A February Visit to Florida: Day 2

Wednesday February 28th was my second day photographing with Mark Smith in Florida. For this day, Mark had us meet around dawn at Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area, an area about 30 miles north and west of Vero Beach where I was staying. The recreation area is at the north end of the Fellsmere Water Management Area and is primarily used for launching fishing boats. However, it is also used by photographers due to the large numbers of birds in the area and particularly the Roseate Spoonbills like the one above. Never having seen a Roseate Spoonbill, I loved photographing them in all of their beauty.

Across a narrow stretch of water from the parking lot was a small island hosting a Roseate Spoonbill rookery. On our shoreline was a nice collection of loose branches. Many of the Spoonbills would fly over to browse the branches for nesting material as this bird above is doing.

Since the birds would fly in fairly regularly, it would give the opportunity to photograph them as they landed with their wings spread or flapping to stop themselves. Here is a juvenile landing with an adult in the background.

Besides the Roseate Spoonbills, there were other of the larger birds such as Egrets and Herons. Here is a Great Egret as it flew on by.

A Great Blue Heron landed in front of me and posed for its portrait.

A male Anhinga flew overhead in his breeding plumage.

Not to be outdone, a Glossy Ibis passed by decked out in its breeding best.

On the other side of the road was some marshlands and fields. One rather unusual bird that we saw was this Tropical Kingbird. This bird is primarily a resident of South America, Central America, and Mexico. They can be found in south-eastern Arizona to southern Texas during breeding season. There is a small population that winters in Florida, but they are rare. Again, a new bird for me.

I like this photo because it seems to me that the Tricolored Heron is surrounded by tricolored marsh grass.

This is a photo of a Gray-headed Swamphen. This invasive species is rather new to the US. Originally from Asia, in the mid-1990s, some birds escaped captivity and began breeding in southern Florida. They are large and aggressive competitors and some worry that they will end up displacing other native North American birds in the rail family. Currently, their US range is mostly in Florida, but they are found in Georgia and have been sighted in South Carolina. Given their limited range, this was new bird for me.

Another new bird for me was this Eastern Meadowlark tucked into the grass.

My final bird for today is a Snail Kite. In its talons is a freshwater apple snail which is its only food source. The Snail Kite has been facing a problem with invasive exotic apple snails from South America. These very large apple snails, presumably imported for aquariums, have gotten loose and are becoming the dominant freshwater snail in the everglades and Florida lakes. The beaks of the Snail Kites are often too small to extract the snail from these larger shells presenting a real threat for the birds. Fortunately, in just three generations of birds, scientists are already seeing larger beaks on Snail Kites which is allowing them to eat more successfully.

Today I say 9 new species of birds: Roseate Spoonbill, Tropical Kingbird, Gray-headed Swamphen, Eastern Meadowlark, Snail Kite, Mottled Duck, Common Gallinule, Limpkin, and Wilson’s Snipe. For the Mottled Duck, the Common Gallinule, and the Limpkin, I have much better pictures from later in the trip, so I skipped them in this post. My Wilson’s Snipe photo is fine for identification purposes, but it is simply not a good or interesting photograph. Hopefully next time I see one, I will be able to get a much better picture.