The burrowing owl bobbed and bobbed his head, trying to determine what we were up to. Slowly, we inched towards him in a slow yet deliberate fashion. As the curious owl stood on the edge of his mound, the other kept his body half in and half out of its earthen nest. These diminutive owls are barely six inches tall, yet they pack the personality of a much larger animal. Curious, animated, and beautiful, they have all of the hallmarks of a bird in which you’ll never have enough photographs. Therefore, we all snap away as the owls stand in the near-perfect light of a Southwest Florida evening.

It’s hard to describe unless you see it for yourself, but the number and variety of birds and other wildlife we see in the Everglades and surrounding areas on this nature photography workshop borders unreal. It seems like in every little patch of sawgrass or every little fold in the curiously buttressed cypress trees, a bird finds a place to alight and look for food. On this trip, we’ll visit cypress swamps, sawgrass flats, mangrove estuaries, and even freshwater springs where manatees congregate to stay warm in the colder winter months. There’s a lot to see here; we will do our best to take advantage of the opportunities presented.

Therefore, on this perfect January evening burrowing owls are on the agenda. Tomorrow, however, a new animal surprises us on our trek.
“Look there, “ I tell the group, and they turn to look. On the path we just walked, an otter tromps about as if it’s showing off for us. He’s only feet away, but he sees us, and we photograph him. Meanwhile, great white egrets, green herons, anhingas, and night herons stand around the water’s margins, awaiting their turn to be photographed. On this morning alone, we photographed 28 species of birds and wildlife, but we see many more. The total number of species we’ll see for the week will be near 100.

Soon, the otter returns to the water and disappears into the mysterious swamplands. He disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Albeit brief, the sighting was still magical.
Just like a few days later we slip through the clear shallows of the Crystal River. The waterway’s handle doesn’t belie its physical reality: the water here is clear, crystal clear. Soon, we pull up to a small island where fresh water seeps from an underwater chasm that’s eroded the karst limestone that makes up the island. Hanging out in the shallows is probably twenty West Indies manatees. Elephants and hyrax are the big, gentle mammal’s closest living relatives in the animal kingdom. They are every bit as lovable as the aforementioned animals as well.

Slipping into the 75-degree water, we swim slowly up to the group of lounging “sea cows.” The animals are enormous and can weigh upwards of 1500 pounds. This morning, however, a mid-sized manatee took a liking to me and continually swam circles around me, occasionally sniffing my camera. I can’t describe it exactly, but the experience is simply magical.
It’s not the only magical experience of the week, however. There’ll be plenty more. Like when we approach an enormous raft of white pelicans as they lounge along a sand bar, or see a cormorant catch fish after fish, or witness an Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin leap just for fun, time and again just mere feet away from the back of our boat. While the locations change from day to day, the anticipation and excitement of the overall experience do not.




On the last morning of the trip, the sky was heavy with fog that hung just off the ground. Every now and then, rain spits from above, which is a bit unusual because we come here in the dry season. As such, the birds are moving a bit slower than usual, and their activity level is down a bit. However, we find a pocket of birds close to the trail. From here, we see three anhingas, a great egret, a little blue heron, some brown pelicans, blue-winged teal, and a great blue heron. The birds are either loafing or looking for food. Merely feet away, they could care less that we are here. With contentment in our hearts and full memory cards of images, we stay longer and shoot a few last pictures.
It’s always hard to leave a good location. The magic of the Everglades makes it even harder.


ADDITIONAL IMAGES










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