I wonder if anyone caught on that I'm blogging yet?
From the earlier entry, this was the scene not far from our hotel. The double-crested cormorant on the right (just sticking its head above water was stirrin' up some fish and the herons, egrets and ibises followed the cormorant to grab the freaked out fish.
We're here to learn more about optics and talk some digiscoping and when I went out yesterday, Ann came along to try this digiscoping thing. The crazy thing about Florida birds is that the birds just do not care about people and you can get fairly close, which was good for Ann above, she doesn't have an adapter for her camera and she was hand holding her camera up to my scope.
In Minnesota, you can't get that close to a cormorant, unless they are fightless in the nest. I was just fascinated by the detail in the cormorant's feathers. 
Their eyes were such a beautiful emerald green, I don't think you can see it so well in this photo, maybe if you click on it, you can see it then.
The birds were diggin' this yellow floaty thing (I think it was damming the water). Up above we have a snowy egret, tricolored heron and white ibises. It must have been kind of a corral for fish, the birds would jump into there and gorge themselves...
and then back up to loaf on the yellow floaty thing.
And it was very much monkey see, monkey do. Once one bird would start preening, the rest would follow suit. It was a kick watching the Dr Suess-like ibis clean is feathers (that's the snowy egret behind it--the bird's yellow toes).
Speaking of toes, check out the freaky toes on this great egret (note how they are all black compared to the snowy egret).
This little group of birds was so great, you could really see the size difference. Look how tiny the ibis is compared to the great egret.
The tricolored heron was a treat, we just don't get too many of these (any) where I live.
It's even pretties on the side.
And I leave you with an ibis, while I return my attention to the meeting.
