Wild Florida: Snail Kites, Barred Owls, Florida Sandhill Cranes, Alligators eating turtle and more!

Does Florida have wildlife and wild land? Yes! It is actually a premiere destination for a wildlife and landscape photographer like myself. In this video I share what experiencing Florida was like as an outsider (I am from New England, USA) and some of the surprising moments along the way. I also educate about different species such as #owls, #alligators, endangered #snailkites, #sandhillcranes, and touch on conservation efforts to preserve wild Florida.
Check out more of my work on my website, including a gallery of some of the images featured in this video (all of which are available for prints or licensing) www.jwelchphoto.com/wild-flor...
Follow along / johnwelchphotography
Links to Conservation Organizations and Information featured in the video:
Snail Kites
All About Birds Snail Kites Range Map www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/S...
Snail Kite Monitoring www.snailkite.org/monitoring
Florida Wildlife Corridor (where you can find a link to the 2021 legislation) floridawildlifecorridor.org/
Just wanted to (unsolicited) promote a photographer who has devoted his life to preserving Florida and instrumental in the Florida Wildlife Corridor project: Carlton Ward Jr www.carltonward.com/ And creator of the new Path of the Panther film pathofthepanther.com/
All photos, video, and audio © John Welch 2023 with the exceptions noted below:
Sandhill Cranes in flight sound public domain creative commons license from NPS sound library www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/ga...
Music from Artlist.io
Drone shot of the suburban Florida neighborhood was from Artlist.io as well

[@rolybaker7770]

That was good John, a lovely overview of Florida nature. I am an English guy living on an Island in Greece where are very few birds do to the 'hunters' who have for generations shot them therefor not allowing colonies to form. Though the birds they can 'hunt' is limited I am afraid many do not abide by the rules. Enjoyed the video, thanks.

[@johnwelchphotography]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I actually have heard of the bird hunting culture out there, including song birds, right? Florida is definitely a great place to find an abundance of birds.

[@harrisstein6138]

John, that was a great video! I definitely agree that New England is tough in terms of the birds being tolerant. I wonder why they are so much more tolerant in Florida? Maybe because a lot of them stay year round? Did you make it to Merritt Island this time? I need to get down there one of these days, as I've been many times, but only to the theme parks.

[@johnwelchphotography]

Thanks for checking it out Harris! Doing bird photography in Florida will spoil you and make you wonder why you work so hard back home. I am not exactly sure why they are more tolerant in Florida. There are a lot of people around in their habitat. I noticed the migratory sandhill cranes would stay distant and spook but the year-round Florida Sandhill Cranes don't care about people at all so maybe there is something to your theory. It's worth heading down there. I didn't make it to Merrit Island, the closest I got to that direction was the Orlando Wetlands in Christmas, FL. I was in central Florida north of Orlando ranging to Ocala NF. I had good luck picking a few species, then finding a few locations to return to repeatedly. It was mostly a trip to visit family, but I got out every morning, and sometimes my older daughters did the photographers wake up too. Hope you are well. I have enjoyed seeing your photos on IG documenting the benchmarks of spring in the bird world.