Least Bittern

I believe this was a first for me.  I have seen one before but wasn't able to get a decent shot.  They are a fairly small heron, usually hidden in the marshes and easily overlooked.

Yesterday was the funeral for our beloved family member who passed away just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday from Covid 19. My husband gave a beautiful eulogy for him. Bert had given the eulogy for my husband's father in 1980.

Bert was still playing golf 3 x a week and had an active social and intellectual life. None of us were prepared for the suddenness of this and how life has changed in just two weeks.  He was the husband of Annette, who passed away in July of 2020. We took many fabulous trips with them and celebrated many happy occasions. They were hugely influential in both our lives.  

After the funeral and burial, we returned to their house, which was already on the market and in the process of being cleared out.  Many family and friends dropped by during the afternoon sharing so many wonderful memories of them both.  When we left in the evening, we were quite overwhelmed that we would never see them again or be returning to their beautiful home.  It felt so very final.  The house sold two days later to the first people who looked at it. ( I am writing this one week later).

Today, we decided to just take it easy and in the morning went to the local wetlands where I had the opportunity to get my fix of Florida Wildlife.  It couldn't have been better.  I got shots of Anhingas, Wood Storks, Cattle Egrets (my favorites), nesting Great Blue Herons with chicks, alligators and I even spotted one Roseate Spoonbill way down in the marshes, hoovering its way through the water. I have loaded some of those in extra. 

backblipped 3-24-2022