30-Minutes-In-the-Life: January 2014

 In the life of a photographer, whose art is created in tiny fractions of a second, thirty minutes is a sustained thought.  Thirty, minutes, the length of a child's ballet class, a quick sauce's simmer; a commute, is long enough to witness change and short enough to be over before you know it.  We offer you here our monthly results of thirty minutes of watching and waiting and recording, of rendering permanent those fractions of a second that slip past in the time it takes to watch a television show.  Thirty minutes in the life ~ Sara Kelly

January has been an interesting month, of hot days, one or 2 cold days, an earthquake down in Cuba, a whale beaching locally (which I missed as a photoshoot), flash floods.  I am back at work, and that means no running around. However, I heard a rumor that there were chicks at the wetlands.  So the day after the flash flood, I headed off to the wetlands.  Wet, wet, wet.  I probably needed a canoe but it was fun to watch the water splash over the side of my car.  

I have a bit of a sore foot so I decided merely to walk a short distance and check out the chicks.  When I got there I could not see the chicks.  However, I kept watching the nests and chatting to a couple of folk that were hanging out.  

As I was watching and snapping the birds nesting something interesting happened ....

A female Anhinga, identified by her coloring, was lying in the nest and my assumption was that she was lying on eggs.  The female Anhinga typically is a buff color on the head, neck and chest.

On a branch close by a male Anhinga appeared to be sunning himself.  You can tell that he is male because his tail feathers have white on the end.

Suddenly the male got up and flew to the female.  From what I have read up there are a couple of things that I see going on here. There is a courtship kind of dance of waving their wings and moving around on the branch.

The mowhawk look the male anhinga has is apparently his breeding plumage

There was a lot of squawking at each other ....

And some position changing.... 

And some x-rating ......

"Oh my gosh, did you get all of that on camera?".....Oh yes I did.  

She does have that deer in the headlight kind of look......like what the heck just happened. 

And if I am not mistaken, and what I really went to photograph, was the end result of the courting session....the baby chicks.  These chicks, born to another pair of Anhinga, have been born really early and I have to wonder if it is not because of the rather mild winter that we have experienced in South Florida.   

March/April is typically breeding season in the wetlands, and you will find the Great Blue Heron, the Anhinga, the Commorant and the Herons all nesting together in the same trees. Anhinga pairs apparently mate monogamously for the the breeding season. It is quite a sight to see when you first watch the chicks hatch, and then get a few more feathers and change color. 

The female Anhinga typically lays 2-6 eggs of a pale green color.  The female typically lays the eggs within 48 hours, and will sit on them for up to 30 days. They may hatch at random times, not all at once.  Both male and female Anhinga will take care of the chicks.  

When I went out looking to photograph chicks the last thing I expected to see was, what I believe to be, the making of them.  

“Wherever there are birds, there is hope.” 

~  Mehmet Murat ildan   

That is my 30 minutes-in-the-Life contribution this month, please remember to follow the link and see what Sophie James/Bluebells on the Green/Glasgow Lifestyle Photographer has for you this month.