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Founded in 1893, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is one of Florida’s oldest zoological attractions. For over a century, it has entertained millions of visitors, lured by the awesome presence of captive reptiles, long regarded in the popular imagination as at once mysterious, dangerous and frightening. A true piece of Floridana, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm has inspired popularization of the alligator in the national consciousness and helped to fashion an image for the state. The boardwalk at the rookery is a favorite spot for photographers, amateur and professional. Over 400 entries were submitted for the contest from the United States, Canada and the UK. The winning photos will be displayed in a calendar that will sell in the Alligator Farm gift shop. One of the goals of this project is to educate and bring awareness to wading bird conservation. A portion of the proceeds of each calendar will go to the Audubon Roseate Spoonbill Banding Project. "The Alligator Farm in St. Augustine sponsors an annual photo contest of pictures taken in the rookery at the Alligator Farm during the bird nesting season, usually March to middle of July. The rookery is one of the largest in the state of Florida and attracts wood storks, great egrets, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, tri-colored herons, little blue herons and green herons. The birds nest in the live oak trees and shrubs surrounding the alligator lagoon which has a large boardwalk over it. The boardwalk is an excellent place to view and photograph birds nest-building, breeding and then feeding their young. Although the birds lose a few chicks to the gators waiting below, they still have a higher chick production because other predators are kept away by the gators. These are all wild birds and fly off to search for food to bring back to feed the babies. It is quite a thing to experience, very noisy and somewhat odiferous!" "I felt fortunate to get this shot of a male great egret showing off to attract a female. It was taken in April while we were in St. Augustine for the Birding and Nature Festival. He wasn’t having much luck while we observed that weekend although he was gorgeous and had a beautiful nest! When we went back later in the summer there were some young birds about ready to fly in that same location so I like to think that they were his offspring."