Three months of “stay-at-home” because of Coronavirus has really limited my ability to get out for new photos. So I have been going through my shots from past trips while looking forward to getting back out on the road. One photo that I came across during my trip through my photo archives was the shot above of a Merritt Island Roseate Spoonbill.

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge in Florida is an amazing place for bird photography and I have been lucky to go there several times. I last visited Merritt Island in March 2019 when a business trip for my day job took me to Orlando and I was able to tack on an extra day for photography. I live in the Pacific Northwest where there are plenty of great bird photography options but in Florida I love photographing the exotic birds that I would never see at home.

The Roseate Spoonbill is my favorite of those exotic birds but so far in three trips to Merritt Island I haven’t been able to find one close enough for a great shot. I took the photo above from my car on the Black Point Wildlife Drive in March of 2019.

Although a closer shot would have been great I like the way this photo shows the surrounding habitat and not just the bird. You can also see some White Ibis in the background, another of the great avian subjects at Merritt Island. Below is a better shot of a White Ibis that I took on the same day.

You can also find some more Merritt Island bird photos in some of my older posts.