And another birding adventure started off with a spectacular first day yesterday at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, a park in Delray Beach, Florida created from unused utility land and transformed into a recreation wetlands that is part of the Great Florida Birding Trail. The light was with us with overcast skies most of the day, avoiding the harsh shadows that are especially problematic in an environment that is filled with sticks and leaves and busy backgrounds. Over 150 species of birds have been seen in the wetlands and on our first day, I photographed 15 different species which is about 10% of the species that live in or visit Wakodahatchee. We were excited to find a pair of normally elusive Gray-headed Swamphens, also sometimes called a Purple Swamphens, along the area beneath the boardwalk with mud and lots of aquatic plants like pickerel weed that the Swamphens love to pluck out of the water and munch. This image shows the Swamphen as it foraged through the weeds searching for the perfect stem to pluck and consume. As one of them approached the boardwalk to walk under it, I managed to get a few close up images before I exceeded the minimum focusing distance of my lens. The bird’s impossibly large toes which allow it to walk across the plants on the surface of the water are visible.