Tricolored heron, Long Key State Park, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

White morph reddish egret, Long Key State Park, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Ruddy turnstone, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Semipalmated plover, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Update: that took about 30 seconds.
Here's the scandalous content if anyone's interested: youtu.be/ESbNGahJOWY

YouTube thinks my video of red-breasted mergansers swimming and diving is "nudity that's meant to be sexually gratifying." There's not even a human in this video. 🤦‍♂️
I have appealed.

Juvenile reddish egret hunting part 1 Juvenile reddish egret hunting on a windy day in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Juvenile reddish egret hunting #1, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, FL.
This was a very windy day in January on the Black Point Wildlife Drive. Between the wind and the cars, the audio is pretty bad, but I've cleaned it up as best I could.
youtu.be/jZNyX5wJ4IM
#birds #wildlifephotography

Yellow-throated warbler, Cudjoe Key, Florida, presumably gathering nesting material
#birds #wildlifephotography

Torch Key raccoon, Procyon lotor incautus, a subspecies of North American raccoon found in the lower Keys. Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida.
#mammals #wildlifephotography

Sanderling, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, FL
#birds #wildlifephotography

Black-bellied plover, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, FL
#birds #wildlifephotography

Ruddy turnstone, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Black-bellied plover, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Reddish egret bathing and preening Reddish egret bathing and preening at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Guest appearances by roseate spoonbill, white ibis, glossy ibis, and tricolored heron.

Reddish egret bathing and preening, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Guest appearances by roseate spoonbill, white ibis, glossy ibis, and tricolored heron.
youtu.be/ay6gOY7m2po
#birds #wildlifephotography

Semipalmated plover, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida. Unlike the reliable black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones, least sandpipers, and white ibis, the semipalmated plovers were only occasional visitors.
#birds #wildlifephotography

Least sandpiper in the late afternoon sun, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, Florida. At low tide, a flat expanse of limestone, pocked with tidepools, is exposed, and several species of shorebirds reliably show up. When low tide coincides with sunset, it's a great spot.
#birds #wildlifephotography

1/25 New paper out in PNAS! We show that the fitness costs of reproductive specialization, where somatic cells give up reproduction, scale inversely with organism size. Larger organisms can afford far more soma, removing a key barrier to multicellular complexity.

Royal terns fighting over a fish, Long Beach Trail, Big Pine Key, FL. This is a spot I returned to many times while in the Keys. It's never crowded, light is good in the late afternoon and early evening, and there are lots of shorebirds and wading birds around low tide.
#birds #wildlifephotography

White-crowned pigeon, Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, Florida. Extreme southern Florida is the only place in the US this species is regularly found.
#birds #wildlifephotography

Tricolored heron, Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Northern parula, Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Northern pintails feeding A pair of northern pintails feeding at Huntley Meadows Park, Virginia

A pair of northern pintails feeding in the late afternoon sun at Huntley Meadows Park, Virginia. I'm going through and editing some older footage...this is from last March.
#birds #wildlifephotography
youtu.be/RTQUP0sKKiM

Blue-gray gnatcatcher, Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

White morph reddish egret, Long Key State Park, FL. I arrived in the keys too early to check in so I decided to explore. There are only ~7,000-11,000 adult reddish egrets in the world, and only ~15-20% are the white morph, so maybe ~2,000, but not super rare in the keys.
#birds #wildlifephotography

Monk parakeet, Brian Piccolo Park, FL. Native to S America but established in the US from escaped pets. My last night camping in Big Cypress, it was 31 F when I got out of bed. I packed up camp in the dark and drove to Miami, where frozen iguanas littered the ground.
#birds #wildlifephotography

Great blue heron on a rainy day at Shark Valley, Everglades National Park, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Thank you!

Anhinga parent and hatchling from the Royal Palm boardwalk, Everglades National Park, Florida, the same nest as in this video: youtu.be/xq8AY6Sj4C4
#birds #wildlifephotography

Green heron from the Royal Palms boardwalk, Everglades National Park, Florida
#birds #wildlifephotography

Thank you!