Tag: Wakodatchee Wetlands

Wakodahatchee Wetlands

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I had to travel to West Palm Beach this week for work and decided to drive up early and go to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands at sunrise. I haven’t visited the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in over 6 years. It is probably one of my favorite places to go and photograph birds in flight or birds in general. When bird nesting season is in full swing I don’t know that there is any place in South Florida that is better for consistent all day action. My most recent trip was not different as every clump of trees held numerous colonies of nesting birds, from Great Blue Herons, Anhinga’s, Wood Storks, tri-color herons, cormorants, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets to name a few. I also saw green herons, roseate spoonbills, ospreys, limpkins, various ducks, purple gallinule and other species. Unfortunately, I did not get to spend much time shooting as I had to be at my first appointment at 8:30, however, I still got a few decent shots.

The best part of Wakodahatchee is that the birds are constantly flying from their nests to the nearby trees to gather more nesting materials or going to get food and returning to feed the chicks. This provides great opportunities to get some bird in flight shots as they come and go. Many times the anhinga’s and the cormorants are also fishing under or near the raised boardwalk providing an opportunity to capture some fish eating shots as well.

One of the things I noticed this time was the large number of iguanas that were present on the levees and even in the trees. I don’t remember seeing them during my last visit but they were plentiful this visit.

Wakodahatchee Wetlands

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This past weekend I rode along with a photographer friend of mine, Robert Chaplin, who was scouting for his upcoming bird workshop.  We took a trip up to Wakodahatchee Wetlands near Delray Beach in Palm Beach County, Florida.  Wakodahatchee Wetlands is an oasis in the middle of housing developments.  Being so close to Everglades National Park and the abundant wildlife, I did not have high expectations of the Wakodahatchee Wetlands despite reading some good reports.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The Wakodahatchee Wetlands were as good as any location I have photographed in Everglades National Park and in some respects the Wakodahatchee Wetlands were better.

The Wakodahatchee Wetlands consists of an elevated boardwalk that leads you on a .5 mile round trip hike.  Along the way are numerous trees with roosting Great Blue Herons and Anhingas.  On this trip many already had chicks in the nests, others were still building nests.  There were also Night Herons, Snowy Egrets, a wide variety of Ducks, Tri-color Herons, Little Blue Herons, Ibis and other wading birds.  Alligators were also swimming in the shallow waters and sunning themselves on the shorelines.  I got there early in the morning while the birds were still active flying two and from their nests and feeding in the shallow waters.

The highlight of this trip was a Great Blue Heron couple that were building a nest in a nearby tree off of the boardwalk.  I was able to capture a few good shots of one of the Heron’s gathering nesting materials and flying to and from the nest.

I only spent about an hour at Wakodahatchee but it is definitely on my list of places to return to.  Below are a few of the photos I captured on this trip.