Roseate Spoonbill in a lagoon with a young Mangrove in Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, FloridaRoseate Spoonbill in a lagoon with a young Mangrove – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

There are days in Utah when the gray clouds hanging overhead for days on end get to me because I’d rather be out photographing birds and animals with decent light so I dig into my archives of the birds I photographed in Florida and that brightens my morning right up regardless of what it looks like outside my window.

Roseate Spoonbills were some of the brightest colored birds I photographed in Florida especially when they were in breeding plumage. Of the world’s six species of Spoonbills the only ones that are pink are are the roseate spoonbills and it also the only spoonbill native to North America.

I can recall vividly the morning I photographed this Roseate Spoonbill in a lagoon with a young mangrove by its legs at Fort De Soto County Park. I had been the only photographer at the beach and had been sitting on my knees in the warm lagoon waiting patiently for birds to get closer to me on their own. The Roseate Spoonbills came closer and closer to me and I was able to take a nice series of this spoonbill and several others before two very noisy photographers came over the dunes and scared them off by talking loudly and banging their tripods around.  I was very glad they came after I had spent time alone with the spoonbills.

But life is good. Always good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Roseate Spoonbill photos plus facts and information.