Readers’ wildlife photos

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Today’s bird photos come from Paul Edelman, whose narrative is indented. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here are more pictures from my trip to Florida.  These photos were taken at Harns Marsh, which is in the middle of Lehigh Acres, a vast housing development just east of Ft. Myers.   We had great luck there in a number of different ways.  This set of pictures depict just birds that tend to live in the marsh itself.

Both the Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) and the White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) are quite common here.  The Glossy Ibis are often seen in the company of Limpkins (Aramus guarauna). On this trip we also saw Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) (at least I think this was a Greater Yellowlegs.  It might have been a Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)—they differ mostly in size and the knobbiness of their knees!) and a Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous).

Glossy Ibis:

White Ibis (reflected):

Limpkin:

Greater Yellowlegs:

Killdeer:

In another part of the property we saw Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata).  This bird used to be known as a Common Moorhen but in 2011 it was decided that this New World bird was sufficiently different from the Old World Common Moorhen to justify its own recognition.  Go figure.  Another interesting story belongs to the Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio), which is native to Eurasia.  They were being in zoos as well as privately in Florida when they somehow got free, perhaps during hurricane Andrew in 1992. They are considered an invasive species, but I think they are rather attractive in a gallinule kind of way.

Common Gallinule:

Purple (Western) Swamphen:

In a follow-up set I have other birds that live in the surrounding area as well as a very hungry otter.