Happy Holidays!

I had a rare mid-week day off last Wednesday and decided to spend the morning making photographs.

First up was a site I’ve driven by many times and always said “That looks like a great place for a photo”.  It’s the boat ramp off of Highway 50 where it crosses the St. Johns river. I was there before dawn and had a good time watching the sun come up and the clouds evolve.  And yes, it is a good place for a photo.

Dawn on the St. Johns River at the Highway 50 boat ramp

Next, I drove over to Viera Wetlands. I haven’t been there recently and wanted to see what’s going on.

Palms, clouds, and marsh at Viera Wetlands

There are a lot of the usual birds around:  Herons, Egrets, Ibis, Anhingas, Coots, Grebes, Limpkins, Ospreys, Cormorants, a Caracarra, a Hawk, Gulls, etc.  I also saw a lot of winter visitors there, including Kingfishers, Mergansers, Caspian Terns, Tree Swallows, and Northern Shovelers.  By the way, another good place to find out what’s going on is the Viera Wetlands group on Flickr.  I usually check it before I go so I’ll know what to watch for when I get there.  Other folks are seeing Northern Harriers, Loggerhead Shrikes, Horned Grebes, American Kestrels, and many more.

Caracara with prey

The Great Blue Herons are all busy courting and building nests.  This is a wonderful time to get some action shots, especially of these birds in flight.  If you watch one of the couples for a while, you’ll likely see the male leave repeatedly to gather nesting material.  They tend to leave and return from the same direction and this gives you a big advantage when setting up to take flight photos.

Great Blue Heron pair

You can see other photos I’ve made at Viera Wetlands in this set on Flickr.  If you get some spare time over the holiday break, this would a good place to spend it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved