Travel Tuesday - Roseate Spoonbill at Home

 Three weeks ago, I ran a photo of a Roseate Spoonbill that is visiting here in northern Virginia. Here is one in his native habitat.  This was taken in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.  Based on where this photo was in my massive unsorted file, it was taken when I was in Florida waiting for my mother to die.  While I was there, I took some long drives into the backwoods of native Florida.  The north end of the MINWR, has three great drives.  If it hasn't rained a lot recently, the driving trail through the south east on the river side is an amazing place for bird spotting.  Blackwater Drive is more developed, better drained, but also more heavily traveled.  Biolab Road, from the road to the beach back north, is the best place to see alligators in the wild.  On a sunny winter day, you will sometimes see dozens of them warming themselves on the banks of the swamp and streams that run through the area.