I spent the morning at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve and it is one of those places that I forget how it is. Its a city park that is well maintained and easily accessible with miles of trails and a nature center. I’m going to put this one back in the regular photography rotation.

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For the past few weeks a Groove-billed Ani a somewhat rare and very rare bird for this part of Florida has been seen regularly and without much difficulty. As you can see from the distribution map, this bird is a bit out of its normal range. I’ve been a bit busy, but finally took the time to go see this celebrity for myself. Well it did not disappoint. In fact this bird is shockingly calm around people and will often be seen following along the trail eating the small insects that fly when you walk the paths. My biggest problem was getting far enough away to get a nice picture.

There are a lot of critters in the park like raccoons and squirrels, gators, turtles and snakes and lots of butterflies and birds. You’ll always find something to photograph.

Here are a couple of the images I took this week.

Here is a map showing the map of the park where the images were taken. Please note that I photographed the Ani with a 600mm lens at a great distance in order not to disturb the bird. You’ll be able to get very close, but please don’t feed or disturb the bird.

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