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Posted by joel rosenthal on 16:56:04 04/13/08
Saturday morning found me at 8 30 AM on Cypress Creek Road, where I had dropped Emily off for a seminar, scheduled to end at 4. To exploit this opportunity to practice some new photographic techniques, and to break in some freshly minted orthotics, I pointed my chariot northward towards Wakodahatchee and Green Cay, in the hope of finding enough birds to get some decent practice on live subjects pior to our forthcoming Panama trip.(For the technically inclined, and by way of excusing my less than stellar images, the new technique involves separating the autofocus and shutter/exposure functions on the camera, thus requiring the use of thumb and forefinger to take pictures-a difficult exercise for those of us who are ambi-gauche, or equally maladroit with either hand-cf."ambidextrous".)
Arriving at Wako at about 9:15, I was surprised by a pair of black necked stilts that flew off before I could set up.Surveying the landscape revealed the usual denizens-- among others-a gator sunning itself, a skulking sora that offered no photo ops, circling ospreys, stalking tricolored herons and great blues, flitting and nesting redwinged blackbirds, and turtles of various sizes and shapes.
My attention was soon drawn to a commotion just off the boardwalk where a great egret was hunting some coot nestlings("coot" is what the other witness to this spectacle called them-for all I know they could have been moorhens, but I will call them coots here.) At first the egret was confronted by one of the parents, and there was much off stage squawking and brush- shaking commotion. Soon the mother coot emerged and, squawking furiously, attempted to feign a broken wing to distract the predator--no luck. She retreated back towards her little ones, hidden in the reeds, but it was too late, as the egret had plucked one from the ground and was carrying it off to a small clearing where the hapless chick was crushed, dunked and swallowed. I managed to fire off a few frames with minimal results, but soon realized that the egret wasn't finished. It began a methodical hunt for the remaining nestlings, and here I missed the best image, when the mother coot flew up into the egret's face,in full , but momentary, display -- an equally fruitless gesture. Soon, chick #2 was located, vise gripped, abducted, crushed, dunked, rotated head first,and swallowed. The process was repeated one more time with chick #3.The results of my efforts to digitally capture this spectacle(together with my other images for the day) are found at the link below.(Click on the WAKO/GREEN CAY SET on the upper right)
Warning: The link contains EXTREMELY GRAPHIC images which some may find DISTURBING.(The photos are loaded in sequence in the photoset, and can best be viewed by clicking the slideshow option with the setting on "fast".)
Following this display of nature at its most unforgiving,and slightly unsettled by it--I had been rooting for the coots-- I was pleased to happen upon a more tranquil scene- a redwinged blackbird nest just off the boardwalk, guarded by the male from his railing perch, and visited periodically by mom with food for their three progeny.I have accordingly chosen one of those images to post here.
Green Cay was relatively quiet by the time I arrived there-the sun was high in the sky, and it was well past 11. A limpkin family provided the primary photographic subjects .
I had an errand to run for Emily in Delray, and used the opportunity to indulge myself with a cheesesteak and shake for lunch at Doc's(Atlantic and Swinton-photos at the link), followed by a detour into the best camera proshop in south Florida.(An hour of equipment fantasizing..) I picked Emily up at 4 and we headed home to dinner at a nice restaurant with friends, followed by the New World Symphony concert.
But I will not soon forget the malevolent look of that egret(how anthropomorphic is that?) nor the cold blooded killings I saw that bird commit yesterday .
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