Gatorland in Early April
April 23, 2016 - An early April visit to the Gatorland Rookery yielded awesome shots of beautiful breeding birds and a few cute babies
Gatorland Rookery
 | Description | Gatorland is an Orlando amusement park. While tourists come looking for alligators, birders come to visit the Wading Bird Rookery, a boardwalk over gator territory that gives you close access to dozens of bird nests. The Great Egrets start nesting in early February, and by May, the rookery is a chaos of baby herons, egrets, and anhingas. |
| Photography Advice | Intermediate telephoto lenses will give you great shots of nests right off the boardwalk. I also bring my long lens to isolate birds across the pond. Consider the Photography Pass that lets photographers enter the rookery early in the morning. |
| When to Go | February through June |
| Species Photographed (15) | Anhinga, Boat-Tailed Grackle, Cattle Egret, Common Grackle, Double-Crested Cormorant, European Starling, Gray Catbird, Great Crested Flycatcher, Great Egret, Green Heron, Limpkin, Snowy Egret, Swallow-tailed Kite, Tricolored Heron, Wood Stork |
| Website | http://www.gatorland.com/index.shtml |
| eBird | https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1533887 |
| Google Map | Click here to view Google Map |
| Trail Map | None |
Breeding Colors on Display at Gatorland
May 8, 2015 - Breeding birds on display at Gatorland in late April, where the Cattle Egrets posed for head shots and the Snowies showed off their plumes
Lots of Good Color at the Gatorland Rookery
April 22, 2014 - Some friends convinced me to visit Gatorland in early April, and I’m really glad I went! I was a little burned out on rookery photography after the past few years, and I wasn’t looking forward to fighting the crowds on the boardwalk. But the birds were more than worth it. We had excellent opportunities with […]
Gorgeous Birds at Gatorland
April 17, 2013 - My last Gatorland post focused on the Snowy Egret that I saw hatch, but I saw lots of other birds last Saturday morning also. It was a cloudy morning, with a good chance of rain, so I didn’t want to drive for hours and then take a long walk with my Beast. So I opted […]
Tiny Miracles at the Gatorland Rookery
April 13, 2013 - This morning I had the privilege of watching a baby bird hatch at the Gatorland Rookery. It was incredible. Watching the little bird break out of the egg and enter the world was an amazing experience. And a long one! The last time I watched an egg hatch, it was a Double-Crested Cormorant, and it […]
Slow Season this Year at the Gatorland Rookery
April 9, 2013 - I spent a morning at the Gatorland rookery the weekend before last. My friend Debbie Tubridy was in town, and we decided to check out the rookery, expecting it to be teeming with birds. But it wasn’t! The morning-light side of the rookery didn’t have nearly as much activity as in previous years. I was […]
Gatorland Rookery Great Egrets Put on a Show
March 9, 2013 - I got out with my camera this morning for the first time since early December! It felt so good. I headed to the Gatorland Rookery in hopes of capturing some Great Egret nesting activity. The birds didn’t disappoint! This morning was my first time taking the Beast to the Gatorland Rookery, and wow! It’s a […]
Fledglings are Starting to Leave Gatorland’s Bird Rookery
July 10, 2010 - The nesting season at Gatorland’s Rookery is starting to come to a close. While there are still nests under incubation, and some nests have tiny babies, the majority of the babies have fledged, and they spend their time hopping around in the tops of the tallest trees they can find. The rookery was strangely quiet […]
Cloudy, Breezy Days are Great for Bird-Watching at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery
July 3, 2010 - This morning was cloudy, breezy, and great for getting outside! The birds at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery took longer to wake up, probably because the sun wasn’t shining as brightly as usual. The rookery was eerily quiet when I first got there, and then the babies started fussing as soon as the sun started to break […]
The Gatorland Rookery is Covered in Fledging Birds
June 26, 2010 - The Gatorland Rookery is crawling with birds these days. Fledglings seem to have appeared out of nowhere — all those hidden nests are empty now and their occupants are getting as high in the tree branches as they can. It was amusing to see the rows of fledglings along the boardwalk, fences, and observation tower […]
“Lucky” the Double-Crested Cormorant
June 17, 2010 - Birds grow up far too quickly at the Gatorland Bird Rookery. This spring, one Double Crested Cormorant made her nest in a tree right next to the third level of the Observation Tower. I was lucky enough to be there the day her eggs hatched, and then I returned week after week to photograph the […]
Lots of Bad Hair Days at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery
June 12, 2010 - Cattle Egrets were all over Gatorland’s Bird Rookery this morning. It was very hot, and there were only a handful of photographers there for Early Entry. (Did everybody go to visit the baby spoonbills at St. Augustine?) So I had the place virtually to myself. As always, the birds put on a great show. There […]
More fledglings at the Gatorland Bird Rookery
June 5, 2010 - My new baby bird of the week was the Little Blue Heron. I’ve been watching a couple of nests for the past few weeks. One nest in particular has changed hands between Tricolored Herons and Little Blue Herons several times. So today I finally noticed movement in the nest, and caught a glimpse of the […]
Bird nesting continues at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery
May 28, 2010 - Just as the great egrets hatched back in March fledge, a new set of nests are under construction and more babies are on the way to Gatorland’s Bird Rookery. The rookery is alive with birds, from nesting adults, fledging chicks learning to fly, and babies of all ages. I heard this cattle egret nest before […]
Birdie Chaos at Gatorland’s Rookery
May 23, 2010 - I returned to Gatorland’s Bird Rookery this morning to check up on my baby birds. They are getting so big! The rookery is a cacophony of little voices, all begging for food. The great egret chicks are as big as their parents, but most of the chicks still haven’t fledged. It’s amusing to watch the […]
Screaming chicks at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery
May 14, 2010 - Today is an off Friday and so I spent the morning at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery. There are chicks all over the rookery now. The Great Egret chicks are huge and you wonder when they will fledge. There are baby tricolored herons and baby snowy egrets throughout the rookery. The new sound of baby double-crested cormorants […]
My Double-Crested Cormorant chick is growing up at Gatorland’s Rookery!
May 6, 2010 - I spent a few hours at the Gatorland Bird Rookery this morning before going into work. I wanted to check on my little double-crested cormorant that I saw hatch five days ago. As usual, I had a great time taking pictures of all the baby birds. :) As I walked in from the early entry […]
Baby Birds Everywhere at Gatorland’s Bird Rookery
May 1, 2010 - This morning I went back to the Gatorland Bird Rookery. I was excited to see our baby tri-colored herons again. I wasn’t disappointed! I saw three new species of babies today (green heron, double-crested cormorant, and common moorhen). I even saw a double-crested cormorant hatch! Very cool. :) When we were first going in the […]
Baby Birds at Gatorland Bird Rookery
April 25, 2010 - This morning Dyeyo and I went back to the Gatorland Rookery to see if some of the nests we saw two weeks ago had any babies yet. We were happily surprised to see how many babies there are in the rookery now. We saw five types of babies: great egrets, anhingas, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, […]
Gatorland Rookery
April 10, 2010 - After enjoying the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Bird Rookery, I looked for one closer to home and found the Gatorland Bird Rookery. Gatorland is of course known for its gators, but wild marsh birds regularly make their nests in the “alligator swamp” each spring. The alligators keep their natural predators away while the birds […]