Gators, Snakes & Turtles, Big Birds and Small (4/10/24)

Back again with a mix of species to get myself caught back up from my big absence - some reptiles, large birds, small birds, migrating and wintering species.

This set will catch up most of January this year - from Dec 31st to January 20th, 2024 at my local wetlands - Green Cay and Wakodahatchee.  As usual, all taken with the A6600, and all of these with the FE 200-600mm G OSS lens.  All shots are posted at 2400 pixels on the long side if you view them in original size:

A happy looking alligator getting some sun up on a small island of land, in a spot known as the 'gator pond'.

A male red-winged blackbird - still a little young and hasn't gotten the wing epaulets they're known for yet.

A green heron, perched on a reed above the water - their preferred hunting spots so they can keep their legs out of the water and avoid scaring the fish

A red-shouldered hawk that flew down and landed on a small pond apple tree just above a group of 10 whistling ducks - the ducks are too big to be prey, but if any of them had ducklings, those would be nice little snacks for the hawk.  Fortunately no ducklings were there, and the hawk moved on

Approaching dusk, I was leaving the wetlands when I caught this quartet of black-bellied whisting ducks flying past the trees - just a hint of blue sky still left on the eastern horizon.

Those last straings of sunlight setting to the west were catching this great blue heron as it was wading around the shallows looking for fish - lovelyw arm light and the shallow angle was reflecting the water ripples back on the bird

A glossy ibis flying by in pre-dusk light

A male ruby-throated hummingbird, sitting still on the end of a twig - so tiny I almost passed by thinking it was a flower or leaf bud...the nice thing was I was only 10-15 feet away, so could get nice and close

A brown thrasher hanging out on a branch.

A Florida cooter, positioning itself up on some reeds to get out of the water and get some sun.  When you move slow in the Florida wetlands, moss will quickly gather!

It was a cooler day, which meant snakes and other reptiles were trying to get some sun.  This brown watersnake looked unusually long - so I stopped to take the photo - before realizing there were head at both ends.  That explained why it seemed to long - it was two brown watersnakes coiled up together.

Soft and fluffy looking pied-billed grebe - sitting so still in the water that it wasn't even making ripples.

Purple gallinule, using those big yellow feet and legs to wander across the reeds, looking for those purple flowers to eat

Female painted buntings are all green - as are the juveniles like this one.  Look close and you can see hunts of other colors coming in around the eyes and head - but seeing one of these, the name 'painted' bunting is hard to understand

Nearby in the trees was an adult male painted bunting - the name becomes much more clear when you see these with those big patches of red, blue, yellow, some greens, etc.

Comments, questions, and critique welcomed as always.