We headed back out to photograph the spoonbills this morning and were rewarded, once again, with some great opportunities.

There were a few fledgling Spoonbills that are so light they almost looked white. I loved the way they twist and turn as they dump air as they come in for a landing.

Pelicans were flying back and forth with nesting material.

It was fun to put my lens on the terns as they hoovered in the air scoping out a fish before diving headlong into the water. With a bit of overcast, the sky came out white giving the image a high key look.

We finished the week with a visit to a great lake north of Tampa to photograph a freshwater rookery. Hearing an Osprey calling to it’s mate we followed the sound and found this guy posing in the tree. (Photographing from the boat with the 600mm VR handheld)

All in all it was an outstanding week with a great variety of subjects to photograph. I want to thank Steve, JoAnn & Dee for making this a safari to remember. You enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn was inspiring, motivating me to push myself even harder.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR, TC-14E or TC-17E on Lexar Media

We headed to North Beach for our AM shoot and found another smorgasborg of subjects to aim our lenses at.

Our afternoon shoot was at a great little rookery I know of that is right in the heart of a busy town. There was so much activity it felt like were in a photographic shooting arcade. The images are still downloading as I type so, they’ll have to wait for another day.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR on Lexar Digital Media.

We had a special treat in store today as James Shadle “the Spoonbill Guy” was taking us to one of his favorite Spoonbill locations to photograph. We headed out into Tampa Bay before dawn and were in location by sunrise, thigh deep in water watching as the rookery came to life with Spoonbills, Ibis (both White and Glossy), Pelicans, and many more birds began their day.

We took a break for lunch and to upload our images before heading back out into Tampa Bay. We stopped by the Spoonbill Rookery for a bit and then worked our way over to a sand bar where we once again got into the water and photographed Caspian, Royal, Lesser, Sandwich and even Gull-billed Terns as well as Marbled Godwit and many more. I have to say it was quite a treat and I was able to add two new birds to my files.

Images Captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR on Lexar Digital Media

A morning spent at Fort DeSoto was very productive. It seems that it has been a very weird spring with some egrets and herons still sitting on nests while others have already fledged. There was a Great Blue Heron pair that had just begun mating and nest building which we spent an hour working as they came back and forth from the rookery to gather sticks for the nest. It was great entertainment as well as an excellent photo opportunity. We were fortunate to have slight overcast with the sun peaking through now and then.

On the way back to St Pete it began to rain and by the time we arrived at the hotel a full blown storm was raging with high winds and torrential rain. It turns out that three tornados touched down this afternoon about an hour north northeast of us. What better excuse for spending the afternoon working images and watching the storm from a safe distance.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR with TC-14E on Lexar Digital Media

I arrived in Tampa at midnight and walked off the plane into the warm, humid embrace of a Florida spring evening. I took a ddep breath smelling the salt air and smiled. Yeap, another trip to Florida to photograph the myriad of birds that call this home. The excitement bubbling inside as I anticipated showing some of my favorite bird photography locations to the group. Sunday night we all gathered for an orientation dinner getting to know each other and make plans for the upcoming week. Everyone went off to bed with visions of wonderful photo opportunities dancing in our heads.

Day one began with a visit to Maximo Beach where we went through the drill of setting up equipment, working through some flash settings, trying out new equipment and basically getting all the kinks out in preparation for the great bird photography that awaits us this week. When we arrived I counted several herons and egrets silhouetted against the water and could hear the noise of the Laughing Gulls as they began to awaken. We headed to the water’s edge, set up on our first bird and when I put the glass to it, it turned out to be a white morph Reddish Egret. What a treat! We all fired off a few shots when the egret took to the air in a big hurry. What made him take off so fast? Suddenly, the rest of the birds took to the air with loud protests. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bald eagle swoop down and make contact with the reddish egret almost knocking it into the water. The egret shook it’s self off and disappeared into the pre-dawn, safe for another day.

It didn’t take long for the Gulls to return so we settled in working on same flash then pulled out the panning plates and got “down” to business as the gulls performed their mating rituals…

When you see a bird preening, train your lens on it and be prepared for the wing flap that follows…

It was a great morning working with the Laughing Gulls and enjoying their antics. This guy was not about to share his breakfast…

With the sun creeping higher into the sky and the light getting bright and hard we took that as a sign to go get breakfast for ourselves. After downloading our images, enjoying our successes and working through the less than successful images we were ready to head back out again. There was a good wind so we headed to the fishing pier to work the Brown Pelicans and Terns as they flew around, diving for dinner we found the side with the good light closed. On to plan B, off to Fort DeSoto we headed. We arrived at East Beach to find the beach covered with bright colored kite surfers and not a bird in sight. Not one to pass up an opportunity, I pulled over and we went to work on our panning techniques. Hey, when the photo gods serve up a basket of lemons….you know the rest. We played with fast shutter speeds, stopping the action…

As the sun began to set and the light slowly faded, rather than bumping our ISO to keep the fast shutter speeds, we let the shutters drag as we worked on blur pans…

All in all, it was a great first day. We headed back to the hotel to upload & edit our images, clean our gear and prepare for tomorrow.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR on Lexar Digital Media.