In early April I made the first trip of the bird nesting season to the north Tampa bird rookery. The small island in the middle of the big pond looked the same as last year. The cypress tree closest to land had fallen down and was laying on it’s side in the pond. The only remaining tree was in the far back and it was full of cormorants nesting.

The great egrets were busy flirting and showing off their breeding feathers. Even though there were a lot of babies  many of them were just getting started.

I could easily see two great egret nests. One had chicks a little older than the other.

Some of the other nests had some babies screaming for Mom to feed them.

This nest had some older babies and Mom was busy feeding them. In the last shot you can see some regurgitated fish sliding down Mom’s throat and into the baby’s beak.

Wood storks staying cool in the heat of the afternoon.

A full wood stork nest with three babies. The one laying down on the left looks much younger than his siblings.

An older wood stork baby posing for the camera.