Under Mom’s wing

Under Mom’s wing.

I am back in Bear Woods, and sort of rested after a great trip to St. Augustine for the Florida’s Birding and Photo Fest. Once again I got to see some old friends and of course make some new ones too! We did a few trips and outings to the Alligator Farm, and as usual, it did not disappoint. The Alligator Farm is a rookery for many birds, as they rely on the Alligators to offer protection from ground predators. It can be a brutal example of nature too as the Alligators capitalize on any birds that fall from nests or are careless and not paying attention. The neatest thing though is seeing all the stages of the lives of the newly hatched chicks. This image shows what I refer to as the bobblehead stage where the chicks do their best to simply hold their heads up without too much wobbling. It was neat to see how protective the adults are with the younger chicks especially. Here one was preening with the youngsters relaxing beneath it. I thought of it as a learning time for the little ones as well. For this image I used my Tamron 150-500mm Di III VXD lens, at 341mm, on a Nikon Z8, Manual Mode, f8, shutter speed of 1/500th of a second, ISO 2200, handheld. #withmytamronmirrorless #withmytamron #tamron #tamronlenses #tamroncreates #tamronamericas #tamroncreativecollaborative #TamronImageMaster #tamron150500 #BearWoodsPhotography #greategret #alligatorfarm #staugustine #floridasbirdingandphotofest #gnpa_pix