Elusive Night Heron

While walking the boardwalk through the cypress forests of Florida's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, we were treated to abundant wildlife, especially as it congregated about the dry season's diminished wet spots. Quietly sitting on a shady bench, we soon spotted a variety of life going about its business of eating and being eaten.
Ranging from active warblers to basking alligators, all within a few hundred feet, this inexorable and natural contest played out before us. The anhinga spears its breakfast as it swims under the lily pads, its snake-like head and neck from time to time protruding from under the swamp lettuce as it catches its breath.
Several turtles and big and little egrets sun and forage in respective styles. A 12-foot alligator lies rock still as the centerpiece, its dark, rough hide barely visible under a vibrant green pond scum.
With binoculars we also scanned nearby shubbery, suddenly finding that we in turn were being watched by this black-crowned night heron, who feeds at dusk and may have been waiting for us to remove our awkward presence from his parish.