4-29-16 --- This weeks Wako trip: baby glossy ibis and cattle egret----

Another week has flown by!  Time to get back up to Wakodahatchee to see the newest residents there and check on the growth of the others.  It turned out to be a hot humid day.  Lots of birds panting.  Not much going on.  Not many people there, either!  Got to park right up front.  But the heat and humidity didn't stop me from spending almost 3 hours here again!  So much to see! New babies to photograph.
This guy greeted me by the entrance.

Even the glossy ibises take on more color during the mating season.

one of the baby great white egret I took pictures of 2 weeks ago. 

the 2 - 3 week old baby great white egret, again.

This seems to be the culprit for the water being so low.  The water management people say they don't want to release water into the area because of this black necked stilts nest which has 4 eggs in it.  They plan to wait until the babies hatch and can move.  Wonder if there will be any water left by then?  With the lack of rain for the past month, it's really getting low.

 reflection of a wood stork.

These guys are getting really big, but they're still enjoying the comfort of home.  Here Mom, or Dad, is sheltering them from the sun.

 a better picture of the sheltered babies.

a cattle egret in flight

another wood stork family.  There are probably about 50 wood stork families here now.

a colorful iguana

a greckle couple getting in on the courtship thing.

another area with another great white egret and her babies.

on to some baby tri-colored herons.  Last week they were sacked out in a heap, so I didn't post that picture.  Just looked like a blob of feathers.  Now they're walking around on the branches by the nest.

 possibly the cutest babies of them all.

 Even posed for a close up.

 Their neighbor, and hidden very well, is a glossy ibis family.  Tried to get a better picture, but they were just too well hidden.

On a different clump of trees this greckle was attacking an adult tri colored heron.  I assume the greckle must have a nest there.  The tri colored refused to leave, though.  Wonder if they eat eggs?!

Even saw this cute little snake on some of the dried up water bed.

interesting markings.  Wonder what kind of snake it is?

getting artsie with a greckle silhouette.  Love the song they make.

more of the dried up water bed with what I presume are racoon prints.

I found this purple gallinule interesting.  It carefully climbed up on this thin branch, then pulled the smaller branch with the purple flowers on it up and grabbed it in it's feet along with the bigger branch.  Then it ate all the purple flowers on that branch.

 Here it is grabbing another one.

another new family---cattle egrets!

These were the only ones of them I've seen so far.  They had to have been born in the past week.

 They were in a pretty good area for getting pictures of them so I went a little over board.

 one last picture.

the little cattle egrets neighbors are a bunch of wood stork families, and a few cormorant and anhinga families.  This guy is probably about 4 weeks old.

 A turtle enjoying the sun

 another hidden family of tri colored herons near the entrance of the wetlands.

It was hot enough that a bunch of wood storks were cooling off in the water.

 looking a little scruffy after it's bath.

 or is he just a flasher?!

a lone whistling duck.  There were hundreds of them here a few weeks ago.  Wonder where they all went?

Hopefully I'll get back here at least one more time before moving.  It's neat being able to go and see something different each week.