Catching birds in flight with a good composition is not easy. But watching these huge birds coast through the air is fabulous.
This is not considered a fancy bird, but I love it. The Laughing Gull is cocky and has a perennial smile on its face. On the shores of Florida it hangs out with terns, other gulls and black skimmers. I don't have many pictures of those birds because by the time I reached this fellow I had dropped and broken all of my equipment and also fallen over in a hole on the beach. Maybe that's why he's laughing this time.
It is still hard for me to believe that the white ibis​ is common in the southeast. I grew up in Brooklyn and can remember only robins and sparrows. When I first saw these birds on the lawn of my parents’ retirement condominium, I was overwhelmed with excitement. I could think only of Egypt and the Sacred Ibis (which has a black face and legs).