When unexpected visitors drop by, sometimes it can be a pain. But when those visitors are Roseate Spoonbills, you welcome their surprise appearance.
A trio of young Roseate Spoonbills showed up in a pond in my Orlando neighborhood on a recent late Saturday afternoon. We’ve lived in our neighborhood for more than 30 years and we’ve never seen any in the pond before. The Tricolored Heron and Mottled Ducks who were with the Rosies are regulars, though.
Perhaps these young pink birds were migrating? They seemed to be resting while visiting the pond. I am not sure how long they had been there or how long they stayed, but they were gone by the next morning.
This is is the time of year people start talking about when the Rosies will return to the area. I spotted a couple of young ones on Merritt Island a few weeks ago, but I haven’t heard of anyone seeing a big group of adult birds around Central Florida yet. But I am sure they’ll be back shortly and ready to spend the winter here and start creating the next generation of spoonies.
What’s funny about the Roseates’ surprise drop-in is that it came on a day I was not able to go birding — so instead the birds came to me!
