First, a disclaimer - I fully subscribe to the bird photography ethics of not disturbing nests or stressing birds, so I wanted to point out that these photographs were taken at one of the unique Florida rookery wetlands where hundreds of bird nests sit anywhere from 20 feet to 3 feet from public walkways with hundreds or thousands of people walking past daily...the birds that nest at these locations have been returning year after year for well over a decade and experience no stress or concern with the proximity of people - if anything, they seem to prefer it as the large flow of people keeps other predators away. I very rarely have seen an idiot visitor pull a branch or yell to get a bird's attention - and they're quickly reprimanded by any and all people standing nearby - for the most part, people understand the unique experience we get to have and protect it. So yes, I am sometimes standing less than 6 feet from a nest, but only because that bird placed its nest right on a walkway and the bird is clearly unstressed and not changing its behavior in any way - they nap, feed, groom, and tend to their nests, mostly ignoring the people walking by.
March is a great time in South Florida at such rookery parks, as so many wading birds are hatching - lots of different species, hundreds of nests, thousands of hatchlings screaming for food. Just a few of the variety of chicks that have hatched recently to share for fun. (BTW - images are hosted on my photo site and embedded here via URL - the forums haven't yet made the larger image sizes work for hosted photos, but if you right click the photo and 'open link in new tab', it will display at the original posted size of 2400 pixels on the long edge, and with EXIF intact).
Pied billed grebe parent caught a nice fish for lunch, and the grebe chick is in pursuit hoping to get it:
Anhinga parent being hounded by its chicks, hoping she returned with some food:
Tricolored heron chicks, just an hour old, having just emerged from their eggs and being watched over by the parent:
A great egret chick hatched in the last few days, poking above the nest to look around:
A wood stork parent, using its wing to provide shade for its chicks:
A few additional shots I'll upload as well from my computer, that I didn't upload to my main gallery, just to add a few more chicks...
Closeup of an ahninga chick, with a sibling down in the nest:
A great blue heron chick staying close to the parent's legs, always watching over:
