2024

Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida

I went down to visit my dad again in Fort Lauderdale, this time at the turn of spring. Our first birding trip was at a Something highly unusual happened that day - it was about 4:00 when we arrived, and it wouldn't be until 7:30 that the sun would set. But by the time we arrived, all of the birds were already roosting! This made it a exceptional day for taking pictures.

A pair of blue-winged teals in the water. I was very happy to see a duck that wasn't a mallard or Muscovy for the first time.

Anhingas were here, too! This time, it's a side shot of one. Standing among many other large waterfowl, it becomes apparent how unique the behavior of stretching out their wings to dry is.

A pair of great egrets, hanging out behind some foliage.

One of my fondest memories of this trip was when I sat down on a bench and started talking to an old guy with a sun hat and a huge camera. He asked me what camera I had, and I said I had a Nikon D7100, to which he lit up and said: "That is the best camera that Nikon ever made." We talked about photography and he gave me a lot of useful camera tips, telling me you can get a good lens for only a few hundred bucks on Ebay and a camera hood to prevent glare from the sun. He encouraged me to experiment with the settings on the camera, suggesting to mess with the auto-focus to get just the right settings and then go back into manual mode to find out what those settings are.

This picture here, of these snowy egrets, was taken with the D7100's auto-focus. I didn't quite grasp everything the guy said at first, but I figured out how to use the feature the next day.

A flock of wood storks. We had seen wood storks soaring as soon as we parked the car, but far more of them were roosting together in trees in the water. They outnumbered the other large waterfowl in the wetlands, but were happy to share space with everyone, like the little puffballs in the front.

A tricolored heron perching. This may have been one of my favorite pictures of the trip.

A common gallinule, gazing into the water. Another gazes back? Around this time, the sun was starting to set, making pictures harder to take.

My heart melted when I saw these black-bellied whistling-ducks. So calm, so peaceful.

This turtle was Dad's find. He insists that he's not very good at spotting things, but there's been multiple times where he notices things I wouldn't have seen otherwise. We believed this one was a Florida red-bellied cooter.

A grey-headed swamphen. You can understand why these birds have chosen such a vibrant turquoise-blue pattern when you see them against the water in the dark.

For bunny lovers, here's a swamp rabbit. They're a bit different from the garden varieties, being more compact and with smaller, squarish ears.

These two great blue herons must have been a couple, as one was giving sticks to the other to help build a nest.