One of the rarities of Florida, the reddish egret white phase - here in the middle of its "drunken sailor routine". With this behavior, the egret tries to confuse the fish so it's easier to catch them - Bart Vannieuwenhuyse's Photos- powered by SmugMug

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we recently (Dec 2007) traveled to Florida, a trip that took us to some of the birding highlights of the state...

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Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > For our final days in Florida, we have arrived on Sanibel Island -- this is one of the most famous birding spots in the USA and really centers around the JN Ding Darling reserve. This morning (19/12) this brown pelican sat in nice morning light

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > the mangrove thickets in Ding Darling offer shelter and food for lots of egrets - this morning, there were great gatherings of snowy egrets in the mangrove - at one point, something spoked them and they flew up in a true "Florida snow-storm"

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > One of the rarities of Florida, the reddish egret white phase - here in the middle of its "drunken sailor routine". With this behavior, the egret tries to confuse the fish so it's easier to catch them

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > With its pink color, this roseate spoonbill fits well with some of the colorful painted houses here in Florida

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > A very good place to take flight pictures of e.g. least terns on Sanibel is the fishing pier -- around the pier, the waters are literally full of little (and bigger fish) upon which the terns, pelicans and humans hunt - after better inspection of the plumage, I guess these are juvenile sandwich terns rather than least terns - the lack of a clear yellow tip on the bill, threw me off...

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > White pelicans are like many other Americans real "snow-birds" here in Florida, meaning they are escaping the snow in their homeland to winter in sunny Florida. Only when you see them side-by-side with the resident brown pelicans do you see the striking difference in size and can you really appreciate how big the white pelicans are

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > Tiny compared to the white pelicans, but nevertheless a beautiful bird is this solitary sandpiper - very very similar to the European common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) tailbobbing included

Bart Vannieuwenhuyse > At some point there were at least 30 little blue herons hunting together at the same spot - this created a bit of action when 2 birds were getting too close to one another

One of the rarities of Florida, the reddish egret white phase - here in the middle of its "drunken sailor routine". With this behavior, the egret tries to confuse the fish so it's easier to catch them

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