Michael Skelton's photostream  

White Ibis
Sarasota Bay
Sarasota, Florida

I got this shot a couple of days ago over at the boat ramps here in Sarasota. It was standing on the wall and let me walk right up to it to get this shot.

Black Crowned Night Heron
Sarasota Bay
Sarasota, Florida

I had the day off today. Nice day, overall. It was overcast most of the day, which made for some gray images of the pelicans. I took a bunch of shots of the pelicans and then left, I went down the street to photograph the Sarasota skyline and then came back to the ramps to find this Black Crowned Night Heron standing on one of the walls. The sun was about to set and it cast this beautiful light on the side of the birds head and it allowed me to get close, close enough to photograph this one at 135mm, 1250/sec @f/7.1, ISO 200. I was right next to this bird and I kept inching closer until someone walked up and asked me what kind of bird this was. Bye bye birdie!
I replied that it was a Black Crowned Night Heron and gave them a brief description of this bird. They just said okay, and then they moved on. I guess they didn't notice that the bird did fly away as they walked up, fortunately, I got a bunch of shots before hand.

Brown Pelican
Sarasota Bay
Sarasota, Florida

Brown Pelican
In flight over Sarasota Bay
Sarasota, Florida

There is a little grassy, open area that is in between the boat ramps and Sarasota Bay. I can park my truck here and look out across the bay at the Sarasota skyline. There is a picnic table out there and I will sit at the picnic table and wait for the birds to fly by. This one flew really close. This was at 220mm, 1/1000sec @f/8 ISO 200. I see all kinds of birds fly by this spot. When the pelicans start swimming around, I will walk back over to the boat ramps and photograph them there. It is one sweet spot for birds and bird photography. I see other photographers out there all of the time, but I probably got them beat.

Brown Pelican
Sarasota Bay
Sarasota, Florida

I found this pelican swimming around at the boat ramps, here in Sarasota on Tuesday afternoon. The water was pretty still that afternoon.