Florida Birding

Florida Birding - my first real wildlife photographic experience (about which I wrote an article long ago for Nature Photographer Magazine - also one about dying tulips) was birding around Central Park only half a block from our Manhattan home. It started in the film days (here I didn’t rush down to the lab for one hour service) around what’s informally known as the Row Boat Pond in the early morning as I sought out the several species of herons, egrets and ducks as well as the Mute Swans which nested on a small island in the pond. As we went periodically to Florida in the winter we were always on the lookout for birding venues and my personal favorites are the Wakotohatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach in February and the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine (which is basically a zoo with a larger American Alligator swamp, examples of all the crocodilians, turtles, birds and other species as well. But here it is the originally unintended consequence of an alligator swamp that is the draw as many species of herons and egrets as well as Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills nest and roost here. Some of the smaller birds actually nest in the bushes right alongside the boardwalk so that even a small lens or cellphone can capture close up exposures of nesting birds with eggs or newly hatched chicks. If you’re interested, check out the Alligator Farm in the latter half of April and very early May.