I had the privilege and pleasure of observing and photographing a feeding swarm of big waders just off Blackpoint Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge last week. There were many White Ibis, a few Glossy Ibis, a good number of Roseate Spoonbills, Great and White Egrets, and half a dozen Wood Storks. The Ibis and Snowy Egrets would bunch up right by the road, feeding on some new spawn, for moments at a time, until the pressure got to great and they would all panic, fly up and to the other side of the pool, only to work their way back into the bunch over the next 10 minutes. It happened a dozen times in the hour and a half I watched.

I caught a panic here with the Sony NEX 3NL and the 16-50mm zoom at about 70mm equivalent. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f16. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. The image had a very mild HDR treatment. You might remember that I posted a more pulled back view of this pool a few days ago.

I have assembled many of the images from my time at the feeding pool into a slide show. Enjoy.