Today's "wow" moment was really special to say the least. I quite often getting a tiny bit emotional when I have a special moment and today was one of those, probably the best wildlife experience of the trip. It started with a set of circumstances and fate. The day was unusually dull at 7.30 and I was doubting the wisdom of going out on my early morning excursion. As I walked along the beach at Dania I came upon a Royal Tern, unfortunately badly injured with a horribly broken wing. In spite of it's injury it still pecked at me with real force as I picked it up and held it tight. I decided to take it to the John U Lloyd State Park which turned out to be a good call because, as I hoped they would,  they had a procedure in place for injured wildlife. I was now "at a loose end" and decided to enter the park and travel to the extreme end where the Inlet to Port Everglades bisects the beach. There are rocks and a little bay and in the past I have seen small waders and a few other interesting things. When it gets busy though it is not so productive. But on this dull morning I thought it might just be a god place for resting migrating waders such as Spotted Sandpiper, seen on a previous year. 

My attention, after a while, was drawn to an Osprey overhead who was looking as though he may start fishing, and in fact that is almost immediately what he did. Unsuccessfully emerging from the water without any prey but only yards from me.

As I snapped away at him in the poor light, another bird had come in and been successful but I had missed the action because I was focused on bird number 1. A bit of a fight ensued as Bird 1 tried to steal the fish from Bird 2 and I snapped the action but in poor light unfortunately.

You can see the fish in the talons of the bird on the left (bird2). After a bit more tussling the bird with the fish left and the original bird returned to the little bay right next to me.

He hovered overhead trying to spot a fish, suddenly he closed his wings and went down in to a dive to emerge with a massive Mullet which he struggled with as he flew in front of me.

Again the light was very poor and I tried my very hardest to get the shots and just about did it. They are not of a professional standard by any means but a great record of a few minutes in my life that I will remember for the rest of my life.

All the while this was happening a trio of Least Terns were flying around me and fishing and one, probably a male was pursuing the female with an offering of a fish. These are tiny little birds who fly around very quickly so I was pleased to be able to get just one shot of the male with his prize.