If you want to get your images out there and get published in books, calendars, magazines, etc… then you need to make sure that all of the images you post on flickr.com are tagged properly.  99% of the requests I get for my images are through flickr because someone searched a specific animal and came across my stuff.   I have yet to contact any organization myself offering images, everything I’ve been published in so far is because people contacted me.

For example, this photo below would be tagged:   circle b bar reserve, lakeland, florida, polk county, duck, bird, flight, black bellied whistling duck, juvenile.

I’ve got the location covered, the type of animal it is, the specific name of the animal, and also the fact that it’s a juvenile and in flight.

That way, should someone be looking for a Florida duck in flight, or some sort of wildlife from Polk County, this image would be returned in their search on flickr and possibly through a google search as well.

Also, make sure that there’s a way for someone to contact you other than through flickr messages.  Some of these companies or individuals looking for images don’t have a flickr account.  Update your flickr profile to include a way for them to contact you outside of flickr, such as a link to your contact page on your website or blog.  I have my flickr profile updated and I also have my website address right in my watermark that I place on all of my photos.

That’s about it for tagging.  For me, it’s important.  It helps me locate my own images on flickr and it helps other people find my images on flickr.

I’ve met so many absolutely wonderful friends and photographers through flickr over the last four years.   It’s amazing how one website can bring so many people together and have them become friends.  Everyone shares photography tips, the best places to go to find whatever bird or mammal you’re looking to add to your ‘list’ of images and we always have wonderful photography meet ups.

JMW on flickr, also known as Michael is one of those contacts.  He’s been a contact of mine for awhile now but we never had the chance to meet, until this past weekend.  He invited Michael Pancier, Claudia Domenig and I out on his boat for a tour of the bird rookeries along the Peace River.  I had already met Michael Pancier and Claudia at previous meet ups, but this was the first time I met JMW.

JMW put his boat in the water and we all climbed in with his help.  I’ve got to say, I haven’t been in a regular boat since I was probably ten years old.  Oh I’ve been on a ferry that went from Wales to Ireland, cruise ships, smaller ferries, etc… but it’s been a long time since I was on a regular boat.  This is one tidbit of info I didn’t share with the group, I didn’t want them to think I was going to get seasick (I know my husband was worried about that).  Quite the opposite, I had a blast!  On the way back, speeding through wakes from other boats was like a roller coaster ride, and to me that’s the best!

There were a bunch of pelicans out there, I just love those birds.  As goofy and big as they seem, they’re actually quite graceful in flight and fun to watch.

Our first stop was where there were some Yellow Crowned Night Herons nesting.  They had nests but we couldn’t see any babies.  I was able to get one of the herons as it took off, they’re such unique birds.

Our next stops were several other rookeries that were filled with Cattle Egrets, Woodstorks, Great Egrets, Anhingas, Cormorants, Night Herons, Ibis, and all kinds of other birds including Grackles, Cardinals, etc.

At one point JMW maneuvered the boat into a little horseshoe bend section of one of the rookeries.  We were literally surrounded on three sides with nesting birds.  It was amazing.  I’ve been to bird rookeries in the past, but they weren’t like this.  Usually you’re on a boardwalk with a bunch of other people.  This time it was just the four of us, in a boat, with all these birds just going about their business of building nests and feeding babies.  I was pretty awestruck to be smack dab in the middle of everything.   Mother Nature put on a show for us that day!

One of the most beautiful things about breeding/nesting season are the colors these birds get.  As you can see above the Cattle Egret is literally BURSTING with color.  This is the only time of year this happens, the rest of the year they go back to being plain white birds that follow cows around eating bugs in pastures (or even rooting around in the landscaping at your local McDonalds).  These are birds that most of the year people probably don’t even notice.  We saw a lot of Cattle Egrets getting sticks and ‘posing’ with them before moving on to wherever their nest was that they were building.

The biggest population of birds there at the rookeries we visited had to be the Woodstorks.  They were EVERYWHERE and most of them had babies of various ages.  To photograph the Woodstork babies was actually a first for me!  Obviously the adult Woodstorks are not the supermodels of the bird world, but they are sure cool to look at….and seem very prehistoric to me.

They were also very busy gathering sticks for their nests.  I’d like to think this one Woodstork (below) was going for more of a Martha Stewart  decorating motif of his nest, this is actually quite a pretty branch

Woodstork babies.  Again, not the supermodels of the bird world.  But they are really cute in their own way.

Extreme close up of the same baby above…

I mentioned the colors before of these birds.  Here’s a Tri Colored Heron in his breeding colors, how blue is that beak?!  I call it Smurf blue.

We had a fantastic time out on the water with JMW.  He does do tours if you’d like to head out onto the river and witness Mother Nature at her best!  You can visit his website HERE for more information on the tours he offers.  If you haven’t visited a bird rookery by boat, you should!

I’ll leave you with some Woodstork babies that are in more of a ‘cute and fuzzy’ stage…..

As most wildlife photographers do…I have a ‘list’ of ‘wants’.  This past January I was blessed with my biggest want of all time, the Florida Panther.  Still on the list is a coyote, a Florida bear, the Everglades Mink and a few others.

I have also been able to capture some other rare things over the years that I was able to knock off the list…here’s a few of them.

The Skunk.

We all know the smell of a skunk, but have you ever seen one?  I would have thought that I would have seen a skunk in the wild YEARS ago.  The only time I’ve even seen a skunk in captivity was a pet albino skunk.   I mean, you drive down the road and smell them…but you never see them!  Luckily, I was out one day shooting with my friend, John and we saw one…it was amazing to finally see one up close, although I didn’t get THAT close.  I wasn’t taking any chances.

The King Rail

He’s a fairly rare bird, and when I saw this guy for the first time I had no idea what it was, but I took the shot anyway.  I found out later, though another flickr friend, Frank that this was a King Rail

The American Bittern

I guess these were considered rare awhile back, but it seems they’re making appearances more and more and there’s lots of photos of them popping up on Flickr now.

The Bobcat

These guys aren’t exactly rare, but you don’t see them all that often.  I was lucky enough to spot this guy on the other side of a canal by noticing the white on him standing out in a sea of brown grasses.

The Crested Caracara

This bird is not rare around where I live in southwest Florida, but it is rare in other parts of Florida.  It’s a much sought after bird of wildlife photographers.

The Barn Owl

There’s a lot of these guys all over the state of Florida, although they’re hard to spot because they’re usually only out at night.  I saw this guy as I was heading home one night and was lucky enough to have my camera with me.  I’m hoping someday I’ll be able to photograph one of these beautiful owls in much better light.

The Purple Swamphen.

Not to be confused with the Purple Gallinule.  This bird is actually a non-native species.

“This introduced species can still be found at the wetlands near Southeast Regional Library, on the north side of Sheridan Street, 1.2 miles west of I-75 in Pembroke Pines. Another location is Silver Lakes North Park, on the south side of Sheridan Street, 0.3 mile west of the library. Swamphens are now common at Water Conservation Area 2-A, accessed from Markham Park, and at Stormwater Treatment Area 5 (STA-5) in Hendry County. “
“The Purple Swamphen was introduced to North America in the late 1990s due to avicultural escapes in the Pembroke Pines, Florida area. The birds rapidly multiplied and can now be found in many areas of southern Florida. Ornithological authorities consider it likely that the swamphen will become an established part of Florida’s avifauna.
The Florida birds are mostly or entirely of the gray-headed race poliocephalus, native to the area around the Caspian Sea.
The most common call from the Florida birds is a loud, high-pitched “creek,” often doubled.”
“Threats to natives:  Although they are primarily vegetarians swamphens have also been recorded preying on mollusks, fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, bird eggs, and small birds (Pranty et al. 2000). They may also impact the plant life of the wetlands and the native species that depend on it.
Species Account: The birds in Broward County probably come from 2 aviculturists near Silver Lakes, but 8 birds did escape from the Miami Metro Zoo’s “Wings of Asia” exhibit in 1992. Most of the adult swamphens at Pembroke Pines have grayish heads and are thought to be Porphyrio porphyrio poliocephalus, which is native to Turkey and the Caspian Sea east to southern Asia. There is also a blue-headed form seen at Pembroke Pines that represents another subspecies.”

The Black And White Warbler.

Ok, so this bird isn’t exactly rare, but it’s a darn hard bird to get a photo of!  They’re tiny and fast and will test your patience every time.  Luckily I was able to get photos of this little guy who had just caught a little bug on Jane’s Scenic Drive in Fakahatchee.

The Nighthawk

Another one that’s not really rare, but is hard to photograph!  When these birds start to appear in my yard I know summer is here.  They swoop and dive at amazing speeds catching bugs in the air.  The only way I was able to get any photos of these birds was to keep a close eye on them to see where they’d land.  And when they DO land, and it’s in a pine tree…if you don’t see exactly where they perch you’ll never see them because they blend in so well!  I was lucky enough to catch this guy who was out fairly early as the sun was still setting.

The Flicker.

For me these birds aren’t rare, I see them constantly in my yard burrowing into the pine trees.  I welcome any kind of woodpeckers because they eat the pine beetles that kill off the trees.

That’s about it, hopefully I’ll be marking more animals and birds off of my list soon

Thank you so much to Jeff Klinkenberg for the wonderful and beautifully written article he did about the day my husband

and I saw saw three Florida Panthers.  If you’d like to read the article you can find it HERE and it will also be in the St.

Petersburg Times newspaper on Sunday.