The 6th day of the sixth month of the year of the Camellia

THE ROAD TRIP~ALLIGATOR FARM

The trip to St. Augustine was fun, but I was alone and as such not as much fun as if I were with someone. 

But!

The birds were there
as were the gators. 

http://www.alligatorfarm.com/

One of the nicest rookeries in the country is here and photographers are drawn world wide to catch a glimpse of these long legged wading birds in their most intimate moments.

Now for you folks who attended public schools in the last forty years----the white things in the trees are the birds and the loggy looking things in the water are Gators.  Can you imagine....Alligator Farm---Gators!  These gators are waiting for some hapless chickling to fall out of the nest or be pushed out by a sibling.  And believe me the sibling rivalry here is the closest thing to murder you will see.  Survival of the fittest!  So, this photo is called gator bait.  The board walk is where humans view the afore mentioned birds and gators. 

As you can see, here stands photographer magnimus.  Only two in this image, but I counted as many as eight photographers on the boardwalk at one point.  Let's see her camera body cost around $2,000, the flash about the same, and the lens over $12, 000.  Throw in another couple thousand in other incidentals and the equipment alone approaches $20,000.  So when a photographer wants $40 for an eight by ten, please consider that he/she is really not ripping you off  and furthermore it is impolite to haggle over price.  It's art for god's sake! 

At any rate, if you see photographs of long legged wading birds in magazines and books and they are very much frame filling shots that are crystal clear...............chances are good they came from this place.

This Louisiana heron is checking out her nest and making sure at least one of the eggs (in the left hand side of the nest) has been placed and turned appropriately before she sits down again.  This bird was about 12 feet from the end of my lens.

The birds at the farm were quite numerous, but the breeding season was well along and most of the young I saw were really immature of the various species and not chicks.

  Yes, a few were born on Wednesday night and I saw them Thursday.  But as luck would have it, the first Roseate Spoonbill ever born at the rookery didn't come along till Friday, and I missed it.

More to come!