A good day of shooting at the Sweetwater Nature Preserve

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STM

Senior Member
The weather was perfect and there was wildlife everywhere at the Sweetwater Nature Preserve a little south of Gainesville FL

This one was an 8 footer. There was a 10+ footer in the same lagoon. We watched it snag a heron this afternoon. That bird never knew what hit it.



Double Breasted Cormorant


Great Blue Heron


Limpkin



And the winner of the "face only a mother could love", the Wood Stork.


As a kind of humorous aside, when I was done shooting I grabbed the Nikon Ftn and finished off the end of that roll of Tri
 
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STM

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
That is just an hour from Crystal River. Is it worth swinging by there for a couple hours on the way home?
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Me and another photographer in town are going to go down there, as well as Cedar Key. I did my scuba certification dive in 1980 in Crystal River. Back then there were not the restrictions there are now about interacting with the manatee. We rode them and had a ball with them, they were very curious and playful. Nowadays that would get you arrested and heavily fined.
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
That is just an hour from Crystal River. Is it worth swinging by there for a couple hours on the way home?
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Yes, it is, Don. According to the Gainesville Sun, there is a Whooping Crane that frequents Sweetwater Park: gainesville.com/news/20170310/whooping-crane-makes-surprise-appearance

The only problem with that would be that the parking lots will fill up early every day. The upside to this is that you could get to see and photograph one of the nearest birds in North America.

STM is in the area; hopefully, he'll get some shots and share them soon.

WM
 
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STM

Senior Member
Whiskeyman said:
Yes, it is, Don. According to the Gainesville Sun, there is a Whooping Crane that frequents Sweetwater Park: [URL="https://nikonites.com/gainesville.com/news/20170310/whooping

Whooping cranes are fairly common here in Gainesville, I really don't know what all the excitement is about. I shot these last weekend. They will sometimes show up by the dozen at this location.

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STM

Senior Member
Something weird is going on with this site. I went to reply to Whiskeyman's post with a "Reply With Quote" and his original post code got messed up and my response was never posted.

As for the whooping cranes, I really don't know what all the excitement is about. Whooping Cranes are fairly common in Gainesville. The photo above was shot last weekend. This was just two in a flock of about 20.
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
STM said:
Something weird is going on with this site. I went to reply to Whiskeyman's post with a "Reply With Quote" and his original post code got messed up and my response was never posted.

As for the whooping cranes, I really don't know what all the excitement is about. Whooping Cranes are fairly common in Gainesville. The photo above was shot last weekend. This was just two in a flock of about 20.
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Scott, The birds in your photo are Sandhill Cranes, not Whooping Cranes. Even though Sandhill Cranes are fairly abundant, they can be a great subject for photography. I've seen Sandhill Cranes in the wild more times than I can count, but have only once seen a "possible" Whooping Crane.

This site, https://allaboutbirds.org/guide/Whooping_Crane/id , gives some information on the Whooping Crane and also a bit of information on the Sandhill Crane.

And I am also having difficulty getting my reply to your post this morning. I had to try three times before I was successful.

Wayne
 
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STM

Senior Member
Whiskeyman said:
Scott, The birds in your photo are Sandhill Cranes, not Whooping Cranes. Even though Sandhill Cranes are fairly abundant, they can be a great subject for photography. I've seen Sandhill Cranes in the wild more times than I can count, but have only once seen a "possible" Whooping Crane.

This site, https://allaboutbirds.org/guide/Whooping_Crane/id , gives some information on the Whooping Crane and also a bit of information on the Sandhill Crane.

And I am also having difficulty getting my reply to your post this morning. I had to try three times before I was successful.

Wayne
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Thanks for the link, I don't know my birds from shinola. As far as the site goes, I have no idea what is going on with it. I am glad it is not just me.
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
STM said:
Thanks for the link, I don't know my birds from shinola.
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I know where you're coming from on bird ID. I've learned most of what little I know from Marilynne and KevinH here on this site, along with a little bit of study of a few internet sites. Just last night, I posted a shot of a Tricolored Heron, but called it a Little Blue Heron. Marilynne let me know of the mis-ID and I edited my description. Some birds, I can't even begin to ID, even when looking at a reference.

Really, when it comes down to the brass tacks of it, I don't care about what it's called as much as I want a great photo of it!

WM

WM
 
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Kevin H

Senior Member
Whiskeyman said:
I know where you're coming from on bird ID. I've learned what little I know from Marilynne and KevinH here on this site, along with a little bit of study of a few internet sites. Just last night, I posted a shot of a Tricolored Heron, but called it a Little Blue Heron. Marilynne let me know of the mis-ID and I edited my description. Some birds, I can't even begin to ID, even when looking at a reference.

Really, when it comes down to the brass tacks of it, I don't care about what it's called as much as I want a great photo of it!

WM

WM
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LMAO I have 2 guys here I go out with most weekends with the cameras they just say there's a bird :D
 
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