Gatorland Part 1

C on the map

My 2nd day in Florida, I decided to visit another Rookery right after the first and see how they compared. I arrived very early in the season for St. Augustine, so I wasn't sure what to expect here at Gatorland. From early on however, I was very impressed! Mike Goodwin was there to get people inside at 7:30am sharp, gave some helpful directions and let us loose on the birds! The Great Egrets were really displaying, some had eggs, and a very few already had chicks in late Feb. I figured it would be good, and I was right!

As I'd read elsewhere, getting clean shots of birds at Rookeries with so much clutter/bushes/other birds, can be tough! With the large number of birds around though I was eventually able to get the clean shots I wanted of displaying Egrets. The nesting birds were in high breeding condition, with wonderful lime green on the lores of the Great Egrets. With the birds being so very tame, it is also a great place to get creative with your photography.

In the afternoon, thousands of birds arrived at dusk to roost in the rookery. The light gave out early, behind a large cloud bank, but I was still able to get a number of flight shots and eventually worked on pan blurs as it got dark. A few young spoonbills were around and fairly active, giving good photo-ops in flight and landing.

The rookery was much larger than St. Augustine. I had also heard that Gatorland was about a month ahead on the breeding schedule - due to it being farther south. That helped on my trip, since I was pretty early. Although the Gators and Crocodiles were captive, I still really enjoyed seeing these amazing creatures up close. A free wireless internet connection inside was also great, allowing me send some photos home to my parents and girlfriend, and let them know how everything was going!

Since it was early in my trip and gatorland was fairly expensive for a single day ($30 USD), I decided to stay for the single day before moving on! I did make it back for another day near the end of my trip, but I wrote a separate article for that visit!

Pic's taken during my first visit to Gatorland: