Visitors to Orlando Wetlands Park near the city Christmas found a White-faced Ibis the other day. I grabbed my one shot to get out there today and found many exciting things to photograph. One the drive in down Wheeler Road I caught a glimpse of a bird in the trees. I ground to a halt and hit reverse, scrambling for the camera as I did so.
A nice light-morph Red-shouldered Hawk! Awesome view from the car window.
Once I parked, I headed down the berm paths toward the Ibis location. Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers were criss-crossing back and forth as they always do this time of year. As the sun warmed the air, Turkey Vultures took flight right over the trees and into my view.
Some even relaxed on the snags as I passed.
Looking beyond the vultures I could just make out a circling mass far, far overhead. Every now and then their feathers would catch the sunlight. White Pelicans!
I walked on toward the reported Ibis spot, scanning every bird I could out there in the very windy, lily pad covered water. No luck yet. However, a huge flock of birds up ahead. Blackbird? Maybe. But why were they flocking into the Wax Myrtles and back out again?
By the time I got closer, the flock broke up a bit and I could tell they were smaller than Blackbirds. They were thousands of Tree Swallows!
They were gathering in this spot, circling around and then swooping into the trees. It seemed to me that they were eating the fruits of the Wax Myrtles. I thought these guys ate bugs exclusively.
With the large flock just over my head I felt I could reach out and grab one at any time. It was difficult to get any single bird in the view finder. Thats what cropping is for, I guess.
Suddenly, the birds would break off from the trees and dip down to get drinks of water from the surrounding ponds. They would then fan out across the park. After a short while they would begin to regroup again.
I like this interesting shot. Note the bird in the left center flying with its head rotated all the way around!
Then it was back to the foraging. Over and over. I could have stood there all day long. However, I needed to get back to Orlando. This flock transfixed me so much that I had to force myself to keep checking the time. I stopped shooting after almost 300 images.
Oh, yeah. I finally got home and checked my images that I took of a couple of ibis way out near the tree line. One of them turned out to be what I was really after today. The White-faced Ibis.
Success with a new Life Bird and a morning filled with awe.
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