Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Wood Stork (Mycteria americana), Searching for his favorite foods of fish, reptiles or amphibians at the Thompson Sports Complex in Gulfport, FL.

Wood Storks or as they are sometimes called Wood Ibis, are the only storks in America. They can be found in Florida in swamps, marshes and ponds.

White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)

White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)

This White Ibis is only one of a flock of maybe 25 who decided to visit me on the edge of the little pond at Thompson Sports Complex Park in Gulfport, FL.

They can be found in the deep south and are very common in the Tampa Bay area. They are friendly birds and will rarely fly off if a human comes around. In this case, it was exactly the opposite. The moment I appeared, these guys decided to join me. It was difficult to get one alone. This guy was only a few feet from me, making it very easy to get this capture.

They eat insects and continuously probe the grass and the water looking for food. They are fairly large birds at 22-26 inches tall. They weigh about 2 1/2 lbs. These birds are social and nest in trees at night.

Please Help With ID

ID Wanted

I've posted photos of this duck and his/her mate about a year ago. I'm still trying to find out what kind of duck this is. With all the nature photographers out there, I can't believe no one knows what it is called. I've only found one other photo of ducks that look like this through Google and I think it was the same pair. Whoever posted it didn't include the name, so it was no help.

They are so pretty. They hang on a little pond in Gulfport, FL along with some Mottled Ducks, White Ibis, a pure white duck, a few Mallards and a couple of Moorhens. There is only 1 pair of them. They are much larger and longer-backed than Mallards as you can see in this photo.

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Hint of Fall Color in New England

Bolton, CT

While I was on vacation in Connecticut, I realized I planned the date about 10 days too early to see the amazing foliage in New England. The weather was very good; only 1 rainy day in the 10 days I was there.

My son, Joey, and I took a day trip to Bolton. We were born and raised in CT, but we came upon this little pond in a park we'd never heard of. What a surprise! The leaves were just beginning to turn and it made for just a hint of color. There was a lot of vegetation on the pond, so we had to look for a fairly clear area when we spotted this tiny island in the pond. There were just a few reds and yellows to add a bit of color to this photo.

Let me know how you like this photo in the comments below.

Little Blue Heron

This Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) has his work cut out for him if he thinks he's going to find his breakfast easily in this Duckweed (Lemnacae). He looks pretty determined, though. I guess if you're hungry enough, you can remain focused.

This photo was taken the same place as the Red Hibuscus from yesterday's post. I still can't remember where I was. I'm beginning to think it was somewhere in Bradenton, FL near my work.

As I look at this shot, I'm trying to remember what park I took it at. I cheated; I looked in the metadata (thank goodness for keywords) and as it turned out, it was taken at Florida Botanical Gardens about 3 weeks ago.

One of my favorite flowers is in the foreground, it is the Indian Blanket flower. They can be found growing most anywhere in this area. I love the colors. I also like lily pads, and although these don't have beautiful waterlilies sitting amongst them, there are a few Spatterdocks peeking out here and there.

Florida Botanical Gardens is a fairly new park. I remember I stumbled across it by accident and it just happened to be the day it was dedicated. Since then, I've taken many a walk through it's beautiful gardens.

Different Time--Different Light

The time of day can make all the difference in the world with the way a photo comes out. Just to prove this, I'm posting both these photos taken at the same place, the same day, but different times.

This first photo of this pond was taken earlier in the afternoon about 4:00 pm, if I remember correctly. The light was very bright and contrasty, so I admit I had to tone this down quite a bit.

The second one was taken about 6:00 as the sun was coming down closer to sunset. This photo was only darkened up a bit at the top. As you can see, with the golden light of the sun about to set, it made all the difference in the world.

These were both taken in March at a rookery we found. The white spots you see in the trees are actually birds nesting or roosting.

It's an amazing place with literally thousands of birds. They come in droves to roost. It's strange to watch. When we got there, there was mostly Wood Storks and Great Egrets busily building their nests. While the female waited, the male would keep flying off to get nesting material and bring it back to the female for inspection before she began to weave it into the nest. It was relentless to watch the males fly off and bring back a bit at a time.

A little bit later, we saw the Snowy Egrets come in; probably about 50 at a time. The Little Blue Herons followed them, then the Glossy Egrets came in. Each time they'd come in and take their place. After a few minutes would pass another round of 25-50 birds would come in. They all had their special tree. By sunset, the trees were full of roosting birds.

Common Spatterdocks

Today my friend and I went for an early morning walk through Sawgrass Lake Park, here in St Petersburg, FL, looking to capture some bird photos.

While we didn't see many birds, I spotted these Spatterdocks and liked the way the light was hitting them, The reflections of the tree in the upper center frame is just icing on the cake to complete my composition.

Loyce