One of the coolest things about scooting around Lake Kissimmee in an airboat is that you get to witness an endangered species, the Snail Kite, so close that you that you feel as if you could reach out and touch them. They were hunting for apple snails exposed by the airboat as it skimmed over and roiled the water. These magnificent birds flew right next to the boat and barely looked our way. Their concentration was so intense as they hovered in place searching, that we were able to capture images like this, a banded male, so close that the wing tips aren’t in the frame. His uniquely curved bill and talons, evolved to extract snails from their shells, are clearly visible.