Roseate Spoonbill pretty in Pink

A Roseate Spoonbill lands directly in front of me during my recent Ospreys Galore Workshop (and so much more) in Florida.

One of the most spectacularly beautiful large wading birds is the roseate spoonbill, a resident of the Gulf Coast from east Texas to southern Florida. Named for its bright pink plumage and long, flat, spoon-shaped bill, the bird feeds in a manner all its own. It swings its extremely sensitive bill from side to side in shallow water, snapping it shut on small fish, shrimp, and insects that it detects by touch.

Like other members of the ibis family, roseate spoonbills are usually found in flocks. The birds nest in colonies among shrubs and mangroves, often sharing island rookeries with herons, egrets, and other waders. Spoonbills fly in long lines at dusk, their slender necks extended as they head to their roosts.

Roseate Spoonbill landing in spectacular light (Platalea ajaja, Spatule rosée, ROSP) from my OSPREYS GALORE WORKSHOP at Stick Marsh in Fellsmere, Florida ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Sony Alpha a9 III Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens @600mm. ISO 1,600, f/4 @ 1/5,000s Manual exposure.Full frame image.

Roseate Spoonbill landing in Spectacular light

As mentioned in my last post, the weather forecast for the entirety of the second Ospreys Galore workshop looked like rain, but as is often the case, we didn’t get much. This is an image of a Roseate Spoonbill (Spoonie) from the last morning of the second workshop during a brief break in the clouds, just before we got a 5-minute rain shower. The “Spoonies” were all landing to my left when this one appeared out of nowhere; I got three frames with this spectacular light that lasted only a fraction of a second, but the background was a crooked horizon line with part bright water and part dark & messy, distracting branches, so I replaced the sky to resemble better what I remember from the moment. CLICK HERE to learn more about my workshops.

Roseate Spoonbill in flight

We had a fabulous time with the beautiful Roseate Spoonbills on the last day of the last Ospreys Galore workshop in Florida. Despite a disappointingly wet forecast before the trip started, the only daytime rain we had was a short-lived 5-minute shower shortly after this image was made; a small price to pay for the lovely dark grey sky - smile!