{"id":49514,"date":"2017-11-21T06:01:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T13:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49514"},"modified":"2025-09-21T05:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:40:18","slug":"wood-stork-foraging-in-a-gulf-coast-lagoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/21\/wood-stork-foraging-in-a-gulf-coast-lagoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Wood Stork Foraging in a Gulf Coast Lagoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WoodWood Stork feeding in the first light of the day – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.3, 1\/800, ISO 640, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 330mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Wood Storks were not an uncommon sight for me when I lived in Florida. I’d see them along the Gulf Coast and I would also see them inland in areas like Myakka State Park, swamps, lagoons, estuaries and sometimes I would even see them in flooded ditches as I zoomed along the interstates.<\/p>\n

I spent much of my time photographing birds along the coasts though so many of my better photos of them come from Fort De Soto County Park<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

One morning in October of 2008 I was in a lagoon at the north beach of Fort De Soto when a couple of Wood Storks flew in at sun rise and they started to forage.<\/p>\n

One of the storks was close to me when the sun light lit it up its white plumage and it seemed to glow against the dark water of the lagoon.<\/p>\n

As the Wood Stork foraged for it breakfast it kept an eye on me as I sat low and very still in the lagoon. I kept my movements to a minimum because I didn’t want to disturb the large, white wading bird.<\/p>\n

\"WoodWood Stork in a dark lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/750, ISO 640, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The dark water and out of focus mangroves behind the bird created such a nice contrast against the stork’s white plumage. I loved the water dripping from the stork’s bill in this photo.<\/p>\n

The Wood Stork moved slowly as it used its long bill to forage which gave me plenty of time to photograph it and I went home that morning pleased with the images I took.<\/p>\n

I waited until the storks moved away and then I made my way out of the lagoon and started photographing the other birds I found on the north beach that morning.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Wood Stork photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Wood Stork foraged for it breakfast it kept an eye on me as I sat low and very still in the lagoon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,353],"tags":[5229,5132,4224,4040,4136,3997,4258,950,5410,951,313,4441],"class_list":["post-49514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-wood-storks","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-early-morning","tag-feeding","tag-foraging","tag-lagoon","tag-mangroves","tag-mycteria-americana","tag-stork","tag-storks","tag-wading-birds","tag-wood-stork"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wood-stork-feeding-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-3837.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cSC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5858,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/08\/06\/landing-wood-stork\/","url_meta":{"origin":49514,"position":0},"title":"Landing Wood Stork","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Wood Storks (Mycetaria americana) are the largest wading bird in North America and the only stork that breeds in the U.S.. Wood Storks are considered endangered primarily due to loss of habitat.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Landing Wood Stork, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-landing-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-landing-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-landing-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-landing-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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worked in my favor to photograph these large white birds without blowing out the whites.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hunting Wood Stork, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-3688.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-3688.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-3688.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-3688.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Storks do not get nearly the same exposure as other big white wading birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wood Stork portrait, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-portrait-florida-5379.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-portrait-florida-5379.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wood-stork-mia-mcpherson-portrait-florida-5379.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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