... Venice, Florida, has an unique treasure; behind the highway patrol station on highway 41
is a small pond with mangroves and (unfortunately) brazilian pepper bushes on an
island in the middle of the pond... breeding birds like to make their nests on this type of habitat
because the alligators that lurk in the water below keep other predators away... this
little rookery probably survives because it's also behind the cop shop and the night time
nit wits would have shot it up by now....
great blue herons dominate this rookery, but there are great egrets, anhingas, black crowned
night herons, little blue herons, snowy egrets and more; evening is a great time to visit
because the birds are flying in to roost and the sight is very emotionally uplifting..
would that there were more habitat for Florida's wading birds...

here's a link to my gallery of the rookery from the past two seasons