Great Egret, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA. There are always great numbers of Great Egrets on the refuge in January, and this year was no exception. My first loop around the Drive was on an overcast day, which can be excellent light for Egrets. This one was high-stepping across on of the ponds. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Pied-billed Grebe, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA. There were more Pied-billed Grebes in Space Coast Florida this year then I have ever seen before…and they were groups of 15-30. Groups of Grebes is not something I remember. Generally I have seen them like this one, alone, feeding well away from any other Grebe. This one was in the channel along the Drive. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Glossy Ibis, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA. The other Florida Ibis. This year at least there were many more Glossy than White Ibis. I saw flocks of a hundred or more in flight, and great numbers of birds feeding in the ponds and pools. The Glossy and White-faced Ibis have similar plumage…with those iridescent highlights of green and red. I always think of stained glass when I see them. This bird was on the back side of the loop, feeding almost too close to photograph at full zoom. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

White Ibis, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida (USA). It is amazing how close you can get to the larger waders at Merritt Island NWR. As you drive Black Point Wildlife Drive and the other dike roads of the refuge the birds are often right there, in the little canals and wetlands 20-50 feet from the road. This is an experience relatively unique to Florida. In my experience, you have to work much harder to photograph these birds anywhere else. Florida has both White and Glossy Ibis (with an occasional White-faced in the mix). Again, in my experience the Glossy outnumber the White, at least at Merritt Island, by at least a factor of 2, but both are among the most numerous waders in these waters. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Adult plumage Little Blue Heron. I featured a white plumage immature Little Blue Heron yesterday. This adult, in its full blue/purple finery, was at the other end of Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida (USA) on the same day, high stepping through one of the ponds. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Little Blue Heron on its reflection. One of the first birds I encountered on Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida, USA was this juvenile Little Blue Heron, still in its all white plumage. Though it is about the same size, and similar in color to a Snowy Egret, I don’t find them confusing as they such different shapes overall. The Snowy is slender and elegant. The immature Little Blue is more robust. To me the difference is obvious even at a distance, and certainly up close as in this photo. Sony Rx10iv at 560mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

I had two encounters with the Painted Buntings that come to the feeders at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, near Titusville, Florida (USA) during this year’s Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. It is always way too dark under the trees at the end of the deck at the Visitor Center where the feeders hang, and my last day there and my last shot at the Buntings began with overcast, which meant even less light. I remembered this time to pack my little light cube and my small light panel…led devices which mount in the flash-shoe on my Sony Rx10iv. They are not flashes…they are intended for video and provide a consistent and much softer light…daylight balanced…so that most birds and animals do not respond to them at all, especially during daylight. Even at close distance, it is maybe like the sun just peaked out around a cloud as far as they are concerned, so I don’t feel bad about using the cube or panel for supplemental light when needed. Though I was still using Multi-frame Noise Reduction on the Sony Rx10iv with the well shaded buntings, the light panel provided just enough extra light to capture more detail and to further reduce noise in the background. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications plus MFNR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Also there is a poem 🙂

2/2

The male Painted Bunting came

4 times in the 15 minutes I could

give it between engagements.

The miraculous pallet of the painter

rewarded me past any reason or

expectation. It happens too often

for me to ignore. I am becoming

convinced the creator has a particular

fondness for both birds and birders.

While I was at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, a fresh brine shrimp hatch brought all the wading species along Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (Florida, USA) together in one 100 yard stretch of the roadside channel…making for some interesting juxtapositions. Here a Great Egret and two Roseate Spoonbills crown a bush. Sony Rx10iv at 315mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.