As spring weather moves into warmer temperatures, Florida's wildlife also changes with the season, as shown in this photo gallery of birds at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
The rookery contains colonies of breeding birds where, during nesting months of December through May, great blue herons, great egrets, anhingas, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, glossy ibises, green herons, tricolored herons, black-crowned hight-herons and wood storks can be observed busily building, enhancing their nests, courting, incubating eggs, and feeding their young.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
A adult white egret preens its feathers on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
An anhinga scans a pond for fish on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
A group of baby wood storks rest in their nest on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
A cattle egret collects twigs for nesting on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
An adult white egret collects a twig on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
A group of baby wood storks are fed by one of their parents in a nest on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and both feed the young.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
Adult wood storks display dominance on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey.
DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
A wood stork takes flight from its nest on Tuesday (4/25/17) at a rookery in a retention pond off Embassy Drive in Port Richey where dozens of area shorebirds could be observed raising their young.
You can order reprints of any of these images in the Times image archive.
