More wild birds at the zoo.

Snowy egret missing a foot.

Snowy egret with missing foot flying over the cheetah pond.


Great egret guarding the 2 hippos.

Night heron hanging around the alligator pond.


Great egrets beginning to nest high up in the trees above the alligator pond.

Saturday morning was cold for Tampa (41 degrees). I was going to stay curled up on the couch but then the sun came out right before noon so I headed out to the zoo. Lots of wild birds activity at the zoo. I saw the one footed snowy egret again hanging around the cheetah pond. I saw him several months ago at the meerkat exhibit. He must call the zoo home. As I made my way over to the alligator pond I noticed all of the trees where starting to fill up with great egret nests. There must have been 12 nests already going. There were also a lot of night herons hanging around. They will start nesting a little later. Last spring the zoo had a great little bird rookery going on around the alligator and otter pond. I'll have to go back in another month to see if there are baby birds being born.