Travel Tuesday -Roseate Spoonbill

I have seen them before, at their home range in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, just north the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, not as a long distant traveler. The Roseate Spoonbill has a remarkable pink coloration and a spool shaped bill. They normally don't come father north than Central Florida, yet here one is, about 800 miles from home. Likely driven north by recent tropical storms this one landed recently here in northern Virginia at Huntley Meadows a county park about 3 miles from the condo. 

This traveler from the south east is drawing a crowd, the drive into the park was lined with parked cars last Saturday morning when I ventured out for a look.  Like other pink wading birds, the pink color is largely a result of diet, hopefully this bird finds it way home to shellfish, before it's color fades into memory.  In the meantime, I was the local watching the tourist, rather than the tourist being watched by the locals.