Foggy morning at the Orlando Wetlands

We just came back home from Florida where we spent the last two weeks doing photography, enjoying the incredible amount of wildlife in the swamps, along the coastline, and practically everywhere else. This is one of my personal favorites from this trip. It was a very moody morning at the Orlando Wetlands, and it was my birthday. Being surrounded by fog in the swamps near a roseate spoonbill rookery on a day like that was definitely one of my best birthdays gifts I have ever had. I specially loved how the colorful bird stood out against the background due to the fog.

Roseate spoonbills are amazing birds, sometimes a little bit clumsy. It was fun to watch them flying around, and having trouble landing properly every now and then. And we felt extremely lucky seeing them "flirting" and making even more "spoonies". :-) 

The Orlando Wetlands are a man-made environment. As unbelievable as it may seem while standing there seeing the beauty of these swamps: They are part of the wastewater treatment facility of the city of Orlando. But nevertheless the Orlando Wetlands were among our favorite locations in Florida, not only because of the new boardwalk which offers pretty unique opportunities to shoot the roseate spoonbills, but also because there is so much more to see. It's a thriving habitat for all kind of birds and a paradise for photographers. We saw several great eagrets displaying their long mating plumage, tiny bald eaglets in their large nest, limpinks catching big snails, green herons fighting with each other, red-shouldered hawks hunting, wood storks having breakfast in the swamps, black-crowned night herons building their new "homes", sandhill cranes up close at the picnic area, wonderful purple gallinules, small belted kingfishers, and brown ibises with their iridescent colors. And of course, lots of alligators.

But not everything was great during our trip: We experienced an early heat wave with temperatures well above the "comfort zone". Weather conditions that are rather unusual during wintertime and common in May or later on (always 30°C/85°F and above). Given the everpresent humidity, it felt incredibly hot. And the no-see-ums appreciated that a lot... But at least they were only a serious issue at San Sebastian Inlet, Merrit Island, and at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. After shooting the funny looking reddish egret on Sanibel Island I counted more than 200 bites on my legs. That's the type of "wildlife" we did not enjoy so much. ;-)

Stay tuned - way more new work is coming up. Steffen and I took tens of thousands of images.
Guess we never shot as many photographs in such a short time! ;-)

Image data: 1/2000 s at f/10, ISO 2000; Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM at 343 mm at the Canon EOS R5