Room With a View

As the realtors will tell you, it's a buyer's market right now. Charlie Corbeil caught this charming Great Blue Heron couple looking for a new home in the Viera Wetlands. Be sure to click to enlarge the photo - there are some great details in here (my favorite is their little ponytails). Follow this link to Charlie's photo gallery - he has some beautiful photos from far-away places, but fortunately for us, he lives in Brevard County and visits the local Viera Wetlands often. More formally known as the Rich Grisson Memorial Wetlands at Viera, the wetlands are a popular site for birders, photographers, and eco-tourists. Since it is fully accessible by automobile, its popularity has brought the usual problem - stupid drivers. A few years back, only a few local photographers (Jim and Charlie amongst them) wandered around out there. As Charlie says, "gone are the days."

You may recall that Charlie provided us with the Holiday Greetings card featuring a mockingbird eating a balsam apple, so I challenged him to photograph one of his bird friends drinking from a martini glass for a suitable New Years Eve greeting card. Even Charlie could not pull that off, but he did send this beautiful photo of a Red Shouldered Hawk , again from the Viera Wetlands - just look at that gorgous face! (Look at the Hawksbill turtle in our previous posting to see where the Hawksbill got its name.)

Charlie also belongs to Friends of the Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary. An excellent article in yesterday's Florida Today reports that the Sanctuary has been designated a Florida Heritage Landmark - only the second site in Brevard County to get that designation. Congratulations to all involved!