Landing: Great Egret

With landing gears extended, wings & tail acting as air brakes; a Great Egret prepares to land in the Florida marsh. These birds are impressive when stalking the marshland but when their great wings are spread a majestic image appears.

In comments on my last post Meggie asked if I were still in Florida. Sad to say, no. Since our Florida visit I have been working through the collection of new images in my spare time and have found little time for outdoor photography. Of course, the cold weather and gray skies have played a part also.

The shear amount of birdlife in Florida is simply awesome. A few hours at a good location there can produce hundreds if not thousands of images.

During previous trips I shot extensively in Lakeland city parks where birdlife was completely acclimated to humans. This time was different. The area south of St. Cloud around Lake Kissimmee and Lake Marion were to the best of my knowledge open to public hunting. I noticed quite a bit of waterfowl hunting being conducted on Lake Kissimmee. The non game species were not appreciably wilder and I observed a greater variety while the hunted varieties of waterfowl were difficult to observe and virtually impossible to photograph.