Introduction
Welcome to my latest bird photography adventure at Sebastian Inlet and a few other wildlife areas near Melbourne Beach, Florida! I planned this trip just a couple months ago while I was standing on the side of the Mississippi River in twenty degree weather and thirty mile an hour winds photographing eagles catching fish out of the river. It's always a challenge creating images of eagles in action but it's typically much easier (but not as comfortable!) when it's freezing cold. Like the rest of us, eagles love to eat. During the winter months when the Mississippi River freezes up in states like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, the eagles head south to find parts of the river that haven't yet frozen. That's where they can still get to the fish! That also means there are a lot more eagles and a lot more opportunities for a good shot since they're congregating in a smaller area. That's where we come in. With our cameras, 6 layers of clothing and hand warmers. It's really fun. But it's really cold (I know, I know, all my buddies from up north who ice fish all winter in sub-zero weather are laughing at me--you guys are studs!)
Hey, but wait a minute. This isn't an eagle adventure, it's a Sebastian Inlet adventure! Where the weather in February is 72 degrees, the wind is 7-10 miles per hour from the southwest, and the Florida sunlight glistens off the birds as they fly through the air and across the water. Well that was the vision I had as I was standing on that Mississippi riverbank in twenty degree weather and thirty mile an hour winds.
Tammy and I had been to Sebastian Inlet once before, but only for a few hours. Loyal readers may recall from our Cocoa Beach Adventure that this was where the "I'm out of bug spray" incident occurred back in 2022. I remember it like it was yesterday. But despite that, we got some really nice shots of pelicans and shorebirds that day and several of those images subsequently won awards in our St. Louis Camera Club photo contests so I was excited to get back and see if I could do better. Tammy and I were already planning a trip together later in the month so she opted out of this one. That meant I was on my own to bring a full bottle of bug spray!
Orlando Wetlands
"They don't call them wetlands for nothing"
I'd been checking the weather for Vero Beach (my lodging hub for the week) over the previous few days and it looked like the weather might be a little more challenging than that sunny 72 degrees I was envisioning. Since I was flying into Orlando, I figured I'd check out another nature area called Orlando Wetlands. It was just a little out the way and I'd never been there before so I was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer. My early morning flight from St. Louis touched down shortly before 10am and while waiting for people in the front of the plane to take an excruciating amount of time to pull their bags out of the overhead compartment I did a final weather radar check for the day. Uh oh…
Turns out that by the time I got to Phoenix (sorry, my brain automatically went to a strange Glen Campbell moment there--I mean by the time I got to Orlando Wetlands) the weather looked like it might clear up for a while. I signed in and waited about an hour for the rain to stop before heading into the wetlands. Once I started trekking through the area I was excited to almost immediately see some Roseate Spoonbills off in the distance. They are really cool birds with great colors and that weird shaped bill. I'm not sure what the bill is supposed to looks like. Maybe an eating utensil of some sort. Anyway, they're great to photograph because they have such vivid color and are so strange looking. Here are a few of my favorite spoonbill shots.
Fort Pierce Inlet State Park
"It's a Good Hat Day"
One of the other nearby nature areas I wanted to visit was Fort Pierce Inlet State Park. It was only about 30 minutes from my hotel so I left early to be there when they opened up the gates. I could see the sun coming up and it looked like I was clear of the rain for a while so that was great. But then there was the wind...it was 25mph and gusting to 40 or so. That usually creates some issues with blowing sand on the beach and just being able to hold the camera steady--especially with a big lens attached. As I got out of my rental car and walked toward the beach I ran into a Park Ranger who was raising the "High Hazard" and "Water Closed" flags. We chatted for a minute or two and I asked if those flags meant that my hair was going to get messed up today. In a brilliant response she noted that "It's a good hat day." Park Rangers always have a great attitude!
It was a pretty good location and there was no one else in sight the entire time I was there. I only ran across a couple birds so they got my undivided attention and each gets a spot in my adventure story as a reward for their persistence in the wind.
Blue Cypress Lake
"Smart Man"
Another location I definitely wanted to experience while I was in the area was Blue Cypress Lake. It's about 45 minutes west of Vero Beach and known as a fisherman's paradise. And where there's fish, there's birds. I did a bunch of research on the area around the lake and because the access is so limited (it's just east of the middle of nowhere), the only real way to experience it is from a boat. Easy enough. I tracked down Captain Roy Bass, a professional guide in the area and he was willing to take me out on his airboat over the lake and adjacent marshes for a few hours so I could photograph ospreys and other birds. He asked me how many people would be part of the trip and I told him it would just be me. When he responded with "Smart man", I wasn't exactly sure what he meant. But I'll take it as a compliment! Don't hear that one much...
Of course when you're scheduling something like this you're doing it weeks or months in advance and have no idea what the weather is going to be for the day you pick. Roy and I scheduled the second full day I was planning to be in the area, figuring once I got there if the weather was looking bad we might be able to reschedule for later in the week. Well, the weather was looking bad for the day we originally scheduled--it was the day the wind gusts were into the forties. Thankfully Roy was able to adjust his schedule so we could try again a couple days later. When the big day came it was an awesome experience. We left Middleton's Fish Camp a little before sunrise and took Roy's airboat out across the lake and deep into the marshes to the location where the ospreys tend to hunt for fish. I'd been on an airboat about 75 years ago in Everglades National Park but this was way better. I love how those boats can go ANYWHERE. It's really cool how they can run across dry land to cross over to another part of the lake or marsh. Over the course of the morning we saw about 30 ospreys flying overhead but only a couple of them actually dove for fish and only one of them actually caught a fish. It was really cloudy most of the time and I think the water had been churned up the past few days from the wind so maybe they were having trouble seeing the fish in the water. Below are a couple shots from the airboat adventure.
Sebastian Inlet State Park
"Glad I'm Not a Fish"
Ah, finally! I called this my Sebastian Inlet adventure but so far we've only talked about Orlando Wetlands, Fort Pierce Inlet State Park and Blue Cypress Lake. All worthy locations, but my primary target for visiting this awesome part of Florida was to photograph the birds at Sebastian Inlet. The park is divided into north and south sections with the inlet in between that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River Lagoon. The inlet is a haven for fish-catching birds like ospreys, gulls, pelicans, and cormorants. It's like it's own little ecosystem--the strong currents attract baitfish like menhaden, mullet, and sardines, which then attract larger predator fish like snook, redfish, and tarpon, which in turn attract lots of birds looking to eat them. And then there are the shorebirds along the beach and lagoon that also provide great photograph opportunities.
Early morning images are almost always the best, especially if you can be on the south side of the inlet with the rising sun at your back. If you're REALLY lucky (which I was not this time!), you'll also have a southerly wind. If you have both the wind and the sun at your back you'll get great light and positioning on the birds as they fish because they'll be facing you when they pull their prey out of the water. Those big birds just about always take off into the wind because it provides additional lift and airspeed that reduces the wing flapping required to pull them out of the water. Hey, I'm lazy too.
There I was standing in the dark on the south side of the inlet waiting for the sun to pop up over the horizon and 5 or 6 other photographers were standing a few feet behind me doing the same thing. As they were talking I thought I recognized one of their voices. I turned around and, sure enough, there was Mark Smith talking with a couple of his clients for the day. Mark is one of the best professional wildlife photographers and guides in the world and I'm one of over a million followers he has on Instagram (for those of you who are not "Instagram people" you can also see his stuff on Facebook). If you aren't one of the million plus folks who already follow him you might want to take a look! His bird pictures and videos are incredible and inspiring. Of course I introduced myself and asked if he followed me on Instagram. I didn't think he was one of my 45 followers but you never know unless you ask--or look. Not yet. Anyway, we all struck up a conversation while waiting for the sun to come up and once the light hit we spent the next 4 hours shooting together. Mark and his son and the other photographers were a great bunch of guys and it was a really fun experience. Afterward he gave me a hat with his new "Glad I'm Not a Fish" logo.
Another Great Adventure!
Thanks for following along on my photography adventure to Sebastian Inlet! If you missed any of my other photography adventures you can find them here. If you want to see more images you can check out my Portfolio Page or follow me on Instagram or Facebook. See you next time!