Tough choices...

Hubs and I made it on our outing!  We drove to Orlando last night and treated ourselves to a night at the Marriott and a nice dinner - then up at o-dark-hundred this morning to go to ... Gatorland!  Not a place I'd usually go, but I had heard from some nature photographers that they have a huge rookery there over their "alligator swamp" - apparently the wild birds found it years ago and return every year to nest.  I'm talking hundreds of egrets, wood stork, anhingas, cormorants and tricolor herons.  

For a special price, they let photographers into the park at 7:30 AM where we are free to photograph the entire rookery - tripods, big lenses and NO kids or families!  The place was all ours until they opened their main gates at 10 AM.  It was total heaven.  All you could hear were the sounds of baby birds begging, the occasional bellow and splash of randy alligators, and the rapid-fire click of shutters.  I took over 1,000 pics and have sorted it down to about 150.  My hands are throbbing, but I am grinning ear-to-ear.  I got shots I've only dreamed of - like this one.

This is a Great Egret nest with three nestlings and one of the parents.  I chose this shot because I think it tells a story, and I think it will evoke an emotion in most people who look at it.  This is something I've gotten much better at since moving to FL - maybe because I am paying more attention to it, maybe because I've had so many amazing opportunities to photograph birds in their native habitat.  Anyway, I hope you like this - I am very pleased with it, even though I wish the sticks from the nest weren't quite so obtrusive!  

I posted sixteen shots on Flickr, starting HERE with the crazy airstream trailers on I-75 - I've been wanting to photograph those things ever since I saw them on my first trip to Lakeland.  Today, since Hubs was driving, I hefted Big Daddy and fired off six shots through the dirty window at 70 MPH... good as I'll get, I'm afraid.  The rest of the shots are mostly birds and one gator.  Worth a look, I think.  

Just a few short weeks until we head north - can't believe how the time is flying by.  I'm definitely running out of time but I am going to pack in as much as I can.  Really glad I was able to make this trip to Gatorland - it was soooo worth it!

Thanks for all the faves, stars and comments on my second tern posting.  I may very well post them again before I pull up stakes ... really do love them.

Toodles...
Debbi

BTW, I decided to keep the rental D750 for a few more days - most of today's pics were with it, although I also carried the D600 with a shorter lens for the birds that were too close for Big Daddy.