Funny - Life abounds the colder it gets! My Weekend Shoot

This past weekend had Florida snapping their cold records - both the lowest lows and the lowest highs. ; Sunday we never got warmer than 48 degrees...for the HIGH. ; Folks up north sitting in freezing ice and snow won't understand...but trust me, this is unusual for South Florida! ; Being the oddball that I am, I actually like this weather, so I went out shooting Sunday in my favorite wetlands. ; Another photographer from up north who I had conversed with on a message board wanted to meet at my wetlands so I could show her around; I was a bit worried that in the cold, there wouldn't be any birds to see.

Boy, was I wrong! ; Not only were the usuals there, but I had several first-time spottings of some birds I've never seen before. ; It was packed full of life - I guess if it was this cold here, it was so much worse elsewhere that more birds might have decided to head a few hundred miles farther south than normal. ; I had also been there the weekend before, which was also quite chilly - so some of these shots stretch across two weekends.

It was a great, COLD day of shooting, with my A550 and Tamron 200-500mm lens. ; Here's some of the abundant life I saw and shot:

A tricolor heron patiently waiting for a fish to come into range:


Some mighty unhappy alligators, out of the cold water and sunning themselves to get warm:


A green heron:


A palm warbler sitting among the weeping branches:


A beautiful glossy ibis, showing off his irridescence:


Nobody wanted to be in the water - these turtles were playing musical log, seeing just how many of them they could squeeze onto it:


The gorgeous roseated spoonbill - very distant, but still cool to see in the wild:


One of the prettiest birds in the swamp...the purple gallinule:


This was a first for me...never seen one before. ; It's an American widgeon:


My favorite duck, the black-bellied whistling duck:




Great blue heron sitting on her nest:


Another first...this is an Egyptian Goose...I've never seen one before, and after looking them up found out it is one of the latest of the many invasive species starting to get a foothold in Florida. ; Very pretty goose though!


These guys too were a first-time sighting for me...they're called hooded mergansers:


A very pretty snowy egret, on the hunt:


Still shooting after sunset, I had the opportunity to see many of the birds from all over South Florida coming back to the wetlands to roost for the night. ; It was getting brutally cold by then, light was fading, and ISO800 was needed to have a chance at these shots...but it was something beautiful to witness. ; Here's a great egret coming in:


A roseated spoonbill heading home:


Of course, if interested in all the varieties of birds at the wetlands down here that I've captured with the new cam since November, glance through the gallery here:

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/a550greencay&page=all

Comments and questions always welcome!

 

Great shots Justin! ; Interesting seeing the same waterfowl at SWSA two weeks ago! (several)

 

The quality of the wildlife shots on this site continues to amaze me. ; Great set, Justin.

 

Great shots Justin!

 

Thanks all...much appreciated. ; I love birding and wildlife shooting. ; Rog...Anywhere down in the south probably shares quite a few of the same birdies - though I was surprised to see the black-bellied whistlers by you too! ; The herons and egrets and such I expected.

 

very nice and impressive series!

also very impressive braving the cold!

 

Thanks Tim and Craig.

Craig...as I said, I love cold fronts just because we don't get them often, but I will admit to being genuinely cold for the first time in many years in Florida - when the sun set and the temp was in the upper 30's, and the wind was blowing 20-25MPH over open water, and I have nothing but a pair of jeans, a short-sleeve shirt, and a lightweight hoody sweatshirt...and I'm gripping a metal tripod and lens with gloveless hands!!

 

I know...it's all you northerners with your photos of them that had me wishing I could see one someday! ; Those and the legendary 'loon', which I have also never seen, nor heard, in person.

It was a privilege to finally strike those mergansers off the list. ; Now if the loons would just get down here, and give me a few of those haunting calls!

 

I'm about 2 1/2 hours south of Orlando...this wetlands area is in my area. ; Actually, most of the really nice wetlands reserves and wildlife areas tend to be down in the south part of the state because of the Everglades - though there are still some very nice areas up north in the state too, nearer to Orlando, like Viera wetlands in Melbourne. ; But with Ding Darling, Venice Rookery, and Corkscrew on the west coast, and Green Cay, Arthur Marshall, Loxahatchee and Wakodahatchee on the east, and Everglades in the middle...this is the place to be for birding! ; I'll hopefully see and hear a loon one of these days.

 

Thank you Dave!

 

Thank you so much! ; I agree with you on the prehistoric - I almost always get that sense when I'm watching these huge wading birds flying overhead all around me, and cawing and yak yak-ing in the trees...it feels like I'm in Jurassic Park!