The Venice Rookery...Another Hotbed of Birding Activity

Wow! Every January thru May, the Venice Rookery hosts a multitude of egrets, great blue herons, anhingas, glossy ibis, an occasional gator or two for nesting season. (Months are approximate)....We love going down there from Bradenton in the early morning or late afternoon. It's about a 40 minute drive from our house and well worth it....

Depending upon what month you go determines the showy displays of the mating egrets and herons. Last year we went in April and Sparky got TONS of BIG, beautiful plume feather displays. This year we went a little earlier and the birds seem to have already settled down somewhat into their nests with their mates. We think they still will be doing courtship dances a little while longer.

It's a simple little place, a little park off of 41 down in Venice. Here are the directions from Bradenton or Sarasota: head 75 South to the Jacaranda Boulevard exit--stay on Jacaranda all the way to 41. Turn right on 41, go about half a block and turn left right by the state police building--there's a small brown sign that says "Venice Rookery" close to the turn. 

You see everyone sporting all kinds of cameras from their little iPhones trying to take photos, to the big humongous lenses that the more experienced photographers have. Personally, Sparky has been VERY happy with just a Canon point and shoot 50X lens camera called the SX530. Here are some shots from last year with that camera.

And one more....

Here are some photos from a trip to the rookery last Sunday....These photos are with a Nikon P900 which has an 85X zoom!  This camera is MUCH heavier, but wow! What a zoom!

Sparky watched a great blue heron ferry twigs and branches from one side of the pond to the other. It was beautiful to watch the collaborative efforts of the herons to build their nest.

At one point, it looked like the one ferrying all the twigs and branches got tired.....Doesn't he look like he's saying, "Why me, Lord?"

And here's a little weirdness...these cormorants at each other's throats! Either they were having a little battle about something, or one was feeding the other, (but we never saw any food exchanged). One stuck his head completely down the other's throat! 

If you ever get a chance to visit the rookery during the winter months down in Venice, FL, you should go see the beautiful displays of mating plumage and hear the noise the young ones put forth as they are waiting to be fed. It's just a little island in the middle of the park, but there are TONS of birds and babies to be seen. Sparky thinks the young great blue herons look like little Groucho Marx. With all the little chicks fussing and hollering to be fed, it's quite the ruckus! Sparky's favorite photo of the day? This one below, where the young great blue heron photobombed the nest building.

                                        

                                      Have a great day!

A Little Gem Courtesy of Audubon

Sparky and Eldo have never been to the Venice Rookery...a little site maintained by the Audubon Society...Not sure why, partly because we hadn't heard of it until this year. Sparky started seeing photos from photographer acquaintances and they were shooting some amazing photos at this little park in Venice.

So we decided to go late afternoon one Sunday and here's what we found...a very small park with a small island in the middle. Alligators frequent the lake to keep predators away from the birds, or so the site says. Sparky would think the gators would get an occasional avian meal? Also there is limited parking in a very small lot, but luckily, not very many people here today...We arrived about 5:30 PM...As we spent some time at the park, the serious photographers starting showing up later with HUMONGOUS lenses...like 600 mm.....WOW! Sunset was almost 8:00 PM so perhaps we were there a little on the early side, as Sparky had to shoot into the sun a little bit. These photos are taken with a small Canon SX500 IS. The zoom is only 30X on this camera and the detail is not as crisp as she hoped it would be....But Sparky was still happy with most of her photos.

People there said the nesting starts in February.....Almost every bird species we saw there were sitting on nests today, and many of the babies had hatched and were already growing and getting ready to fledge in a few days or a few weeks. It was so cool to see a heron with its nest, which was pretty big! So used to only seeing them standing in the water fishing...


There were several herons on nests...

Here, the great blue heron chicks or young birds were clamoring for food. They look big enough to feed themselves! And don't they look like Groucho Marx a bit?

Here's another shot of the hungry herons...Those head feathers just crack us up!

Snowy egrets and their chicks were in abundance.....They look like fluffs of cotton balls. :-)

The snowy egrets were showing off BIG time!

Not sure what those birds are to the left of this beautiful egret, but they might be cormorant chicks? They almost look like baby swans. This is Sparky's favorite photo of the night.....

What a wonderful sight to see, and we are so lucky that this place is within a 30 minute drive for us. We'll definitely be back again soon!

Until next time....The End