Yellow-crowned night heron on nest

Monday
This morning we went to Ding Darling Wildlife refuge, named for the cartoonist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling. The refuge was established in 1976, to protect one of the country's largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystems. The refuge is well known for its migratory bird populations, and the winter months are the peak time, but it's always worth a visit. This morning we just went to the visitor center, then did part of one of the trails, but we didn't finish it, as it was already very hot and humid and there was little shade, and also one of my shoes was giving me a blister on the back of my heel. We saw a great blue heron and a green heron, then at an observation deck one of the volunteers had a scope set up focused on this yellow-crowned night heron sitting on her nest. As I watched her through the scope, I could see her gently turning her three eggs, then sitting down. There was a serious bird watcher/photographer there with an enormous lens - he reckoned it was worth about $10,000 - he said he'd sold a painting for it! Made my humble equipment look like a toy in comparison! We saw another yellow-crowned night heron in the early evening when we returned to drive the refuge loop. He was just standing at the side of the road, and I got a clearer shot of him, but despite the soft focus, I kind of like this one, with her turned head and expression, as if to say, "What are you all looking at?"

One year ago: Bran Castle