Mikell Herrick is a self-taught photographer who has enjoyed a focus on the beautiful birds of Florida, since retiring to Dunedin nine years ago.  Many of her subjects are regular visitors to her backyard pond – Mallard and Wood Ducks, egrets, herons, Anhingas, Ibises, Wood Storks and a wide variety of smaller birds. Once in a while, a Roseate Spoonbill will drop in for a quick dip in her pond, and they can be seen in other places around our area too.

“It’s always a wonderful treat to see these unique, bright pink birds, but I knew if I wanted to get a closer look at them in their breeding plumage, and have an opportunity to see Spoonbill chicks in their nest, I needed to take a trip to St. Augustine, to the Alligator Farm and Rookery there.”  For a few months every year, late winter into Spring, photographers and bird lovers arrive from all over the country to take close-up pictures and have a look at these and many other nesting shorebirds, from just a few feet away, along the rookery boardwalk. “My first visit to this astounding place in April 2023 didn’t disappoint; it was a feast for the senses and I came home with a few hundred photos. ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roseys’ is a selection of some of my favourites, as well as a few others from my backyard in Dunedin and a trip to Cedar Key.”