Just as I was setting up to shoot this beautiful bird it decided to leave the little lagoon. Spoonbills were one of the favorite targets of the professional plume hunters that decimated so many species of wading birds. By the 1930’s the once thriving Florida population had dropped to an historic low of 30 to 40 breeding pairs, nesting only in a few small colonies on the keys of Florida Bay. Once they gained full legal protection from hunting the species began to rebound. Now over a thousand pairs nest in Florida.Captured on Estero Island, Florida

canon 5D mk2
canon 400mm
Canon Speedlite 580EX II

Featured in
Absolute Clarity 9/8/11
The World As We See It , or as we missed it 9/8/11