Bowl of Spoonbills

The nests didn’t yield many pics this week. The Tri-colored heron nest is in a spot where the adult can been seen, but the babies are hidden. Maybe as they get bigger, I will be able to get some photos.

The three Yellow-Crowned Night Heron chicks were settled in a way that I could not get photos. I did get one pic of the Yellow-Crowned nest that is a good distance away. These two look as if they will be leaving the nest before long.

The two female Anhinga chicks are staying around near the nest. They’ve grown so much since early May when they hatched.

We saw an Ibis standing on what appeared to be the beginning of a nest in a tree near the Indigo Trail. Another Ibis was sitting on a nearby branch. It dawned on me that I’d never seen an Ibis nest. We’ll watch to see if that is what these two were up to.

Along Wildlife Drive, we were treated to a large group of spoonbills, also known as a “bowl” of spoonbills. I counted at least 32 of them, along with a brown pelican and some other birds.

The young spoonbill on the right still has the dark eyes and black along the edge of the wing. The differences between the two are more apparent with them side by side.

I’m sure there’s a great caption for the photo below! The one on the left seems to be amazed at the take-off of the other one.

The Reddish Egret below was standing off to the side for a while. Then it became very excited and caught several fish.

I think the one below should be captioned, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” He continued to run back and forth in front of the spoonbills, stopping to gobble a fish every chance he got.

These last three pics are of birds in the sky at a far distance, but I wanted to share the photos anyway. The first one I “think” is a Little Blue Heron starting to turn blue. The legs are green, so that’s my only clue. I’m sure Hugh will let me know if I’m wrong! The wings were striking, though. I wish it had been closer.

There were several Magnificent Frigatebirds flying high overhead. I always get excited when I see them. They are so big. Their wingspan can be 7 to 8 ft. across They can fly without landing for weeks, dipping down and skimming the water to get fish to eat. These were too high for me to get good pics, but I thought I’d share them anyway.