Least Bittern, Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, Viera Florida

“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus.

Today was my final Point and Shoot Nature Photography event for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida: a half day photo adventure at the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, south of Titusville. RGMW, or Viera Wetlands as it is generally known, is a repurposed sewage treatment plant…the settlement ponds in particular…that is now a major birding and bird photography destination. It is one of the best places to photograph Florida birds. I always hope for American Bittern there, and I can not totally deny the possibility of Least Bittern. I have seen Least, and photographed it, on about 1 in 5 visits to Viera. Today was a 1! We stopped in the place where I have seen both Bitterns in the past. There was already one photographer there, so I had reason to hope, and sure enough, he was tracking an American Bittern as it worked its way along the edge of the reeds. We followed it for 30 yards or more along the dyke. It never did show much of itself. At one point it disappeared altogether and while we were looking for it, I glanced up to an opening around a stand-pipe and, amazingly, there was a Least Bittern standing right out in plane sight on the thin vegetation of the opening, not 30 feet from us, just behind a thin curtain of reeds. You very rarely see a Least Bittern, and I have never seen one standing so exposed. It was great. All my students, my daughter Sarah, and my friend Rich got excellent images of the Bittern…along with several other photographers who stopped to see what we were looking at. Did I say it was great? It was fantastic.

It was a blessing. I am never more aware of the unbounded love of my Creator than when I find myself face to face with a bird that is really hard t see…and get a really good look at it…and even some great pics! What a God! How generous with blessing. How can we not be generous in turn?

Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.