A Northwest Naturalist: Florida Egrets and Herons

Great egret on gator back at Gatorland

Southern Florida is definitely the land of wading birds! Everywhere you look you could soon find one- flying, feeding in the median, and prodding the pools along the roads and around the motels. Here is a sampling of the many many photos I took on the trip. There was never a boring moment watching them preen, hunt, fly, call, and just be. Green herons were surprisingly not-secretive. They were plentiful and out in the open, something we rarely see around here. Black-crowned night-herons are another bird that we don't see out very often. I don't know if yellow-crowned night-herons are secretive but in Florida, they weren't. Snowy egrets were quite common as were great egrets. Cattle egrets were around, especially in the road medians. Tricolored herons seemed more common than little blue herons. Reddish egrets were in select areas. At Gatorland we enjoyed the noisy young great egrets and noisy calling and arguing snowy egrets and tricolored herons. There was only 1 cattle egret and no other herons or egrets. Nesting in the Dahoon holly bushes would be a snowy egret and tricolored heron on two levels and the great egret at the top of the bush. I highly recommend the photographers special at Gatorland, other than that I'd avoid it as I'm not much for zoos and critters piled all over each other in a non-natural setting. The only "natural" setting was the one area photographers are allowed early in the morning. It is well worth it. Enjoy!