New babies at Gatorland and a sad story.

I think this snowy egret was born the day before I was there. It was huddled under mom.

Baby anhinga looking up at mom. This was the first time I have seen a baby anhinga. There were 3 babies on this nest.

Baby great egret peaking over the branches.

Warning - my sad story starts with this bottom picture. There were 3 baby snowy egrets on this tiny nest when I first got to the bird rookery at Gatorland. Later in the morning I was watching this particular nest. One baby looked much younger than the other two, maybe by a few days. I then realized that the mom was holding the smallest baby by the foot. It then dawned on me that the mom was pushing the baby out of the nest. The baby didn't fall right away. It's other foot seemed to have gotten caught on a branch. In the picture the back baby was watching the other one fall. You can barely see the little legs sticking up on the far left. There were a few other photographers watching at that point. I've read about how parents or other siblings will kick out the runt if there isn't enough food or room on the nest but to see it happen was strange. The nest was too far away from the boardwalk for anyone to reach and alligators were waiting down below in the water. To make matters worse, I had heard that morning that a lot of babies were lost in the big storm that had moved through Orlando the week before. Even though the day ended on a sad note, there's still lots of babies being born there every day.