Nesting Wood Storks

These wood storks are part of the colony that resides in the Jacksonville Zoo.  They are not captive and seem very settled there.  You can get very close to their nests on a raised boardwalk.  I'm not a fan of zoos but Jacksonville has done a pretty good job with their facilities although there are still a few that really bother me.

Elephant

This is a captive elephant residing at the Jacksonville Zoo.  I have always felt a great deal of sympathy for these animals, they look so intelligent and somewhat sad.  I've never seen one in the wild and refuse to go to circuses and watch them perform so zoos are it for me.  I shot this image on a very bright and sunny day.  I don't do much photoshop but I spent some time on this to get rid of the steel cables and posts that confine the animals.  My normal workflow in Elements 9 is to set the blacks on my RAW file first, then tweak the exposure and contrast prior to opening the image for editing.  I'll crop, resize and do some work on the light and dark areas.  My last two  actions are the noise filter and sharpening.  This is one of my favorite images even though I always find it a bit depressing.  We've just learned of an elephant rescue not far from my home in Central Florida and are planning a visit there next week.  Hopefully we'll see some of these magnificent animals in a kinder setting.

Wood Stork

I had a great day at the Jacksonville Zoo yesterday with my wife and two of my grandaughters.  This wood stork is part of a resident colony that lives on the zoo grounds by choice.  They have a good sized nesting colony and there were a number of active nests.  I was really impressed with this zoo since I grew up in Jacksonville and it once was one of those horrible places with lots of animals in very small cages.  There are still a couple of exhibits that I didn't care for, such as the bobcat and the Coopers Hawk, but overall it is a very animal friendly place.  They have a series of ponds along the entrance drive that are also home to lots of wild birds.  If you visit their web site you get some nice info about which wild birds have been sighted.  The wood stork was once known as the Wood Ibis but was reclassified some time back.