Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork in Golden Light
[Little Estero Lagoon, FL. Nov 2014]
Photography is naught but a creative attempt to capture the fickle play of light -- and, no image is as magical as one formed during the hallowed time known as "Golden Hour". A quick trip to Little Estero Lagoon afforded precisely such an opportunity; and, although the species were familiar, they were pictured as if anew -- providing refreshing new perspectives of the following:
- Roseate Spoonbill
- Wood Stork
- American Oystercatcher
- Marbled Godwit
- Brown Pelican
- Tricolored Heron
- Little Blue Heron
First the Roseate Spoonbill:
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Roseate Spoonbill |
The Roseate Spoonbill is the most colorful of the 6 species of Spoonbill found globally. While the Roseate ranges widely in the New World -- in the US, Caribbean, Central and South America -- its closest genetic relation is found in impossibly distant Australia: the Yellow-billed Spoonbill.
This Roseate Spoonbill, seen here in a tidal pool, was in prime alternate plumage with bleeding red shoulders, orange tail and blushes of yellow on its graceful neck; all facets that were accented, even amplified, in glorious twilight.
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Roseate Spoonbill |
In the bounty of golden light, even the normally scruffy and ordinary looking Wood Stork is imparted an almost glamorous look as if its head had been dipped in molten gold:
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Wood Stork |
Of the world's 19 species of Stork, we have but a single representative in the Wood Stork -- a number that could well have been zero had urgent measures for its recovery not been undertaken by committed conservationists.
Indeed, this magnificent bird's declining population had resulted in a 1970 prediction of its extinction by the year 2000. A grim milestone whose auspicious debunking could not have made all ardent supporters of our avifauna the happier.
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A "Golden" Stork |
Little Estero Lagoon is reliable for American Oystercatcher and this visit reinforced that reputation:
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American Oystercatcher |
The Oystercatcher is always a shorebird that excels -- in size, color and character; and, its glowing personality was positively striking on this occasion.
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Marbled Godwit |
Like the Oystercatcher, the Godwit too has an extraordinary personality -- standing tall among the multitudinous pale-and-grey peeps that scurry across the sand in a blur of anonymity.
Even without the sunset light, who would not warm to the Godwit's cinnamon hues, marvelous gravity-defying upturned bill and long steel-colored legs?
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Marbled Godwit |
Other species were no less resplendent --A Brown Pelican:
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Brown Pelican |
.. seen swimming after plunge-diving near the shoreline for fish.
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Little Blue Heron |
A Little Blue Heron with an invisible catch in its dagger-like bill; and a sub-adult Tricolored Heron seen basking in the twilight:
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Youth with Gull |
It was on a parallel occasion (though at Tigertail Lagoon), that this perfect confluence of twilight-induced tranquility and the heady wafts of sea breeze mingled to enchant even the most casual of observers to commune with nature.
Indeed, this beach-youth, perhaps more stereotypically associated with the "selfie" generation, was moved to capture the grace of a laughing gull on his smartphone at golden hour -- surely, what could offer stronger testament to the pull of nature's beauty than this candid moment of man and bird?
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