A week of Nature Variety in the Florida Wetlands

I went absent around here for a month or so - not because I moved away to some other site - just been very busy with work...heading through tax season, and planning an upcoming office move on June 1, I just got buried. Starting to see some air again, and thought I'd try to catch up a little with some nature posts - this is a mix of stuff around my local wetlands in late March and into April.

All are posted at 2400 pixels on the long side if you double-click to view:

A young alligator enjoying some sun on a small island:

Nice rare sighting around here - the beautiful swallow-tailed kite flying over on a clear day:

Very close up with a pied-billed grebe:

A male reddish-morph eastern screech owl looking out from a palm tree:

The beautiful bold colors of the male painted bunting:

The raccoon didn't make the kill - a hawk had killed and eaten a purple gallinule on the levee, and the raccoon came by to scavenge anything left, including the bird's head:

Rare to get such a clean, wide-open shot of a Wilson's snipe...but this one cooperated:

A face only a mother could love? A wood stork chick looking out of its nest to find some guy pointing a white tube at him:

A black-bellied whistling duck out for an afternoon stroll:

A marsh rabbit, chewing the scenery:

Little bit off-topic perhaps:
@AlanSh looks like the Exif info is gone again?

Meant to be in the nature & wildlife. Swore I was in there when I posted it! Any chance a mod can move it?

Thank you. I guess having been away a month, I got rusty with my clicking skills and was in the wrong forum.

I can access the EXIF when I click on the photo to view in a new tab, so it's still there on the originals - not sure if it's not accessible when just viewing the reduced size embedded photos in the original though.

@zackiedawg

Absolutely stunning images. Thanks for sharing.

Lovely variety of pics 😀

Thank you Sagittarius and James.

Nice set. I really like the shot of the wood stork chick.

Thank you FredK. That nest is touching the path where you walk by - sitting just about a foot above my eye level...so you can walk right up to it...you could easily touch the birds (but shouldn't) - it's quite amazing at some of the Florida rookery sites that are in public accessible wetlands how a lot of birds prefer to stick their nests very close to the people - out of some 300-350 wood stork nests, I'd say 60% of them are within 20 feet of the public, and the few that are farther back are the late comers that didn't get a prime spot. Other birds do the same - tricolored herons, great egrets, glossy ibis, and cattle egret nests are all within 20 feet.

The wood stork chick grew up with people just a few feet away, and was very non-chalant about people taking its photo.

As always Justin, excellent shots with amazing subjects we just don't have. Love them all.

All the best your way and nice to see you here ....... and FM 😉

Danny.

So glad to have you around here too Danny - been a while since you mostly used to post on M4:3. I plan on participating in both spots, though this month is going to be a bit crazy as I'm busy trying to do my client work while also boxing up my entire office to move, then have to unpack at the new office in June. So if I'm spotty on the boards, that's why!