Adult Wood Stork in flight – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
Wood Storks are the only storks that breed in in North America and they are our largest wading bird. They remind me of the storks I used to see nesting on top of buildings and chimneys in Germany when I was a little girl but they are two different species.
When I lived in Florida there were times that I would see Wood Storks at Fort De Soto and once in a while I would get lucky and find them in flight. The day I photographed this Wood Stork several of them circled before they landed in a lagoon right in front of me. They might look like big black and white birds but if you catch them in the right light their black feathers can display iridescent reds, golds, greens and blues and in this frame the reds show on the tail feathers and the greens show on the primaries.
Breeding Wood Storks are found in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina and in some areas of the Caribbean and Mexico.
Life is good.
Mia
WE who are photography challenged are so lucky to have you share your great talent with us. Thank you.
Wow. Beautiful thing. Poetry in motion.
👍
Just been visiting some of your other stuff…a real visual feast of beautiful, interesting things..(labor put into organizing all these images is mind boggling!) a couple of them reminded me of a small, sleepy bumble bee I saw that had chosen a daisy as a place to spend a cool night. At the time I wished you were around to capture its image, knowing I probably wouldn’t be able to. I tried but results were didappointing–as expected….I’m no Mia!!!
This is quite an amazing shot, but after 4 kids any shot of any kind of stork makes me nervous! You must miss Fort De Soto so much…you got so many great shots of such a wide variety of interesting birds there. I know I miss a lot of things (not the heat) there, too…knew a bit about fish and plants when I lived there, but only wish I knew more about the birds…just enjoyed seeing, watching them…really missed out!
Beautiful photo, Mia.