Another bird fashion show at Gatorland

Great egret flying by.

Great egret landing on an alligator.

For some reason the birds like to go gator surfing. Actually, you can feed the alligators hot dogs. Birds like to try and steal the dogs from the alligators when they fall in the water. It's a risky meal for the birds.

Cattle egret and friend.

Great egret preening.

I made my last trip over to Gatorland in Orlando in early May. Things will start winding down there at the bird rookery. By now there are mostly cattle egrets with babies. The great egret babies are all grown up and the tricolored heron babies are growing up fast. It's still a great place to get easy bird pictures. The birds pose and are use to having people around. This was my 3rd spring to shoot pictures there. The first year I was clueless. I had bought my first DSLR a couple of months earlier and was just learning how to use it. I didn't realize you could use flash in the shade. I thought flash was just for indoors. The next spring I knew a teeny bit more and I went to a great Flickr meet-up there. Everyone was nice and helpful with tips. This spring I made 3 visits, trying to get different bird babies being hatched. Soon the new zipline ride will open and it will be interesting to see if it has an impact on the birds next spring. The zipline runs across one end (the end where the birds don't nest for some reason) of the big alligator lake and along side of it. The birds may be totally oblivious to it. The park has been building it all spring and I think it opens soon. So, if you want to zipline over alligators then head to Gatorland.

Skyway Bridge for Skywatch Friday

Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Taken from the east beach turnaround at Fort Desoto. When the tide gets low you can see the water dotted with great egrets.

Great egret going for the kill.

He flies off with his catch, which seemed to be trying to wrap around his beak.

"This doesn't taste like spaghetti!"

My first bobolink. I had heard there were a few at the park. I only saw one while I was there. This one stayed close to the ground and kept trying to hide in the tall grass. It was getting dark and I was having trouble getting good shots. I took this with my flash. This was the only decent picture I got of him but I like the way it shows the colors down his back and you can still see his black mask.

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Ft Desoto after work

Great egret landing in the muck.

Wilson's plover watching me. There aren't too many Wilson's around. This one was by itself.

Looks like a group of skimmers and royal terns in the roped off sanctuary at the north beach.

This is the tiniest horseshoe crab I've ever seen.

When there's not a Rays baseball game tying up traffic, I try to head down to Fort Desoto to walk around after work at least once a month. There's not much traffic and it's better than driving into Tampa after work. I can get in a good hour and a half walk before it gets dark. The park is pretty busy during the day now so I think late in the day most of the birds have been scared away. The roped off areas seem to be full of birds getting ready for bed. I can usually still manage to find something interesting to take pictures of. Although, there hasn't been anything rare or unusual lately.

New babies at Gatorland and a sad story.

I think this snowy egret was born the day before I was there. It was huddled under mom.

Baby anhinga looking up at mom. This was the first time I have seen a baby anhinga. There were 3 babies on this nest.

Baby great egret peaking over the branches.

Warning - my sad story starts with this bottom picture. There were 3 baby snowy egrets on this tiny nest when I first got to the bird rookery at Gatorland. Later in the morning I was watching this particular nest. One baby looked much younger than the other two, maybe by a few days. I then realized that the mom was holding the smallest baby by the foot. It then dawned on me that the mom was pushing the baby out of the nest. The baby didn't fall right away. It's other foot seemed to have gotten caught on a branch. In the picture the back baby was watching the other one fall. You can barely see the little legs sticking up on the far left. There were a few other photographers watching at that point. I've read about how parents or other siblings will kick out the runt if there isn't enough food or room on the nest but to see it happen was strange. The nest was too far away from the boardwalk for anyone to reach and alligators were waiting down below in the water. To make matters worse, I had heard that morning that a lot of babies were lost in the big storm that had moved through Orlando the week before. Even though the day ended on a sad note, there's still lots of babies being born there every day.

Birds at Fort Desoto

More pelican fly by pictures above and below.

Great egret coming for a landing.

This cormorant was floating around the fishing pier. I took the picture from far away thinking it wouldn't turn into much. When I cropped it up I realized he had a hook in his mouth. I wish I could have seen that when I was there. I would have reported it to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. It may purge out eventually. Everyone thinks this is such a common bird but he does have beautiful colors on his face.

Just another day at the beach. I walked down to the fishing pier but it was a pretty quiet day except for a few pelicans and great egrets. It's fun to walk the pier and see the birds and dolphins but I hate seeing birds hooked. How can we reach them to help them when they are floating far away? If we get close in a boat will they just fly off? Sadly, I think they would have to be in pretty bad shape to let someone catch them. There are signs at the pier explaining to the fishermen to not cut the line. It shows them with pictures how to catch the birds with a net if they have one and pull the hook off. I've never seen anyone do that. Most of them just don't care. 

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Nature's fashion show at Gatorland.

The great egret gets the lime green color above the beak. Normally, that is a dark yellow that blends in with the beak. They grow the white feather strings that hang down in the spring.

Cattle egret with beige feathers on his chest and head. Normally this would be all white. The beak turns bright purple and orange. His legs get turn brighter.

That little white feather on the head pops up and the tri-colored heron gets a little more burgundy in his feathers. His red eye becomes much brighter.

The snowy egret's yellow beak and feet turn pink and orange.

Pretty pink face.

The adult breeding birds are really pretty this time of year. Bird rookeries are fashion shows for birds. I guess it's their nature's makeup. A couple of weekends ago I headed back to Gatorland to see if there were any more babies. Lots of adults birds with beautiful faces prancing around. Most have coupled up and are either building nests or already have babies. I'm going to try and get to Gatorland one more time to catch the tri-colored heron babies before the season winds down.

Alligators and birds at Gatorland

The big gators were bellowing when I walked into the bird rookery.

A big one standing in the water.

You can feed hot dogs to the gators in the lake but I think the birds eat more of them than the gators do. I once saw a kid throw the hot dog on the gator's head and a bird picked it off his head. I have also seen a gator catch and eat an egret so it happens.

Wood storks close to the boardwalk. I think they were walking around looking for lost hot dogs.

Big smile!

It always seems funny to see the birds use the gator tails as logs to stand on.

This snowy egret was stepping over the gator.

A loud video of the gator bellowing. Birds are calling in the begining. Towards the end you can hear the bellow.

I got to Gatorland right when they opened at 9am and headed straight for the bird rookery. When I got there I heard the strangest noise. I have been to Gatorland several times in the spring for the last 2 years and had never heard that sound before. All of the alligators were bellowing. It sounded like a sick dog groaning. It was very loud. Creepy but interesting. I was just glad I was on the boardwalk and not in some swamp with that sound. The weather was cool when I got there which I think is why the gators were so active that early. It warmed up pretty quick though. It's interesting the relationship with these birds and the gators. They are both just looking for food in the same places. The alligators in the lake provide a safe place for the birds to build their nest over to keep raccoons out (until one of the babies falls out of the nest).  I posted this picture last year on Flickr of an alligator with a great egret - flickr picture. Sad but I know everyone has to eat.

Baby great egrets at Gatorland

This mom has her hands full. Three baby great egrets. These were the only babies at Gatorland when I was there. I'm thinking they were the first ones born. There are several other nests with eggs so soon the bird rookery there will be loud with babies crying to be fed. I missed the other parent flying in with a fish but made it as the mom (I'm assuming the female) started feeding them. It looked like she was eating first and then upchucking pieces of fish to give them. Yum! The babies are so cute with their fuzzy heads and big yellow beaks. They were moving around quite a bit. That nest is going to be full when those babies start to grow. Hopefully, none of them will fall out as the nest overcrowds. There are hungry alligators waiting below.

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Nesting wild birds at Gatorland

I think it all starts here. The great egret gets that pretty bright green "I'm sexy" color on their face.

Then they grow the "I'm sexy" feathers and start doing the "look at me" dance.

Then they start "going steady" and become a couple.

Then "it" happens. There was a lot of it going on at Gatorland recently.

They work on the nest bringing sticks and twigs.

Then they become parents. This one only had one egg. 

This is a snowy egret with four eggs. They are going to be busy parents when they hatch.

Two weekends ago I made my first seasonal trip over to Orlando to check out the wild bird rookery at Gatorland.  The mangroves along the alligator exhibit are full of wild birds that fly in for the spring to have their babies here. Since the alligators keep away the raccoons, I guess the birds think it's pretty safe for them to build their nests over the alligators. Right now it's mostly great egrets, snowy egrets, anhingas and storks that are nesting with eggs. Soon the tri-colored and blue herons will move in and nest as well. There was only one nest that had hatched (more on those later) so I'm going to try and get back there in late April to check on the rest of the eggs.

Eagles at Fort Desoto

Another baby eagle family near Fort Desoto. These are extremely cropped. The nest is across the lake and there's no way around the lake.

The only baby's thinking "What are you looking at?"

Flock of white pelicans circling around Fort Desoto.

Snowy egret posing on the fishing pier.

There's always a lot of great egrets on the pier.

Great blue heron flying into the lake.

I can't go to the Fort Desoto fishing pier and not take pictures of dolphins.

It's that time of the year. Warmer days means heading to the beach at Fort Desoto park. Recently, we had our first real warm day and the hubby and I headed out.  Our first stop was the duck ponds just outside of the park. There's an eagle's nest across the pond. As we drove near it you could see all of the photographers standing on the side of the road with their big lenses pointed at the nest. We got out and I took a handful of pictures. We waited for about an hour but the other mate didn't return.  Another photographer said the mate did not return until noon the day before so we left and headed to the beach.

After a picnic lunch on the beach, I walked down to the fishing pier. In the past you would see lots of pelicans swimming around the pier. It's a good place to practice birds in flight photography and pelicans diving for food photography. No such luck on this day. For some reason there wasn't a single pelican around. The fishermen didn't seem to be catching much either so maybe that's why.