A long desolate dirt road might not seem like a good location for bird photography but this road leads to an amazing place filled with life. I’m so eager to try out my latest piece of gear that there was no time to run a brush through my hair. The early morning breeze should fix that hair.
I notice a crow flying right alongside me. This bird looks like it is headed to the same place as me. Another bird enters the picture. Good morning beautiful osprey. It looks like we are off to a great start.
A pair of Turkey Vultures nervously watch me from their early morning perch as the sun starts to make an appearance from behind a couple of palm trees.
As I arrive in the parking area, a beautiful Red Shoulder Hawk says good morning to me and another hawk in the distance answers. I stop for a few seconds to check out a group of Black Vultures who are eagerly waiting for the sun to heat things up so they can catch a lift from the warm rising air currents.
My destination is a large fresh water lake and my latest piece of gear is a nice stable kayak. Let’s see what we can find on the water.
It is very easy to lose yourself once you slip into the environment on a kayak. Everywhere you look, you get a different perspective on things. I see a spot of yellow in the distance and it draws me in for a closer look.
It is a massive water Lilly flower. So pretty and so delicate.
I’ve always found photographing flowers to be extremely challenging and this was no different. I always want to change my angle so the flower is against the sky and I wasn’t about to step out of my kayak to do that but just as I was about to move on, a honey bee flew in and landed on the flower. Perfect photo opportunity.
I really like this series of shots. In fact, I would say these shots are the bee’s knees, quite literally. For those of you that aren’t American, the term “The bee’s knee’s” is used to refer to something that is really good. So that term has two meanings here. You can actually see the bee’s knees, not sure they have knees and the shots look pretty good!
In the second shot, we can see this bee’s cute little mandibles. Those are the bee’s jaws and look at all the pollen stuck to the fine hairs on this bee’s head. And of course, you can’t miss those huge sacs full of bright orange pollen on the side of the bee’s legs. This bee is carrying a lot of pollen.
Back on the water and a friendly neighborhood osprey flies by overhead and that’s when I notice a pair of Snowy Egret’s in the distance and they are doing something I was hoping for. Being in the kayak should give us a great perspective on this behavior.
Say hello to the Snowy Egret or as some people call them, Golden Slippers. This bird is quite literally walking on water. I’ve seen these birds do this at this location countless times but I’ve never been able to get close enough until today.
So why is this bird walking on water? The ripples and splashes, those are from fish who are now jumping out of the water and fleeing for their lives.
With each step, the Snowy Egret scares another fish to the surface until it finally pinpoints one among the weeds and look how the body posture has changed. This bird is ready to strike and it looks like this strike was a miss.
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The next round has the bird coming in from the side and it gives us this amazing moment in time as it once again tries to snatch a fish from the surface of the water and once again, the bird misses. I could watch this all morning.
On the other side of the lake, I spot a familiar flight pattern of a very rare bird. This is a male Snail Kite. I will never pass up an opportunity to capture an image or two of this bird. Luckily it landed nearby and posed for a few still shots.
Check out those amazing red eyes and look at the size of this bird’s beak. That beak helps this bird eat it favorite food, apple snails. Apple snails are large freshwater snails that are native to the area. That long beak is designed to get into these snails and they have a special set of talons that helps them do this.
The problem is, this area is now overloaded with invasive apple snails. Many of which are Exotic Island Apple Snails, more on that in just a bit.
As the snail kite lifts off, we see a couple of interesting things. One, this bird has three bands on its legs. That’s because this species is endangered in the state of Florida. We also get an excellent look at those highly specialized talons. Perfect for pulling snails out of the water which brings us back to those invasive Island Apple Snails.
I spoke with a couple of guys from a university who have been studying the effects of these invasive snails on this bird. The idea was that these larger snails would be too big for the Snail Kite to pick up and carry but research has shown that the Snail Kites in this area have already adapted by growing larger talons and longer beaks! It only took 3 generations for this change to appear.
The researchers said that this is the fastest example of evolution or adaptation that they have seen. My son brought up an interesting point here. He thinks that the Snail Kites in Florida will eventually become a sub-species because of this change and I have to agree with him. All right, enough of the science lesson, let’s get back on the water.
This area is also loaded with alligators some of which are getting a little too close to me and my kayak.
I keep my eyes on the gators but I really want to watch a group of Little Blue Herons who are feeding right in front of me.
This is an immature Little Blue Heron. In their first year of life, they are solid white. As adults, they are more of a dark grey color. This one is currently changing from one stage to the next.
Here’s an adult who was nice enough to pose just like the younger one a few feet away. It should be interesting to see how age and experience makes a difference between these two birds.
Our immature Little Blue Heron… is sitting inside a giant Lilly pad. Talk about odd but amazing photo opportunity! This might be my favorite of this bird. I guess being higher up gives this young bird a better vantage point on the water below. Looks like this youngster has just shown the adult how to get things done or not.
The Lilly pad can’t really support the young heron and it quickly buckles under this bird’s weight spilling the bird back out onto the water’s surface.
Meanwhile, our adult shows the youngster the proper way to stand on a Lilly pad and then it goes one step further by showing the youngster how to properly pose for images like this.
I really like these two images. It almost looks like this little blue heron is holding onto an ancient king’s scepter. How cool but enough of this little blue heron. The snowy egrets are back for more hunting.
And this bird wastes no time dunking its head into the water and look at this crazy moment. You can actually see the fish that this bird missed in mid-air. The bird’s gaze is still fixed on the now flying fish but the bird’s momentum pushes it forward.
In the next frame, the bird looks away and the fish still frozen in mid-air gets another chance at life but this snowy egret wasn’t done.
It immediately went for another and this time is scored a good sized bite to eat and it managed to stick its head through some Hyrdilla weeds. This bird is now in a complete panic because it thinks something has a hold of its neck.
The Hydrilla around the bird’s neck it acting like a noose. The harder the bird pulls, the tighter it gets but the bird manages to break free and fly away. Notice how it never let go of its fish? Don’t worry about the Hydrilla around the bird’s neck. It fell off before the bird landed.
Another snowy egret comes flying in from the opposite direction. It strikes and misses sending an explosion of water droplets into the air. It immediately strikes again, talk about determination. This strike is a success. I can now actually see what type of fish these birds are going for.
They are taking young large mouth bass. This entire lake is a man made fishery for this type of fish but it is catch and release only. I guess that doesn’t apply to these birds.
We get one more opportunity as yet another snowy egret flies in from the left and this series is my favorite of the bunch. The bird misses but it doesn’t matter because the early morning light, the amazing shade of yellow, gold and green reflected on the surface of the water and that hazy almost oil painting style reflection makes these images my favorite from this morning. Special thanks to these Snowy Egrets for this awesome opportunity.
For a brief moment, something blocks my view through the camera and I get a little nervous. I pull the camera away from my eye to find a Great Blue Heron walking right in front of me. No harm for me but these birds can be savage hunters. Being so close should provide some excellent up close photography. I can’t wait to see what this one pulls out of the water.
Now we get to see the glory of the d850’s high resolution sensor paired with a 500mm prime lens. Look at the feather detail on this beautiful bird. A fine intricate weave of what looks like small hairs. It is just ridiculously amazing and I said these birds were savage hunters and this one proves it by pulling a teeny tiny freshwater shrimp from the Hydrilla and then gulps it down.
I hear an all too familiar sound off in the distance and look to see a Great Blue Heron trying to escape a wrath of a group of crows. This is a murder! No seriously, a group of crows is actually called a murder.
I’m going to take a wild guess that this Great Blue just finished raiding the crow’s nest and the crows are doing their best to push the heron away. It is kind of funny to think that such a large bird would be frightened by a small crow but here’s why.
The crow is going to do its best to remove some feathers from the back of the Great Blue Heron. Sitting here in the middle of all this activity is simply amazing. I’m really enjoying my kayak.
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