If the Stork is said to bring babies - the
Wood Stork brings the ugly babies. I had a great opportunity to float up the Caloosahatchee and check on a bird rookery on an island in the middle of the river.
There are an estimated 10,000 nesting pairs of endangered Wood Storks in all of Florida with at least 50 nests on this tiny mangrove island. Presumably raccoons and other nest predators can not swim out this far, making this an ideal location for not only Wood Storks, but Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Anhingas, Great Blue Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons (more on them later).
Standing nearly 4 feet tall with a wingspan over 5 feet, this huge wading bird uses its massive beak to probe for fish, crustaceans, insects and even baby gators in the shallow waters in and around the Everglades and other Florida wetlands.
When the water levels are right - Wood Storks nest, but during droughts when water is absent and little prey is available they will not nest or abandon nests if they can't collect 400+ lbs of fish for themselves and their young during the nesting season. (I have yet to see the scales they use to weigh their food...) If the water level is too high and prey species can easily disperse - feeding is again complicated and nesting may not occur.
Their bald heads and long beaks may not win them any bird beauty pageants but in flight they are gorgeous.
I'm using a Canon 40D with a 300mm zoom which allows me to see details that I hadn't noticed before. Check out the peach-colored band on the underside of the wing feathers. I had thought in the past it was simply sunlight coming through the wing. Not so!
The nests are made of twigs and branches. They lay 3-4 eggs which hatch in about a month. They fledge (leave the nest) in about 2 months. The drought and human manipulation of the water cycle here in Florida has caused some of the Wood Stork populations to shift breeding to earlier in the season when food is plentiful.
Birds at the Corkscrew Swamp were nesting in November while these birds should wrap up nesting in a few weeks. Based on birds flying in from the Northeast - we think they are foraging in the Babcock Wilderness Area a few miles away.
While Wood Storks may bring ugly human babies to unsuspecting parents, there is no doubt that their downy white babies are quite adorable.
Give them a few months. They'll be bald and goofy looking too.
During the breeding season, many birds develop special plumes or bright colorations to attract a mate (the teal blue eye of the Anhinga, the crimson legs of the White Ibis). The Great Egret has spectacular tail feathers called aigrettes that were once prized by plumage hunters. They appear wispy and delicate and have a yellowed - burnt marshmallow appearance towards there tips. 
In the late 19th and early part of the 20th century, plumage hunters sought out rookeries where they would slaughter nesting birds and take their feathers. Chicks were left to starve. Eggs left unincubated never hatched. The feathers were used for decoration and specifically for women's hats that were all the rage at the time. In 1908 - an ounce of plumes was worth more than an ounce of gold. 
Great Blue Herons, Flamingos, Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, Egrets and other bird populations were severely impacted by this less than noble trade.
When the plume rage was exposed as murderous fashion, the rage of the nation led to federal legislation banning the sale of plumes. Populations have been slow to rebound over the many decades that have passed and some say for every Great Egret you see today - you might have seen 10 a century ago. 
Here at the rookery, Wood Stork nests far outnumber Great Egret nests. Nevertheless, courtship continues as Egrets flash their aigrettes like a Peacock (since the courtship period is over - I don't have a shot of this). Mates are wooed. Eggs are laid. Chicks are born. 
Here -one of several chicks pesters an adult for partially digested fish.
We can be thankfull in large part to the Audubon Society who led the way in protecting South Florida's birds well over 100 years ago by introducing protective legislation, developing educational programs and putting boots on the ground to physically protect the birds - assuring that we wouldn't have to live without aigrettes.
Today the 
My Great Aunt Hilda lived a mile up the road from here when I was a kid and we would visit the museum during our visits from Venice. The largest Banyan tree in North America stretches across an acre of land behind Ma-Le and Margie - (posing here with the equally gigantic Edison. He was 8 feet tall.)
Edison's lab was used primarily for research into alternative derivations of rubber and napping. His failure to efficiently harvest latex from goldenrod was one of the few failures in relation to his many successful inventions and patents. So let's not dwell on it. 
I assume this was originally a 3-horse garage? In 1916, Edison's good friend Henry Ford moved in next door with dreams of ubiquitous motorized carriages, streets with no horse poop and something south Florida had never seen....traffic.
As Edison grew older his visits to the "Seminole Lodge" became less and his winter visit in 1931 would be his last. He passed away at age 84 on October 18th of that year. 
One of the signature tree species found not only on Edison's property but lining the avenues and parking lots all across south Florida is the Royal Palm. The trees famously line McGregor Boulevard which runs the length of the Caloosahatchee River southwest towards Sanibel.
What looks like a black and white is actually a color photo with long exposure. if you look closely you can pick out some of the reds. In the background is Henry Ford's historic home.