Photos are taken during a trip to Florida at Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area. They were taken with an OM-1 Olympus camera along with a zoom lens with a 400mm. I did take them into Lightroom Classic to enhance the saturation and vibrance as well as cropped them to focus on the subject.
Eastern Meadowlark
The Eastern Meadowlark isn't actually a part of the lark family but the blackbird. There are two types of Meadowlarks (East and West) and they really don't like each other. They don't like to share territory and will argue with each other over that line. They usually forage on the ground, which is why their backs are very muted in color so that they can blend into the background. Their chest area is a bright yellow and the males will puff it out to lure in a mate.
Osprey
This is an osprey that is enjoying a brunch of fish they caught. An osprey is a hawk that has two toes in the front and two in the back, which makes them excellent anglers. They also have excellent eyesight and so they can dive from a height into a lake and snatch a fish. It takes a while to dry off though, and if you see one with extended wings then most likely they are drying off after a day of fishing.
These are a couple other creatures we saw including a daddy pheasant leading his baby across a road, a whooping crane, and a white-tailed deer. Did you know that the movie 'Bambi' was developed with sketches and drawings of the white-tailed deer? The written story by Felix Salten of Bambi developed around the roe deer, which is indigenous to Europe. Walt Disney wanted to American-ize the story and thought about using the visual of a mule deer that is native to the western coast. His colleague, and friend, Maurice 'Jake' Day insisted that since the story took place in lush forested areas that it required a deer from the northeastern states of America, and that meant it should be a white-tailed deer. In the end, Jake won the argument and the rest is visual history.
