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How Many Beaks Can You Count? Roseate Spoonbill Nest

Posted Thursday, March 30, 2023Monday, March 27, 2023 Jess Yarnell2 CommentsPosted in Orlando Wetlands

Another sunny afternoon, another trip to Orlando Wetlands Park! I knew the Roseate Spoonbills had been nesting long enough that it might be time to find small pink spoons in the nest. I wasn’t wrong. Come with me to count beaks!

It started out as a typical day on the boardwalk. The Wood Storks were active bringing in nesting material. It sometimes surprises people to find out that nest-building is a continuous operation. The birds constantly replenish the nest with new sticks.

A Red-bellied Woodpecker flew in. He was in the market for a new nest hole. He found several potential properties in the palm trees by the boardwalk. It would be fun to come back and see little heads sticking out the front door!

A Great Egret posed nearby. The Great Egrets are one of the first wading birds to breed in the spring. As such, even in early March, their beautiful green lores begin to disappear.

Then the sounds got interesting. The Great Egret chicks fuss with a sound like “nah-nah-nah.” The Roseate Spoonbill chicks have more of a wheezing sound. As the sun lowered in the sky, the babies got more active, and soon I located the nest with the chicks. It was buried deep in a palm tree with very little visibility. I pulled out my 2x teleconverter and did my best.

How many beaks do you see? At first it looked like Mom and two babies. Then the third chick poked up. Whenever Mom’s beak came down, the babies went crazy, all vying to be the lucky winner of the regurgitated meal.

Surprise! A fourth baby, much smaller than its siblings, made a brief appearance. The variation in size of the chicks makes it clear that they hatch asynchronously. At this age, their beaks are orange and rounded. They begin to acquire a spoon-like appearance after a few weeks.

This was one of those moments when a picture is worth a thousand words. My favorite part was when the tiniest baby did a beak nuzzle with Mom!

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It would have been easy to spend the whole afternoon with these fun birds, but other babies started to attract my attention. The Great Egret chicks that I saw on my last visit had grown, and were demanding food from Mom. With such demanding youngsters, Mom was ready for a nap!

All too soon the sun started to set. The golden light on this Roseate Spoonbill in full breeding colors was beautiful.

Roseate Spoonbill Headshot

I put on my wide-angle lens for the walk back to my car. Last time I caught the sun setting through the cypress trees. This afternoon I preferred to capture the wider-angle shot of the whole wetlands landscape. What a special place!

There’s always one bird that bids you farewell and encourages you to return. On this particular visit, it was the anhinga posed on a tree stump in the setting sun. A great silhouette to end a fun afternoon!

Fun Sandhill Crane Colt Action Sequence

Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2023Saturday, March 18, 2023 Jess Yarnell1 CommentPosted in Orlando Wetlands

This sequence is just too cute not to share. Remember how Sandhill Crane colts squabble often? Well, it doesn’t always go gracefully for the older, stronger colt. Below I captured a fun sequence where he does a hop, skip, jump!, and then tries to body-slam his brother. But the little guy gets the last laugh when his older brother stumbles and falls on his face. See, it’s not nice to pick on your brother!

Have I mentioned that I am loving the Canon R5 camera? Its amazing autofocus never gets old! This was my first opportunity to use it with the Sandhill Crane colts, and with the eye autofocus, I came home with so many keepers. Plus the frame rate lets you capture fun sequences like this!

Sandhill Crane Colts!

Posted Monday, March 27, 2023Saturday, March 18, 2023 Jess Yarnell1 CommentPosted in Orlando Wetlands

It’s been a few years since I’ve had the privilege of photographing newborn Sandhill Crane babies, called colts. The babies are adorable, and the adult cranes make really good parents. So when I saw a Sandhill Crane on her nest at Orlando Wetlands, I knew I had to check back regularly. On one happy morning, I found them!

Sandhill Cranes Strolling Down the Wetlands

The colts were four days old. The babies are precocial and are up and about within a few hours of hatching. They walk, swim, and gobble down all the bugs that their parents offer. The parents take them for long walks away from the nest area.

This family has attracted a lot of attention at the park, partly because they are so accessible. The babies are very trusting and unafraid of humans. I photographed these special birds before they became celebrities on social media, and before the park had to put up signs telling visitors to stay 25 feet away. With my 600mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter, I had no need to get very close. I find the best pictures are taken from a bit of a distance anyway. Please, if you come across nesting birds this spring, give them their space.

Back to the cuteness. Who can resist such a face?

The Sandhill Cranes are very good parents. These tall birds are so gentle with their babies, and so quick to defend them from other birds invading their space. They traveled as a group that morning, often with each parent looking after a colt. So it was fun when I got four heads in the frame for a family portrait.

Feeding is a very important part of a young Sandhill Crane’s life. Mom and Dad patiently sift through the grass and dirt, pulling the tiniest bugs out with their beaks, then handing them over to the colts. Often it takes the colt several times to get the bug down. The parents just stand there, picking up the bugs again and again, until the baby executes the final gulp.

Sandhill Crane Colt Watching Mom Look for Bugs

I always enjoy photographing the “twins” in dew-covered grass surrounded by springtime flowers. I imagine the world seems like an absolute jungle to these tiny birds. When Mom and Dad flap their wings, the colts look up with curiosity. I wonder if they know how quickly they will grow up and learn to fly.

Sibling rivalry starts early. The colts usually hatch around a day apart. The bigger colt can be quite aggressive with the smaller, weaker sibling. The bigger colt often pecks at the smaller colt’s face, body-slams him, and chases him relentlessly. It’s fun action photography and looks cute in the pictures, but in reality, it’s a reminder of survival of the fittest.

Then Mom calls them with a bug and they forget their squabbles. Mom and Dad are very good at making sure both babies get their fair share of bugs. But the adults tend to ignore the “squabbles” of the siblings.

The babies grow tired quickly at this age. Mom and Dad took them off into a patch of grass to let them rest. The light was gorgeous on the tiny colt. See, this is the kind of picture you can’t get with a cell phone shoved up in the baby’s face. The key to images like this is to get down low at the crane’s eye level, patiently wait for a good sun angle, and let the long lens blur the background.

My time with these special birds was over far too quickly. As I hopped back up on my bike, the smallest colt zonked out in the grass. A small patch of greenery served as his pillow. When you are four days old, have walked about a quarter of a mile from your nest, and have your belly full of bugs, it’s time for a good long nap!