Image/Photo Thread Of Any Images You Would Like To Share....

[BobbyBoomer]

Hi Bob - congrats on a great pic - have never gotten that close to an egret. I use a Panasonic Lumix 14 MP camera (DMC-FP3) which is a nice compact 'point & shoot' as you describe - assume you had a similar or perhaps the same model? I use to be a big camera buff in the pre-digital days but no longer.

Wife & I have been to Delray Beach well over a dozen times (her parents use to have a condo on the intracoastal waterway - may have mentioned that in my travelogue on Ft. Lauderdale?) and would often venture outside the town but do no believe that we ever visited the Wakodahatchee Wetlands - another one to add to my list when we return to FL. Dave

Lumix DMC-ZS-40 - I bought it to take on a vacation a year ago. In the pre-digital days I had a Canon EOS SLR with a couple of lenses. Still have it somewhere. I actually like this better.

I need to get a slide scanner, as I have a few hundred slides of pictures that I'll probably never get the opportunity to take again.

You need to go to Wakodahatchee, the wildlife is so close, it's almost like cheating. My other favorite places are the Everglades National Park, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Kennedy Space Center, and Rich Grissom Memorial Wetlands near Viera.

I grew up near Ft. Lauderdale, so South Florida nature sites are more familiar to me.

I'm not really a camera buff, but I like pushing the button. It's a reason to get out into nature. Here in Florida the easiest nature viewing are the birds, so I have mostly that.

Bob

 

[BobbyBoomer]

The rhododendrons are in bloom again in the backyard - Dave

View attachment 64417 View attachment 64418

Nice. That's something we don't get to see in Florida. Thanks for sharing

 

[BobbyBoomer]

Here's another I took at Wakodahatchee a few days ago. It's the flower to a Buttonbush plant. The Buttonbush is a relative to coffee, but I've heard it's toxic to humans, although the birds love it. There are a couple of bees in the picture, but they were shy and moved away from the camera lens.

I like this flower as it looks like a man-made satellite in an old sci-fi movie.

I realized the last picture was really big, so I shrunk this one to 1/4 size before posting.

 

[giradman]

Lumix DMC-ZS-40 - I bought it to take on a vacation a year ago. In the pre-digital days I had a Canon EOS SLR with a couple of lenses. Still have it somewhere. I actually like this better.

I need to get a slide scanner, as I have a few hundred slides of pictures that I'll probably never get the opportunity to take again.

Hi Bob - same here in the pre-digital days, i.e. two SLRs + a half dozen different lenses from a macro to a couple of telephoto ones - believe that I had my brother sell all of this equipment years ago on eBay.

When I retired in 2011, I had some money left in my fringe account and purchased a bunch of electronic equipment, including a Cannon 9000F scanner w/ a transparency adapter (as shown below) - a couple of years ago I sat down and over a few weeks scanned in hundreds of old prints and slides - scanner worked great for both processes - if you just have slides, a less expensive dedicated slide digitizer might be enough?

You need to go to Wakodahatchee, the wildlife is so close, it's almost like cheating. My other favorite places are the Everglades National Park, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Kennedy Space Center, and Rich Grissom Memorial Wetlands near Viera.

I grew up near Ft. Lauderdale, so South Florida nature sites are more familiar to me.

When we visited Delray, we did air boat rides and went to the Morikami Museum & Gardens, but don't believe we ever went to the wetlands mentioned (and it's even in the city - looked the place up on a map!) - will definitely have to put these on my Florida 'to do' list along w/ the place you mentioned in my Lauderdale thread near Ft. Myers - I suspect next spring, we'll be visiting the west coast of the state. Dave
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[BobbyBoomer]

Had a Pentax to in the pre-digital days. K1000, I liked it because it was not fully automatic and with the in-screen light meter, I could intentionally over or underexpose the shots a little, bracketing them to get the best image (of course that ate up film).

Wakodahatchee is actually the end of the waste-water treatment plant. It's an idea that seems to work well, allowing the treated water to do some good. Before a couple of hurricanes wasted the Flamingo lodge in the Everglades National Park, they had one there called Eco Pond. Fresh water in the middle of a brackish swamp, and it attracted a lot of wildlife for that reason. There is another treatment plant near Vero Beach that is good when the migrating ducks come down. I saw some otters there two, but they were too fast for me to get a good picture of (see this splash, that's where the otter was). Corkscrew swamp near Ft. Meyers is indeed good, along with the 10,000 islands area of the Everglades Park. I need to see as much wildlife as I can, as the developers, sugar plantations, and crooked politicians are making it all disappear too quickly.

 

[J. A.]

Peewits

And this cute little fluff is a young peewit

 

[scifan57]

Nice photos. Are the photos of the adult birds a male and female?

 

[J. A.]

Nice photos. Are the photos of the adult birds a male and female?

They are, as far as I can see.

 

[BobbyBoomer]

Thanks J A - I've been to Europe a few times and have never seen one. But then in Europe I don't spend that much time in the wetlands, there is just too much to see in a short visit. It's a very interesting looking bird.

Bob

 

[J. A.]

Thanks J A - I've been to Europe a few times and have never seen one. But then in Europe I don't spend that much time in the wetlands, there is just too much to see in a short visit. It's a very interesting looking bird.

Bob

You're welcome.

It's easy to identify this bird, because of it's crest. Once you've heard it's cry, you know why it's called "peewit".

 

[J. A.]

A few photos from today

 

[BobbyBoomer]

What kind of plant is that JA?

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Roseate Spoonbill - taken in the Everglades National Park last December. It's about 25% the size of the original (reduced to save upload/download time).

 

[J. A.]

Sorry, no idea. They're wild plants, growing along a small salt water lake. The silhouettes don't help identifying them.

Beautiful photo!
We have spoonbills in my region as well. They look different - they're completely white, and people sometimes confuse them with the great white heron.

 

[BobbyBoomer]

Over here some people confuse the Roseate Spoonbill with a Flamingo.

Flamingos are rarely seen in South Florida. When they are here, they are usually strays blown over from The Bahama Islands. The southernmost developed place in the Everglades National Park used to be a town called Flamingo, so named because the pioneers misidentified the Spoonbills.

The town is long gone. Now there are park amenities; marina, ranger station, exhibits, gift shop, campsites (for tents and RV/Caravans) and a restaurant. Before a hurricane severely damaged them, there used to be a lodge and a few cabins. There is talk about re-building but there is a lot of government bureaucracy in the way. It's OK with me, I tend to bring a tent when I want to stay or stay at a motel outside the park.

When I was young, the park was very far from the coastal cities like Miami and there were very few visitors. Now that Miami has blossomed, there are quite a few. We also get a lot of tourists from Europe and Asia. It makes me smile to see so many guests enjoying the gem that mother nature has provided us with.

If any nature lover ever makes it to South Florida between December and the spring rains, I always encourage them to visit the Everglades National Park. It's unique in the world. In the winter it's dry so the mosquitoes are sparse, and the water converges to the deeper parts. Where the water collects is where the wildlife is concentrated and that makes for easy wildlife viewing.

By April or May (depending on the year) we get our rainy season, the 'glades becomes a river, 50 miles wide and a few inches deep. The wildlife spreads out all across the state, and the mosquitoes hatch. That marks the end of our visits to the glades.

BTW, I've seen Grey Herons in Europe, which are a close cousin to our Great Blue Herons here in the Americas. You could almost mistake one for the other. I've got some pictures of those, and I'll post one, but now the files on my other computer have copied, so I need to get back to work. (I write aftermarket music styles for an auto-accompaniment program - I'm also a pro musician. The styles keep me busy when I'm not gigging and supplement my income).

Bob

 

[The OB]

A very interesting and well-written post adding to knowledge of a land far away. Thanks Bob.
Andrew