Wakodahatchee and Green Cay

Had an AMAZING trip out to Wakodahatchee and Green Cay this weekend, where we met up with a bunch of folks from Space Coast Audubon. There were tons of extremely photogenic breeding birds. If you didn't GOYB, you missed a LOT this week, including: (as always, click photos to enlarge)

 A great egret. The little white tufts by her tail are babies.

 A glossy ibis incubating eggs.

 A tri-color heron incubating eggs.

 A mom with her young anhingas.

 A young anhinga testing out is dramatic pose.

This has long been my nemesis bird. I've been trying to get a (good) picture of a female red-wing black bird for years. I think I finally succeeded here!

A mom and dad wood stork with their babies.

 "Hey, shoot my left profile!"

 "Actually, shoot my right. Wait, who am I kidding, I've beautiful from either side!"

 A male red-wing black bird. He was kind of ticked off at me and I couldn't figure out why...

 ...till I looked down and saw his nest right below the boardwalk with babies in it!

A really terrible picture of one of my favorite birds, the black and white warbler.

 This scene made me laugh. Something about it reminded me of the roadrunner and coyote cartoons. I just don't think that gator is going to catch the wood stork, but I also don't think the wood stork wanted to take any chances.

Check out his feet, very cool pink and black, very long toes.

I'd totally have a beer with this bird.

I love this series of pictures. To me, this one looks like it was done in a Sears photo studio...

... then the red wing blackbird turned to me and said, "Hey, I'm tired of the serious poses, let me do one smiling!" Even his eyes look happy. This could be one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

 Bees have taken over one of the nest boxes! I guess everyone has to live somewhere.

This is another picture that tells a story. A story of a great blue heron who has decided to take up bird watching. Here he gets his life purple martins.

 The great blue heron birder closer up.

 This is just a great egret, but I liked the color in this picture.

 So many stories out there today."My dead snag! You can't has it!"

Another dramatic Sears portrait studio photo of a purple galinule.

 "Yes dear, I'm still wildly impressed by your big puffed up chest." {sigh... men}

This is embarrassing... I've been photographing coots for over a decade, it's on of the first birds I ever shot. And in all those years, I have NEVER noticed that red shield before I took this picture!

 A strangely ragged looking anhinga. I'm thinking it's a mom taking a break from her youngun.

One of the first things Bill Meyer taught me about birding was the difference between diving and dabbling ducks. Here are a couple of dabblers.

This is a wicked cool example of camouflage. How many birds do you see here? There are two!

It was an insanely amazing day out there. Remember, you can see pictures on line, but you can only really experience this if you GOYB and join us for a walk!