On New Year’s Day our family drove down to Palm Beach County to visit my brother-in-law. The following morning I decided to visit Wakodahatchee Wetlands.
It’s a wonderful place with a beautifully maintained board walk that takes you through the wetlands. My primary hope was to see the Neotropic Cormorant that has been hanging out here. It took a while, but eventually it showed itself–a nice, bright white line surrounding its gular pouch.
My father and I also visited the park on Dec. 27th, so I thought I’d share photos from both of my visits. My December visit was the first day I’d seen a Neotropic Cormorant in the U.S.
I also saw another cormorant that looks like it might be a hybrid Neotropic x Double-crested Cormorant, but I’m no expert on these things. It seems to have the white outline to the yellow gular pouch, but it’s more faint than it should be.
The wetlands area is a wonderful place for ducks, wading birds and other marshy birds. All kinds of herons and egrets can be seen here.
And some even breed here
It’s even home to some birds that don’t really belong here, like Gray-headed Swamphens, which escaped a few years ago and now have established themselves throughout southern Florida.
There were also two species of invasive reptiles. There were several bright orange iguanas, oddly named Common Green Iguana, and a Brown Basilisk.
Scott Simmons
Scott Simmons, based in Florida, is a lover of nature, landscape, and wildlife photography. Scott became interested in photography in 2001 when he was given his first SLR camera. When he acquired a telephoto lens, he became progressively more interested in birds and other wildlife. Scott enjoys learning about bird habitats and behavior, striving always to take images that are both beautiful and interpretive. Scott believes photography is a great vehicle to help others to appreciate the wonder for the stuff of earth.
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