Today we have two videos from Tara Tanaka, who has been absent a while due to a drought Florida that dried up much of the wetlands on the family property, creating an absence of wading birds that she used to feature. Fortunately, as she writes below, the drought may be over. In the meantime, we have a kayaking video and a video featuring a BOBCAT.
Tara also has a Vimeo site and a Flickr site. Her narration below is indetned:
In 2024 when we had a swamp full of water, we got a sit-on-top kayak that I could use to shoot from and that my husband could use to get out into the swamp to manage exotic plants. I chose this one because it’s incredibly stable, and I wanted an open deck to be able to paddle without having the camera in front of me. This kayak has a seat that swivels 360 degrees, allowing me to mount my tripod with a 500mm lens in the stern, and then just pivot around between paddling and videoing. This was the maiden voyage in our Nucanoe kayak.
I was able to make quite a few trips out during the 2024 nesting season, and after a relatively dry winter and then one good rain, made a few trips out in 2025. I stopped going out not because there wasn’t enough water to float the kayak, but because it was getting so shallow and our alligators that patrol the rookery for raccoons and snakes are so big that I didn’t feel comfortable paddling right over one with just a couple of feet between us. It wasn’t long after that that a couple in a canoe in Lake Kissimmee paddled over an 11’ gator in 2’ of water causing the gator to thrash and overturn the canoe, with a tragic ending.
The swamp has been dry for at least 9 months, with only a few pools of water, and now that it’s really starting to rain I’m hoping that the water level will return to normal and the birds will return to nest next spring.
A 5-minute YouTube video, narrated by Tara, showing the maiden voyage of the canoe (sound up.) You can see there are still birds around. Can you identify them?
And here’s a Vimeo video with an animal encounter. Enlarge this as you can see a lot more detail on full screen.
We had seen one or two coyotes around 9:30 the last two mornings. Hoping they would return for a third day. I got my camera ready in the living room to try to record them. About 9:00 my husband said he saw one, so I made some final adjustments for the lighting and began to search for something moving in the distance. When I finally centered the subject in the viewfinder, I said “I think I’m looking at a bobcat.” Almost immediately the cat stood up and as I panned with it I was shocked when two coyotes ran into the frame, one on each side of the cat. Enjoy the interactions between the two species and between the very bonded pair of coyotes. I believe the female is pregnant.
After I finished filming I just sat in disbelief that I had had the opportunity to record something so unique – and from my living room! I feel like I could have gone to Yellowstone and spent a month in the field and not witnessed an encounter like this. Because of the dramatic temperature difference between the thawing ground and the sun heating the brown grass, the waves of heat shimmer intensified as the sun got higher and you can see them rippling across the screen. Despite the extreme conditions, I was thrilled that I was able to record the interaction so clearly from 1000’ away, and through a double-paned window.
We should have a pond full of water with waders arriving to nest right now, however due to a severe drought that started over a year ago the entire swamp is dry. Without water to allow our large alligators to patrol under the nests and protect them from predators, I’m afraid that our hundreds of waders that nest here every year will not feel safe and will likely nest elsewhere.
Filmed with a Panasonic GH6 + Nikon 500mm f2.8 lens. Since I filmed it from inside the house, I used the audio from a video I shot from the yard last year.
Typo early on in the article. Tanaka, not Tanaks.
Whoops, a typo. It’s fixed now, thanks.
A “tragic ending.” OK. I’ll bite (Tee hee hee). We’re they eaten?
Beautiful videos and a great illustration of how you work your magic
Yes, the woman was attacked and killed when they startled an alligator in shallow water, and their canoe was turned over.
Thank you Robie. You may have seen it on the news too.
Thank you Norman for your kind words. It was very sad, and made me especially glad that I trusted my gut and stopped going out last year.
I think that’s a sub-committee of ibises @ ~3:35. And fascinating that coyotes and bobcats can be so casual together.
What general part of FL is this? Northern?
3:35 on the first video? Those are wood storks (Mycteria americana).
Thx!
Thanks Darrell!
We do get White Ibis here, but ours are quite a bit smaller with red bills.
It’s northern FL – if you think of FL as an arm, we’re located above the armpit :-).
Thx!
Another fine way to start the day. I watched the videos twice. I subscribed to her Youtube channel — and gave that maiden voyage a thumbs up, of course. Couldn’t ID all the birds — the Great Egrets nesting were hilarious. They have a unique piece of property.
Thank you Tom, so glad I could start your day off in nature! Besides the Great Egrets and Wood Storks there were Anhingas and a Common Gallinule and young Great Blue Herons begging for food. Vimeo is my main channel but I try to remember to post them on YT also. Thanks for the thumbs up!
What a delight! The bobcat clearly wants nothing to do with the coyotes, but I can’t read the coyotes. Were they mainly just being curious?
Thanks Mark! I couldn’t really tell either. I saw a fox and a cat arrive at the same time and place from different directions years ago, and the cat was very nervous. The fox pretended to be very casual and playful, but every time the cat would try to leave the fox would stop moving and then the cat would stop. Finally the cat tried to casually walk away and the fox took after it in hot pursuit. The last time I saw them they disappeared around the corner of the house. The playful, casual behavior can just be masking a predator’s real intent.
I xferred that video from Hi-8 to digital, I’ll see if I can find it…and if I remember it the way it happened.
I could watch the video of the kayak trip all day—I almost felt like I was there. In addition to the birds (including baby egrets that look like Dr. Seuss inventions), I love the general scenery.
It must have been a thrill to get that second video! I was surprised that the bobcat, while clearly wary, seemed relatively unfazed by having coyotes on either side.
Thanks Robie – I really miss going out there. Our kayak has been in the dry swamp for a year but I just bought a cart and we brought it into the garage yesterday. We cleaned it up and now I’ll get to look at it every day and dream of the day I can get back out there. I have video from a number of trips, if I get a chance I’ll try to make another video.
Beautiful, Tara. The kayak setup seems like it would be a real game changer.
Any reddish egret sightings lately?
Thank you Darrell. Yes, it worked even better than I’d dreamed! That 360 degree swivel seat made all the difference. I wouldn’t take a chance of climbing over it with our 13′ and 11′ gators out there! Nucanoe makes a kit to lower the seat, and I ended up installing that after a few trips since that 500mm lens magnifies even the tiniest movements. The only thing now is that I’m sitting just above water level and probably look even more accessible to the gators.
Most of my Reddish Egret sightings were at Fort Desoto County park, about half way down the state, and I have also seen them at Merritt Island NWR and on the coast in TX. They are a coastal species and we’ve never had one here.
I understand your wariness. When I’m visiting gator-heavy areas of the south–like the Everglades or the SC coast–I can never get entirely comfortable with the omnipresence of predators that could, at least in theory, chomp me.
All the same, I greatly enjoyed it when I woke up one morning to the sound of an enormous, fat male bellowing for a mate on the lawn right in front of my cabin. You probably hear that sound fairly often. You’re lucky to live where you do, as the videos prove. Thanks!
Yes, I know the feeling and the sound! One of my last days out there last year I heard a gator bellow very close, and I assumed it was the 13′ male. I started making my way closer to the house when the male, with an much louder and deeper bellow startled me from a much closer distance. I felt I had been warned and paddled straight back home!
I’ll have to look for that video too :-).
Great videos. I was surprised the 2 coyotes didn’t try to go after the bobcat.
That’s quite an encounter you were able to film.
Gorgeous birds. The babies sure have strong beaks.
Nice to see your videos again!
Thank you Debra! Yes, it was riveting watching the scene unfold before me. I had no idea what I was about to record. I’m glad no one was hurt.