that doesn't look like the others is an immature white ibis.