The Experience

Everglades National Park has been famous for nature photography for many, many years. Historically, photographers have flocked to Mrazek Pond to witness the huge feeding frenzies that occur in this small pond. I live about five miles from this small pond and drive by it on a daily basis and have never seen this phenomenon. In fact I have never seen more than one heron or a pair of ducks in this pond at a time and have always assumed that the great feeding frenzies have become yet another victim of the water management problems. However, this week I drove by the pond as I was showing two friends around the park and there it was. The pond held well over a hundred Snowy Egrets and White Ibis each with half as many Great Egrets. A handful of Tricolored Herons, Great Blue Herons, and Roseate Spoonbills rounded out the large flock. It was refreshing to see that phenomenon did still occur and it was a great opportunity to show my two friends all of the various wading birds.

The Photos

After initially seeing the feeding frenzy, I returned the following morning for a two hour photo shoot just after sunrise until the birds left. The birds would move from the back of the pond to the front and then back and it left some spectacular opportunities to photograph the birds in flight or as they were landing. Like last week, I am going to simply include a number of images from that morning photo shoot. Below are just a few of the images I made that morning.