On a Cypress, looking around in a rookery.
Wood Storks prefer an isolated location, with a flock of other Storks to nest.
Storks will stop where they see other birds building. Check out the neighborhood, and move on. I rarely see them on nests.
I know of a few Stork rookeries. All are pretty isolated and some protected. That is one of the reason they have made a come back from the brink of extinction.
These were taken recently on a morning when there was plenty of flight action. Egret nesting to be exact.
Walking the parameter of the large rookery pond, well dodging direct sunlight, gave me a few different angles as the birds flew past with their ‘collections’.
It’s frustrating, but I could show up the next day, at the exact same time and place with no results. When you do get it right this is an amazing show.
Above an Alligator watched with me.
Getting some type of perspective in swamps like this is hard. This first shot worked out because the Cypress Knees in the water were in the open.
An added bonus when shooting this was my audience up above. A White Ibis sat and watched.
No effort or thought. He just leaned out and was in the air. They make it look so easy.
Roseate Spoonbill taking flight.
This Night Heron sat in a big tangle of branches and vines. There were several of them, but the old ‘branch in the face’ problem was the rule of the day.
I did get this shot, and his deep red eyes were clear. Only takes one shot so I count this as a win.
She is tucked in between a Cypress Tree and a Palm. Looks like a pretty good spot and hard to see.
These shots were taken after the Black Skimmers third pass. If you’re lucky a Skimmer will be catching enough fish to create a routine on where they skim the surface.
Watching for a pattern is probably one of the few things that can help get a shot. That pattern, usually twists and turns. In this case he flew along the marsh edge, turned away from us through an opening, and suddenly came right by. Basically left to right, with a twist.
From our point of view it meant catching the bird coming in from the right at maximum focal length, then as he disappeared pull back to almost the minimum length. The next return path was that close.
The good news was once the Skimmer was past us we had a few minutes before the next try. It was a big marsh he was working. Time to plan, and laugh. Which we did plenty of, well mostly laugh.
Not exactly the best stick, however she seems OK with it.
This is probably why the big wading birds have such flimsy nests. They never get finished before eggs arrive.
