Roseate Spoonbill Surprise

As I was headed home last night I drove through my usual lake loops. It wasn't too difficult to spot the bright spot of pink standing in the middle of Lake Lancaster. A Roseate Spoonbill was settling in for the night! The last time I had seen a Spoonbill downtown was almost exactly 5 years ago and that was at Lake Davis in a pouring rainstorm.

I took a quick ID shot and headed home. The following morning, I dropped off the youngest at school and drove back to see if the bird was still there. It was. Though a bit farther away from the roadside.



I walked out onto the exposed lake bottom (man, we need rain) and headed toward the Spoonbill. I stopped once it spotted me. I didn't want to spook it into leaving. I took a shot and retreated and the Spoonbill settled back into its resting posture.



I turned to find a Great Egret dropping in behind me. Pretty close for a landing egret. Not like it didn't see me. Photo, it is.



On the way back to the van I noticed that one of the Mallard families was actually swimming toward me quite quickly. They must be getting some hand-outs.



I had nothing but my camera and binoculars so they would have to settle for a little stardom on the web.



I headed to work and about my day and when I got back to Lake Lancaster I could not relocated the Spoonbill. It must have moved on. Indeed, it had. Over to Lake Davis where I found it to be a much more willing subject along the shoreline.



The last Spoonbill took off pretty quickly all those years ago. Maybe this one will stay a while longer.