Almost every person I pass along the path after an afternoon of birding in Central Florida has the same question: “Are there any spoonbills out today?”
I have good news to share. Dozens of these glorious birds are not only visible across the marshes, but they’re at the height of breeding when their colors turn deep, rich hues of reddish pink.
Spoonbills are in the midst of an expansion in their range as changing climates and water levels are pushing the birds north throughout the southeastern U.S (Two prior posts on the trend can be found here and here.) That means swelling numbers of people are getting to see and quickly falling for these exotic birds. Their appeal is enormous, a species beyond beautiful and with gawky forms that echo their dinosaur ancestry.
We came across this spectacle on the edge of Galveston Island State Park in coastal Texas one rainy afternoon. The scene was transfixing: the egret leaps from the water one moment, tilts its heads far over to the side in the next and then appears to tiptoe.
Robert Rice, a veteran bird scientist who spent his career with the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center, explained what happens: “They can eat so much fruit, it ferments in their gut and they go wobbly for a while,” Rice said.
It’s a magnificent sight, one I assumed I’d miss this year with our limited mobility. But the other day, wandering through the trees not 50 feet from our home, I noticed what looked like a new arrival. It was the first of a flock of Cedar Waxwings that gradually became an avalanche, all collecting insects as if their lives depended on it.
