I found this group of roseate spoonbills hanging around the Celery Fields pond on my 2nd trip there. My first trip several weeks ago was not successful. I got there early Saturday morning and found very little there. I decided to go back late in the afternoon and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I made that trip. The Celery Fields in Sarasota was just that, a celery farm from the early 1920's until some time in the 1990's. The Sarasota Audubon is now working with Sarasota county on restoring 80+ acres to natural wetlands. The nice thing about this area is that you can cheat on the exercise thing. No hiking 2 miles to get to the lake. There are roads all around the ponds and you can drive from pond to pond and just get out and take pictures.
Spoonbills aren't rare in central Florida but they aren't as common as other birds such as ibis or great egrets. I was recently thinking I hadn't seen many around lately. When you find a group together they are fun to watch. It was late in the day so the above group was winding down and preening. Several kept trying to sleep. A few were still trying to get that last bite before dark. It looks like there's a juvenile in the 2nd picture from the bottom. The one on the right was very pale pink and a little smaller than the others. I have more stories from my trip coming up later.
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