4-22-16  Wakodahatchee---the baby tri-colored herons are born!

Time for my weekly trip to check out the babies at Wakodahatchee!  It was a beautiful day for a walk---humidity was way down and it was only about 80 degrees.  Ken even went!  I figured if I put a camera in his hands, maybe he would enjoy it more.  Don't know if he did, but he did take some pictures.  Not nearly as many as I did, but then I didn't let him use my 150-600mm zoom lens.  He did have the 16-300 zoom lens, though, so I thought he would take a bunch of wide angle shots.  He seemed more intent in taking 300 mm photos, but he did take these 2 that I couldn't take with my lens.

Also saw the stilt with the eggs right by the beginning of the boardwalk.

These little guys were pretty well hidden, but i got a few good pictures of them.  These are the new baby tri-colored herons.

the baby tri-colored heron chomping down on Mom's beak trying to get the food she's trying to regurgitate. 

Impatient baby.

the siblings still demanding food.

Then it was on to check on the status of the baby wood storks from last week.  I was amazed at how much they have grown in just one week!

more week old baby wood storks eating their lunch.

Yummm---regurgitated fish!

 Saw some swamp hens, but still haven't seen their babies since about a month ago.

Then a moorhen came up and started sparring with the swamp hen.

looks like the swamp hen doesn't want anything to do with the moor hen.

 Shortly after this, the swamp hen made it's getaway.

Ken charging ahead.  The camera didn't seem to slow him down any.

 More sparring!  These black neck stilts must have a nest over there.  They didn't want this adolescent Great Blue Heron coming any closer.

I believe this is one of the young blue herons that I was saying last week I was surprised to see it was still in the nest.  It seemed pretty confused as to what was going on here.  Finally it backed off and the stilts left it alone.

more young anhingas.

The water was drying up in many spots.  This one must have had easy pick'ins as the fish were being condensed into such a small area.

 And there was more sparring.  This time between 2 snowy egrets!  Even the ibis stopped and gave them an inquisitive look.

a male redwinged blackbird in flight.

 Looked like there were some colorful fish and good sized ones.

 probably the Jesus Lizard I saw last week.  He was in a much more interesting position this time.

the lizard close-up.

more stilts.  There seem to be a lot more of them here now.

NOthing of interest in the tunnel of trees this time.  On to another bunch of wood storks.  Again, the babies aren't more then 2 weeks old!

 I couldn't see the Great White Egrets that I saw last week.  The trees have leafed out and pretty well covered them.  But these guys were in a different bunch of trees and still visible.

 A Wood Stork landing on the bushes.

Next babies to look for I guess will be the Cattle Egrets babies.

 I love watching the anhingas fish. 

 They really have to work to get the fish off their beak.

 which usually calls for tossing it in the air and catching it.  Then they swallow it whole.  This one actually ended up back in the water.  Don't know if the fish was able to swim away or the anhinga just had a hard time finding it, but it stayed under water for quite awhile.  Didn't even see it come back up.

on to watching the wood storks again.

I like the comparison here of baby wood storks that are only about a week apart in age!

On our way out I spotted this soft shelled turtle way up the bank.

 Then saw this soft shell turtle eating a good sized bird.  Don't know what kind of bird it was or how it got itself in trouble, but the feathers in the turtle's mouth makes me think it was a good sized bird.

And that was it for this day at Wakodahtchee.