The Experience

This week I spent a lot of time interacting with two different groups of researchers that conduct research in the Everglades. On Wednesday I joined a team of students and their supervisor as they headed into Water Conservation Area 3 to monitor a series of wading bird nests at the largest rookery in the region. On Friday I ran into a different group of people who were working within the National Park monitoring the populations of the Endangered Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow. Both groups were not only interested in my project but also very encouraging and eager to have me along. It was great to be able to finally meet up with some of these people who work in and around this region.

I also spent time this week photographing more native orchids in the park. I was told about three Cowhorn Orchids that were blooming in a cypress dome and I found a number of Grass Pink Orchids in bloom while searching for the Seaside Sparrows. I have had an interesting experience with the Grass Pinks. My camera has been rendering these beautiful pink flowers purple or violet. I have not been able to get the color right but have developed a few theories that I will be experimenting with this week. My current theory is that the flower is reflecting a substantial portion of UV light that is invisible to our eyes. The problem is that my camera is sensitive to this portion of the spectrum and that UV light is typically rendered bluish. We all learned in grade school that blue plus red (or pink) makes purple. Now, I just have to test this out and figure out how to eliminate the UV light from hitting my camera’s sensor. Hopefully next week I will be able to share these beautiful flowers with everyone and have them be the correct color as I saw them.

New Article

My experience in the rookery this past week was very memorable. It hit me in such a way that I decided to put together an essay to accompany a series of photographs I took while I was there. It is located under the Wildlife portion of the Everglades section of this site or you can simply follow the link below. All of the images were taken while at the rookery except for the two adult birds and the vulture. However there were numerous adult Ibis and a handful of Turkey Vultures present. While I was there, I simply chose to focus on capturing images that were unique to the location but still wanted to include these images as I felt they contributed to the essay. I hope you enjoy.

Click HERE to read the essay.

The Photos

I am not including any photos with this weeks issue due to the length of the essay and number of images I included in it. I hope you enjoy them.