Great Egret

We're taking a brief break from the sunset photos. I encountered this great egret recently in TierraVerde

 on the way to Ft. DeSoto.  He was standing on a bridge having a good stare. 

And, with a view like this…who wouldn't want to enjoy a good stare?!  (I know I did.)  The egret is looking at Tampa Bay. Behind him (on the left side of the photo) is the Gulf of Mexico.  Beautiful area.  More pics to come from this photo shoot!  (By the way, this is the vicinity where the new SDP banner pic was taken.)

Gotcha!

For the first time in months, I went out on a photography adventure. It was great to be out and about again camera in hand.  Although it was raining, I decided to see what was going on at Myakka State Park.  Turns out, there was a lot of wildlife activity! Usually, I feel sorry for the great egrets.  Whenever I see them, they're standing very, very still hunting.  And, yet I rarely see them capture anything. All that intense waiting...and for what?  I was feeling especially sorry for this guy standing in the rain, when suddenly it nabbed dinner.  I wasn't quite sure as to the identity of the captured creature, so I showed the photo to a park ranger who suspected it's a crawfish.  Pretty cool.  I hope everyone in the blogosphere is doing well. I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of posting and commenting regularly. Hopefully, that's right around the corner!

Water Plant Water Fowl

I noticed this great egret last night tiptoeing through this lilly pad and algae filled retention pond next to the city's water plant.  It was feeding time and it was nabbing all kinds of goodies from beneath the green goo.  While it's not unusual to see egrets in Sarasota, I was a bit surprised to see this one here because it's right next to a fairly busy intersection.  Perhaps the best part of my stop, though, was that a city utilities worker made a point to stop me and tip me off to an eagle nest about a mile away.  Can't wait to check it out!