We recently spent a week visiting friends in Florida at Ft. Myers and Delray Beach. The following photos were taken at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (Naples), Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (Boynton Beach), and Green Cay Wetlands, (Boynton Beach).
All three sites have boardwalks that traverse swamps, marshes or wetlands where the birds are used to being around people and, as you will see, appear to be posing for pictures.
(Right) The Wood Stork is the only stork breeding in the United States. Standing erect, it's quite ugly...bald and unpleasant...but is graceful in flight.
The Red Shouldered Hawk has a call that sounds a lot like a Blue Jay. It's also referred to as a Soaring Hawk.
I call this photo "Let Us Prey."
The Red Shouldered Hawk in flight, taken at the Green Cay Wetlands.
The word Anhinga comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means Devil Bird or Snake Bird. They're water birds, diving under water and spearing their prey, but they must dry their wings often.
They often swim with only their necks held above water, hence the "Snake Bird" name.
Anhinga drying its wings.
I think this is a Tricolored Heron but could be mistaken. It was close enough to pet. No, I didn't!
I watched this Roseate Spoonbill fly overhead and prepared for taking a lot of photos of it landing.
The Roseate is one of the most unique water birds, using it's spoon-shaped bill to sift through the bottom layer looking for bugs, fish, crawfish or the keys it lost last summer
Traffic jam at the pond.
