I wasn't sure what I would see as I entered the wetlands at daybreak on Feb 9; this was my first visit since three hurricanes had pounded central Florida a few months before. A misty fog was just beginning to lift, and for the first 1/4 mile there was little to see and nothing to photograph but scrub and reeds and a single hawk who melted into the fog in the camera lens.

Then this great blue heron and white ibis, busily feeding in the muck, appeared beside me as I rounded a bend.