This morning I checked out of my Miami hotel and prepared for the long drive to the Estero / Cape Coral region on the west coast.  However, given my moderate success yesterday at Shark Valley in photographing the purple gallinules (a species I’m particularly fond of), I decided to stop there along the way and try to get some more images of this very interesting bird.  I’m glad I did, because I got my best photo yet of this attractive and unusual bird:



Note that photographing this species can be difficult, not only because of its habits (and habitat), but because its plumage, particularly its dorsal plumage, can react negatively to strong directional light (including both artificial flash and direct sunlight).  In birds, both blues and irridescent colors achieved via structural/interference effects can create unusual color artifacts in digital images.  At present, the only recommendation I can offer in these cases is to limit the use of flash, and try to photograph the bird in non-direct sunlight.  In this particular case I was lucky, and few artifacts were visible.
    More images of this bird can be seen below (be sure to click the thumbnails to zoom to the full-sized image), along with a nicely detailed shot of a red-shouldered hawk at close range in the parking lot:

CLICK TO ZOOM

At one point there were as many as 5 or 7 gallinules visible in the lily-pad-infested area of the canal not far from the trailhead.  There were also little blue herons that approached quite close to me on the near shore (too close to focus, in fact) and a great blue hunting in the canal from the far side, as well as tons of anhingas. 
    The action was mostly over by 10:30am, so I left at 11am and drove straight to Estero Island far to the north on the western coast of Florida.  My goal was to hit either Little Estero Lagoon (where I’d had great luck last year) or Sanibel Island (where I’d had very moderate luck last year).  When I reached Estero Island I found a dog park that is part of Lovers’ Key State Park (see the map in tomorrow’s blog entry).  My dog loved it.  There were plenty of people and plenty of dogs, and all of them were having a great time in the radiant sunlight and the delicious tropical waters.
    After an hour or two we returned to the car and drove the short distance to the main Lovers’ Key park entrance.  The fee was $4.  I drove the circuit without seeing a single bird (at 2:30 in the afternoon, mind you).  I then decided—somewhat irrationally—to try for Sanibel Island. 
    Although Sanibel was known in the past for being a prime bird photography location, the word among Florida photographers is that it’s no longer a good bet for fine-art bird photography.  Last year I paid the entry fee to the Ding Darling refuge and didn’t take a single photo there, though with fairly extreme effort I was able to get a few really good bird photos at the fisherman’s pier at the east end of the island.
    Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the traffic heading toward Sanibel was so bad that I ended up sitting in traffic for a good 40 minutes without moving more than about 10 or 20 feet.  I ultimately lost my patience and bailed.  Making a U-turn, I headed south and found a quicker way off the island, and then headed toward Cape Coral, with its teeming population of burrowing owls (another favorite bird of mine).  The thumbnail below provides a link to a map of burrowing owl sites published in 2005 by the city of Cape Coral for the benefit of visitors.  The linked document also gives suggestions for “owl-watching etiquette”, which I highly recommend reading and adhering to.
     In the late afternoon I arrived at the Cape Coral library, which has traditionally been a very good site for finding owls.  Last year I found active nest sites both in front of the library and behind it, and this year I found all of the same nests to be active again.  The first nest I worked was the one out front, which must surely receive a lot of attention, as all traffic leaving the library parking lot for the main highway has to drive mere feet from the birds.  The birds at this nest stayed down low at the entrance to their nest hole, and I didn’t get any good shots of them.  However, a woman who was jogging by informed me that there was another nest behind the library where the birds spent much more time above ground.  I followed her directions, and, sure enough, found that the birds at the second nest spent much more time out in the open.  I even saw them mating several times.  Due to the dim light I wasn’t able to get any good photos (or at least, nothing to top last year’s shots), but with any luck I should be able to get some great images here in the next few days.