Last Chance in Florida

(March 31st) It was almost time to leave Florida. I had one afternoon left and had to spend most of it driving up to Tampa. A year ago I had tried to take some of my first flight shots at a fishing pier near St. Petersburg. They were all terrible. So I wanted to see what improvement I would see, especially after the egrets at Corkscrew. When I got there, the portion of the fishing pier that was good to shoot at was completely closed. I fired this shot of a juvenile Laughing Gull and headed to what I hoped would be greener pastures.

Maximo Park was a nearby location I had been to before, and it sure didn't disappoint like the fishing pier. This Yellow-crowned Night Heron was hunting for crabs in the vegetation. I got a few stares as I was lying to get a shot of it.

I walked around the park a little bit. I ran into this Brown Pelican sitting on the docks all nice and posed up for me.

Near the pelican I heard a familiar call. Most of the time in the US when we see crows it is the American Crow. But near the ocean there is another crow to be found. To my ears it has always sounded like an American Crow who has a strong nasal, French accent.

I headed to the beach area to take a few flight shots. It turned out that the park must be on the route for vultures to head to a roost site. Over the couple of hours I had over 30 vultures fly overhead. Most were Turkey Vultures like this one, but there were a few Black Vultures as well.

A couple of Brown Pelicans also flew overhead at the beach. While I didn't do what I was intending to for the afternoon, I had a good time at Maximo and got a few decent flight shots too. Sometimes deviating from your plans pays off.