American White Ibis

Florida's rainy season has arrived, and when it rains it pours. The rising water table forces bugs to come up and out of the earth for high ground, leaving them vulnerable to predators. 

Predators like this American White Ibis.

Flocks of Ibis are not an uncommon sight in Cape Coral and Matlacha. They stay in relatively small flocks and skittishly travel from lawn to lawn, piping beaks into the grass with quick, jerking motions, searching for bugs, lizards, or equally skittish fiddler crabs.

The Ibis above was part of a small flock foraging on Matlacha Avenue.