Wildlife Watching

More later...

2007-11-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

This blog is not about personal issues and a lot of personal stuff is going on in my life right now. My beloved Grandfather passed away last week, and I just haven't wanted to continue with my original post ideas. I'll get to them eventually, but in the meantime, say a prayer for my Grandmother and smile at the many wonderful memories my Grandfather created. Click to see his Memorial page.

The Drive Through the Keys

2007-10-30T15:00:00.000-05:00

After spending the night in Key Largo, we got up early for our jaunt through the rest of the Keys. It was raining much of the time, so we didn't get our great photos on the way down.

We did see some some amazing houses and cool animals. In Marathon I saw a common mynah for the first time. They're an Asian species that occurs in the Keys. As we drove further, we happened to see a sign for Curry Hammock State Park, and they were having a birding festival and entrance was free! There we saw some rehabilitated birds, including this pelican (Gracie) who is blind in both eyes. She loved having her head rubbed and kept begging for fish. Pretty cool.

We also saw some frigate birds, which are always fun.

My favorite part of the drive down was Bahia Honda State Park. We only have one photo because it was raining off and on, but it was just gorgeous. We tried to do some snorkeling, but the water was so rough that it was difficult. If any of the underwater photos turn out, I'll post them later. So much for my determination to snorkel at a reef someday. It's still on my list!

And lastly, we checked out the Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key. We did see one deer dash across the road, but it was too quick for a photo. We didn't get to go out early in the AM or PM when we could have seen more. This photo will hopefully give you an idea of how tiny they are.

We ended the day by settling into our adorable little B&B in Key West and checking out the wildlife on Duval Street!

One more day to post, and I'll be caught up!

The First Day of Birthday Fun

2007-10-23T13:56:00.000-05:00

Most of our first day on vacation (our first in over a year!) was spent driving to Key Largo. We stayed at a little efficiency there so that we could rest up for the rest of our "exploratory driving" experience. This means that we take our sweet time getting to our destination so that we can check out anything interesting along the way.

Since neither of us particularly loves Key Largo, we decided to drive to beautiful Islamorada for dinner. We ate at the Islamorada Fish Company and watched the sunset.

As I've explained to various people, I will take photos of any animal that lets me get close. Our camera is not very zoom equipped, so that means I only get good shots of very common animals. Or in this case, very slow ones...

I also took a shot of this Eurasian collared dove, as we don't see them much around here. They're an exotic species (in case the word Eurasian didn't give it away.)

And finally, this gull. I think it's a winter plumage laughing gull? I'm not so good with shorebirds.
That's all for now. I don't want to stare at the computer anymore. I have 2 or 3 more posts coming about this in the next few days. See ya then!

Pulling a Heather

2007-10-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Hey all! I've followed in Heather's illustrious footsteps and taken tons of photos of my trip. I now have to go through them and decide what's blog worthy. It should just be a few days.

For now, just know that we had a fabulous time! It was a great 30th bday present! And here's a teaser to keep you interested.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park - Key West

Finally! A New Adventure!

2007-10-11T19:35:00.000-05:00

I just turned 30, and to separate (separate? WTH was I thinking?? CELEBRATE) that momentous occasion, we've decided to head to the Keys as my present. We're also celebrating what will be 10 years together in November. I will be gone for a long weekend, so I'll post when I get back.

HURRAY! New animals and adventures to share! This is long overdue.

I Like Turtles.

2007-09-22T21:50:00.000-05:00

It seems that all the Florida soft shelled turtle babies hatched at the same time near my workplace today! In an effort to save them, we picked up all we could find (probably around 15 or so) and removed them from the roadway in favor of a nice waterway. I know they can be aggressive as adults, but as babies they are very very cute. I stole a photo for my blog before releasing this one.

Beautiful Bradenton and Sarasota!

2007-09-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

First off, our digital camera batteries have gone to the big battery heaven in the sky, so no pictures for the time being. :(

We traveled to Bradenton Saturday night to spend some time with a high school friend of mine named Kylee and her wonderful husband Richard. We figured that if we got to see some beautiful scenery along the way, so much the better!

Bradenton is a lovely young town that we immediately liked. It was nice to see some countryside for once! Kylee and Richard also graciously decided to be our tour guides for a little jaunt around Sarasota and its barrier islands. The Sarasota Marina was gorgeous. The weather was perfect for sitting along the water and just watching the sailboats bobbing in the breeze.

Longboat Key was probably my favorite nature wise though. There were actual sections where the beach still looked natural! And the white sandbars projecting their fingers into the beautiful blue-green Gulf was oddly striking for me. Maybe it's because we get to see natural coastlines and sandbars so little these days.

As far as animals go, we saw and heard the usual birds. I think I saw a shrike, which excited me. Otherwise we mainly spent time observing a spectacular canine specimen of the beagle mix variety named Peanut. :)

Adorable Marsh Rabbits

2007-08-20T13:13:00.000-05:00

I didn't realize until we moved here, that Florida has 2 kinds of rabbits. We have the very common Eastern cottontail, with which you should all be familiar, and the little marsh rabbit. Considering that a marsh rabbit was the unfortunate prey in my previous post, I thought it might be nice to highlight them here. :) I've included a baby and an adult photo. They are everywhere in the Disney parks. Click on the link above for more info.

A barred owl's snack on the run

2007-08-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

Remember how I said this past winter that the birds were behaving strangely? Well, I have a great story for you that illustrates it. I didn't have my camera at the time, so I didn't post until a co-worker sent me a photo to go along with it. Thanks Amanda for the photo! And thanks to Ron for cleaning it up so nicely!

Anyway, our office at work is housed inside the first aid station. We were just settling down to lunch when we heard a knock on the door. When I opened it the nurse rattled off something about, "owl," and "rabbit." I rushed out with her to see what was wrong.

When I got to the front of first aid, I saw guests with cameras trained on a small wooded patch not 10 feet from where they stood. There, on the ground, was a barred owl clutching a rabbit. The rabbit was too heavy for it to fly away with, so it was eating it right there in the middle of the day amongst dozens of people!! I couldn't believe it! Barred owls are generally shy, so this was an amazing opportunity. It sat there eating for at least another half an hour before it finally flew away. I came back to watch it again and again. I don't know if there were just too many youngsters that year that the competition for food was stiff, or what, but there was a lot of odd behavior going on.

Here's the photo. It's a lot closer than it looks. That was taken with a cell phone. I was excited for days. I think my co-workers thought I was nuts. :)

Hot... sooo.. hot...

2007-08-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

That about says it all I think. We haven't had our normal daily thunderstorms, and it's been even more hot and humid than usual. Needless to say, I haven't gone outside for more than I have to; especially considering that the a/c in my car is broken and would cost $1300 to fix. Winter is our animal time. But I am working on getting one photo up from a long time ago.
Love to all.

Lake Louisa State Park

2007-06-18T18:23:00.001-05:00

OK, long post coming up because I'm very excited about this park. We visited there a few weeks ago before our blistering heat wave. It's a two time National Gold Medal Winner for State Parks, and it deserves it!

Lake Louisa State Park is located in the rolling hills of Clermont. (yes, we do have some hills!) It was so wonderful to crest that first hill and have a bird's eye view of the rolling green lands and quiet lakes beyond. It's full of history and comprised of at least 11 different natural communities. The sandhills are one that truly fascinate me since their quartz sand is a remnant of ancient dunes that used to be at Florida's shoreline. The park covers 4500 acres total, and includes 6 lakes and 2 streams. I would love to stay in the cabins that overlook one of the lakes someday. It's SO beautiful and relaxing.

One of the big attractions at the park is the beach on Lake Louisa. The boardwalk to the beach was pretty in and of itself. It was even more entertaining as we stopped to watch 2 wrens scolding each other loudly. I swear, those birds are brave for all the tinier they are. Maybe they have a Napoleon complex. :)

The water in Lake Louisa is a deep, dark brown because of all the trees
growing in and around it. The cyprus trees in particular leave a lot of tannins in the water. There were many alligator warning signs, along with a lifeguard trained to watch for them. I dont' know if I'd be willing to swim in such poor visibility with gators around. The water levels were also very low due to our recent extreme drought. Picnics abounded, and it reminded me very much of home, except that cyprus and mangroves surrounded us instead of oaks and maples. ;-)

Cyprus trees are some of my favorites.

I couldn't resist standing inside this one. I also got very close to a green anole who promptly let me know he was boss by inflating his big pink dewlap. I got a photo of that but it didn't turn out nearly as well as this one, so green is all you get..

We wandered the rest of the park and saw old orange groves and cow pasture alongside newly reestablished sandhills and scrub. The lakes were ALL beautiful, and we glimpsed many fish, turtles, alligators and birds. Each lake has a beautiful fishing pier from which to observe them. There were many trails, but it was pretty hot, so we didn't explore as much as I'd like. I want to go back and spend more time around the streams. I also finally got to get a photo of what I like to call my little "punk" birds. The cattle egrets get a nice orange mohawk on their heads around breeding season along with a beautiful orange breast. I LOVE to see it! Here is a photo of one of them. I hope it's clear enough! I've been trying for ages!
I plan to post more photos of the amazing colors birds display only during breeding season down here. We will definitely be back to Lake Louisa in the cooler months! I was so glad to find such a wonderful place. I think it even tops Wekiva for me!

Joe Overstreet Landing

2007-06-18T17:45:00.000-05:00

Joe Overstreet Landing on Lake Kissimmee is a very very off the beaten path area for wildlife viewing. We had to travel almost an hour away and miles down a dirt road just to get there, but it was worth it. It's known that you can see many caracaras and other wildlife in the area. We were hoping to get a good glimpse of the caracara. It's a very beautiful mix of cow pasture, lake and wetlands habitat. The only thing I found annoying were the exceedingly loud and obnoxious airboats buzzing about, disturbing the birds.

We visited in early spring and saw Ospreys nesting, a glossy ibis, all kinds of egrets and herons and many birds fishing. Ron also got to see the brilliant yellow breast of his first meadowlark and to hear its gorgeous song. We were hoping to glimpse whooping cranes (one of the few places in the country) but they were nesting at the time.

As we were leaving, we got a glimpse of a bird high in a snag. I yelled at Ron to stop as I thought it might be a caracara. Lo and behold, it was! We watched it for quite a while. They are such striking birds.
Total on our trip, we must have seen at least 6 of them flying overhead or high in trees, but that was the best glimpse we got. So cool!

I thought I'd leave you with a parting shot from one of the cows. It was a little intimidating, as in spots, the cows could come right up to you. Only in Florida. :)

February in PA

2007-06-05T17:10:00.000-05:00

My Mom and Step-Father were kind enough to help me visit in February for some big birthdays (my nephew is TWO!). I also got to see my sister's new engagement ring! I know I'm very behind, but I thought it might be nicer to view snow photos from the summer perspective. ;-)

Mom had seen nothing but dark-eyed juncos at her bird feeder for weeks, but when I was there, she saw her first chickadee (the bird pictured at top)!

I also got photos of a very brave red-bellied woodpecker.
There were lots of changes since I hadn't been home in over a year. The biggest one (literally) were the massive windmills placed all over the mountain in order to generate wind powered electricity! It was very interesting to see such an alternative energy method right in my former backyard! The photo is awful, but you get the gist. :)
More catch-up posts to come! I was inspired to start posting again after our recent visit to a beautiful state park. I will get to that soon!

"Da Nile" ain't just a river in Egypt...

2007-03-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

This photo was taken at EPCOT and is an Egyptian goose. They're very beautiful, but it's startling to see them since they aren't native to Florida. As most of you probably know, exotic, invasive species are an ever present problem in Florida. In this case, they don't seem to cause much harm as they don't breed well here and most individuals are results of escapes from bird facilities. Too bad that's not the case with the various vines, large constrictors, lizards, frogs and more found here that push native animals out of their habitats. Click on the title above for a link to some stats on the Egyptian goose in Florida.

Yes, it really is "tough to be a bug."

2007-03-28T21:03:00.000-05:00

It appears a new bug species may have been discovered in central Florida. However, not being an entomologist, I'm not sure what to call them. Anyone have any ideas? Cheesifus touristicus perhaps?

Those of you who have been to Disney's Animal Kingdom should know where this photo was taken.

The Disney Wilderness Preserve

2007-03-20T19:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long! The new blogger system has been giving me fits. For the longest time I couldn't post comments on others' pages OR get mine switched! They forced me to switch, but then I couldn't get the darn thing to work! sigh.

Anyway.. I have a backlog of posts since I couldn't get on. The first is that a few weeks ago, I went to volunteer with work at the Disney Wilderness Preserve! We did "restoration work," which basically means clearing out non-native vegetation and such. The Nature Conservancy is restoring that land to what it was before humans ranched it. The area we were working on is becoming "created wetlands." It's very cool to see it taking place!

The most exciting thing about the trip is that I finally saw a crested caracara!! It flew right in front of our car with nesting material in its beak! A pair is nesting right in the open area of the preserve. They are fascinating birds and are rare (although becoming more common) in Florida. Caracaras are in the family Falconidae, but in a genus all their own - Caracara. They feed mostly on carrion, but will also catch insects and small animals.

Crested caracara photo courtesy of Crowley Museum and Nature Center

The Great Backyard Bird Count

2007-02-20T13:14:00.000-05:00

Every year in February, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology conducts the Great Backyard Bird Count. Click on the link above for more info. Novice and expert alike can birdwatch in any place or way they choose for as little as 15 minutes. They then submit their results to Cornell's site where you can search the data as you wish. It's lots of fun, and I've forgotten for the past few years. Thank goodness a co-worker reminded me in time to do it on the last day! I started out yesterday by just observing my backyard and the greenbelt beside it. The photo above is of the section of greenbelt beside my house. I watched for 45 minutes and saw more than I thought I would. Turkey vultures, yellow-rumped warblers (so cute!), robins, mockingbirds and a red-bellied woodpecker all made an appearance.

It was a perfect clear day, with temperatures in the 60's. It was so relaxing and wonderful, that I decided to walk to the canals near our house to see what I could find near the water and conservation areas. On the walk there, I managed to get a photo of the yellow-rumped warbler's famous rump. :)
The canals yielded much better results, and I walked up and down them before settling in for an hour to watch the wildlife around me. I'm so glad I found a way to so thoroughly enjoy nature in my own neighborhood! It was also rewarding to find out that I could identify many of the bird calls around me. This time there were some birds I could not identify, so I had to do the best I could. The GBBC site sent me a list of what I submitted...
Mallard - 6
Pied-billed Grebe - 3
Double-crested Cormorant - 4
Anhinga - 1
Great Blue Heron - 1
Great Egret - 2
Snowy Egret - 1
Little Blue Heron - 2
White Ibis - 3
Osprey - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Limpkin - 3
Mourning Dove - 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
American Robin - 3
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 20
Northern Cardinal - 1
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1

I even ran into some little girls who were tracking dinosaurs! I wished them luck, although I'm not sure there's a program that tallies those results. ;-) The limpkins were a TOTAL surprise. I've only ever seen 2 others in my adventures, and they seemed pretty secretive. They were great fun to watch. I'm now thinking of running a bird watching endeavor at the canals for our little village subdivision. So many of the people I've run into seem so woefully ignorant of the nature and abundance around them that I can't help but try to bring a little of it to them. I guess we'll see if I get the courage to do it and if anyone cares.

I'll end this with a shameless plug for my wonderful husband who looked so handsome in his graduation gear. :) I'm so proud of his achievements of graduating summa cum laude and being named outstanding senior!! YAY RON!

Can't get enough of Merritt Island...

2007-01-23T15:12:00.000-05:00

Ron and I needed to get away, and I in particular needed a break in a more natural setting. Sometimes I feel somewhat like I'm not in the right place. I'm so used to being surrounded by nature, that if I don't get a healthy dose of the great outdoors every so often, I start to get jittery. :) I can't imagine how bad it would be if I didn't work outside with animals!

Anyway, we decided to go bird watching at Merritt Island NWR again. It's just so relaxing and peaceful. Out there you can actually get to a place where you can't hear the roar of ANY highway! Imagine that! We also planned to spend time at the beach section of the refuge, enjoying natural dunes and gorgeous waves. We saw a few new animals at the refuge and a lot of really cool natural behaviors.

We saw our first hooded merganser pair together! I'd seen them at work only once, and Ron never had, so I was very excited. Plus I got a decent photo. (Heather, it's another type of duck for you!)

We only saw a few roseate spoonbills wading this time, but they were closer. Plus we got to see them in flight. I'm so glad Ron saw that because it's a gorgeous sight. The ducks you see in the photo are mostly northern pintails. Very cool ducks.

Other ducks we saw included blue-winged teals and northern shovelers. I don't know if you can see their big beaks here or not, but they're pretty distinctive and interesting. You can see why they're called shovelers.

And lastly, in Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, we got out to do one of the walks and saw this little guy. He was amazingly bold and allowed Ron to get very close to take his photo and never flew off. He was still there when we left. He's a green heron. They're one of the smaller herons...

As for the behaviors we saw - they were mostly hunting related. We had stopped to look at a large group of gulls when I noticed a little bird with long legs flailing about in the water. I had heard the description of how the reddish egret hunts, so when I saw that bird, it clicked. I yelled at Ron to give me the binoculars, and he whipped out the camera to take video (which I will post eventually). It was the cutest thing! He ran in seemingly drunken circles, sometimes raising his wings and then lowering them. His head was turned so that one eye was peering directly into the water. I presume it was in order to see his prey. We must have watched him for 10 minutes. Ron was laughing heartily at the spectacle. What a treat! These are the only egrets (I know of) that hunt this way. Most are silent stalkers. We also saw a northern male harrier hunting. He didn't seem to mind us there either. I have to say that the birds this year have been crazy... very bold and very hungry. We've had some experiences at work. I wonder if it has to do with the weird weather patterns...
Anyway, the last very cool behavior we saw came from a belted
kingfisher. I noticed him hovering for perhaps 15 seconds in mid-air before diving straight down to catch his prey. I hadn't even known they did that until then.

After Blackpoint, and before heading to the coast, we decided to try our hand at seeing some manatees. Ron had never seen them in the wild, and while we would like to snorkel with them, we thought we'd try Merritt Island's manatee overlook since the winter has been so warm. We got more than we bargained for in that there were four of them there! We watched them for a long time. It was wonderful. And since no one tried to guess what we saw, I guess I'll just say this is it. These are the animals we saw that are related to elphants. Crazy huh? If you'd like me to tell you more about why and how they know that, leave me a comment and I'll elaborate. Otherwise, I don't want to bore anyone. :)

Ron was so excited they came up near the surface for these photos. They were in the river, not a spring, so it was more murky. I have beautiful underwater spring photos of them that maybe I'll post sometime.

Cool duck sighting

2007-01-16T14:52:00.000-05:00

When Ron's sister and her family were here, we ventured downtown to Lake Eola Park. There we saw what I think were lesser scaups (a type of duck). It was very exciting to me as I hadn't seen them before, especially there in the middle of the city. They are very cute, no?

Neighborhood photos

2007-01-15T11:12:00.000-05:00

Back again! This time I have the promised neighborhood photos. There are quite a few and not all taken at the same time.

The first few are from a beautiful night walk we took on a brisk fall evening. So far, fall has been far colder than winter for us. Weird I know. Scary weather patterns. Anyway, here goes...

This is the main street that connects to ours.

It was a lovely night, with a lovely sunset.

I took this photo to prove that our leaves DO change color and even sometimes fall off! :) We had a lot of reds and yellows this year due to the cold fall. And the neighbor's tree down the street has been shedding its leaves all over the rest or our yards!

We did see a few nightjars, but due to the fact that it was night, we didn't get any good photos. We hear them a lot though. We've also heard tons of red shouldered hawks of course. There's a barred owl too, that hangs out just outside the back of the house. It's really astonishing to hear him there! Instead of the regular "Hoo" that you hear from the great-horned (usually the one in movies etc), it's a "HOO HOO, Hoo Hoo, Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoooooo" It's hard to explain, but the books describe it as "Whoo cooks for you? Who cooks for you aaaaalll." You'd probably know if you heard it. We've tried to see it a number of times, but it must be able to see/hear us when we turn off the lights and look out the sliding glass doors. Bummer.

This great egret just happened to land in our yard! It's such an unusual occurance that I snapped a photo before it flew off..

And finally, with the nice winter, all of our flowers have been blooming! It's gorgeous! We finally get to see what our irises look like. We've seen these around here a bit, so they must be popular, but I had never seen them before. Aren't they beautiful?

We obviously also have a lot of lizards and frogs. We don't see the natives as much as we did in the apartment, but we did see a frog in our driveway the other night. It was very odd because it had a sort of shriveled, deformed back leg. It got me to thinking about how pollution affects amphibians first due to the fact that they absorb everything through their skin. Kinda sad...

More to come. :)

Gratuitous baby photo!

2007-01-09T20:30:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I'm BACK! Can you believe it? I have a lot of fun stuff to catch up on! We had the visit from the in-laws, then Christmas and New Years and then we lost the camera/computer cable for a while. Imagine that... me lose something?

Anyway, I have my neighborhood photos to update, as well as some Mt. Dora photos and yet another visit to Merritt Island; this time with a very exciting animal viewing. Hint: This animal is related to the elephant. (Kevin - not fair for you to guess.)

In the meantime, here is a lovely photo of our adorable second nephew. Why are our nephews both so intelligent, beautiful and sweet? ;-)

Holiday craziness :)

2006-12-05T13:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm a loser and haven't posted in a while. But I'm going to quote the age old complaint... it's the holidays!! haha. Actually, I'm quite delighted that it's the holidays and am happy to be so busy that I don't have as much time for the computer.

We had a fabulous family reunion Thanksgiving at my Grandparents' house, south of us, and are now looking forward to a visit from Ron's sister and the new baby!! We did manage to find time to take a walk around the neighborhood on one of our delightfully cool days. I took lots of "neighborhood" photos and even managed to see a nightjar. (I think). I will definitely post those when I get the chance. In the meantime, you'll just have to admire my little fuzzy boys some more and leave loads of comments on how adorable they are. ;-) In fact, they're more adorable than you know because they are absolutely enthralled with the Christmas lights. They seem to love shiny things. Roo tries to grab them with his little hands when we hold him close.

Right now we're finishing with lovely Christmas decorations. I'm like you Heather! I could vomit the holidays onto the internet all day long!!!!!!! hahaha. I just LOVE Christmas. Anyway, it's so wonderful to have a house to decorate! We are so very proud of our little piece of Earth and how pretty it's looking this Christmas.

Lots of love to all this season!

I couldn't resist...

2006-11-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

I called my friend Kathy one day to tell her to look at a beautiful sunset as well and she snapped these photos from her apartment. I forgot to include them in the previous post, and they're so pretty, I couldn't resist.

The REAL wildlife around here...

2006-11-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

Hey there! For all of you who don't know yet... (and how could you NOT ;-) we have chinchillas. We used to have 3, but Papa, the eldest, passed away this year at the age of 18. We were very lucky to have him that long and for him to be that healthy. The other two are Nino, who just turned 12 on the 7th, and Roo, who will be 8 at the end of this month.

We allow ours to have a supervised run every night, and got to thinking about how they are the "wildlife" we observe the most often. So I thought I'd post some info about our boys!

Most chinchillas anyone will ever see are somewhat domesticated. Wild chinchillas are very rare in the world now. They are found in high, arid regions in South America. The original cause of their steep decline was the fur trade. It can take up to 100 animals to make one coat. Since it took so many, the animals became more rare. As the animals became more rare, the value of the coats went up. It was a viscious cycle. I'm not passing judgement on those who wear fur, though I choose otherwise. Most furs worn today are from animals ranched on farms. However, there are still problems with that method. Although this site is strictly against fur farming, the descriptions in it are accurate to my knowledge. Warning: Some photos on this site are disturbing. The link in the title of this blog leads to more information about the conservation of wild chinchilla populations.

Now of course, much of the chinchilla's threats are due to human encroachment. There are considered to be two separate species, both of which are listed as CITES I (no trade allowed). One is considered critically endangered, and the other vulnerable by the IUCN. For more information on these organizations, I've included links to the right side of my blog.

Now on to the HAPPY stuff!! Photos of my boys!!

They do some really cute and silly things. You would never imagine a rodent with so much personality. Roo loves this little stuffed fleece kitty. He sleeps with it, grooms it, and even carries it around from shelf to shelf.

Nino (as in El Nino), loves to chew... anything. We have to watch him constantly. He also sleeps in a lot of really weird positions. We happened to catch one in his old cage.

Nino is adjusting now to having the cage all to himself, but we have lots of cute Papa memories too!

Papa chewing on a cardboard ring crunchy.

Taken at age 17... Still handsome! :)

Florida Sunsets

2006-11-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

One of the things we really love about living here is the gorgeous Florida sky. The ceiling just seems so high. The colors here are also uplifting. During a bright sunny day, I joke that the sky looks like the walls in the room in Toy Story; that perfect sky blue with big fluffy clouds that you want to sit on. Even during a storm, the sky is amazingly beautiful. The clouds almost seem to boil and turn black, while bright patches of yellow and deep green streak through the clear patches. It's truly amazing, and a little scary. :) The night skies aren't as clear and big and beautiful as they are up north, but the daytime skies make up for it.

One of our favorite things to see is the world famous beautiful Florida sunset. It never gets old! The colors are like no sunset I've ever seen! (even in the Caribbean!) So, I thought I'd share some of our favorite sunset photos with you. There are going to be a lot, so hold on! :)

This is one of our first photos at the apartment. It was really hard to capture, but the clouds were a very light purple with light streaming beneath.

This is one of the most dramatic ones we've seen. Taken from our balcony, we caught it even after its most intense color.

The same sunset as above, viewed through a cutout in the stairwell.

Same angle, lighter colors, different day.

Marina in Islamorada, Florida Keys.

St. Pete Beach - Gulf Coast

Same sunset a few minutes later.

This next photo is not a sunset, but has the sun in it and was a fun send off...

South Beach

Wow! A New Post!

2006-10-30T08:37:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. It's been a long time. Let's just say that I've been very distracted. I also found the camera! (quite a while ago. ;-)

I was wondering if I could enlist all of your help with identifying the plants in my front yard. I only know that I have bouganvilla at the end, and some sort of iris toward the middle. Plants are not my strong suit, though I really like them. (Heather, you're going to get your photos!!!)

The plant that's nagging at me the most is the big pink bushy thing on the right hand side of the house in the above photo. Here is a shot of its flower.
It's closed because it's been cool. When they're open, they look somewhat like a hibiscus flower... like a lot of flowers do around here it seems. haha.

Another plant is the one with the long stems sticking out with small oval reddish-green leaves on either side. The flower from that plant looks like this:

And finally, the last plant that currently has me stumped has
green and yellow leaves.

I know I could probably do searches on the internet for this stuff, but I'm not sure where to start and figured I could pick all your magnificent brains for info first. :)

Better posts for next time!

The Ivory-Bill is back?

2006-10-02T09:02:00.000-05:00

OK, so I still haven't unearthed the camera. I'm too busy trying to get the kitchen in order. I hate trying to cook in a messy kitchen. We bought cork (from Williams-Sonoma :) to line the shelves, but I have serious cork cutting and measuring disabilities, so I have to wait until Ron can finish it to put everything away. Thank goodness there's an artist in this house! But I digress...

My real point was the news about the ivory-billed woodpecker. It was seen first maybe in 2004 by a kayaker? This was in the big woods of Arkansas. Since then, Cornell University has led the main thrust of the investigation into whether ivory-bills still exist. They were thought to have been extinct since the 1940's. Now sightings have even been reported in the panhandle of Florida! Now I have to say, that the ivory-bill seems very distinct (to me) from the pileated woodpecker. They have a wide white wing bar (visible in flight and at rest) that would not be visible in the pileated. They also have a huge ivory colored bill. The pileated's is smaller and darker. Furthermore, they are larger overall with one white stripe along the neck instead of two, and the female has a black crest instead of red like the pileated. All of those things could make for some very conclusive identification. My feeling on it is this: If bird experts saw it and say it's an ivory-bill, then they are most likely right. It's just very exciting that an extinct species may prove to be still alive after all.

If you go to the Cornell site, there are lots of sound files, photos and a video a man shot accidentally that shows the flash of white barred black wings through the forest. Looks like an ivory bill to me! :) I can't wait until they find conclusive proof. I wish I could sign up for that volunteer position to help look for them!

Settling in...

2006-09-23T21:17:00.001-05:00

Whew! We're finally somewhat settled into our new house and have internet service again! That's why I've been awol. :) Even though we don't have a forest directly behind our house, there's a small conservation area nearby, and we still see lots of birds! In fact, on one of the move in days, we saw 4 red-shouldered hawks. One of them was even sitting on the road! There's also a mockingbird who sings his little heart out every single morning in the tree at the corner of our yard. It took me a little while to figure out what it was since mockingbirds mimic other birds' songs. (hence the name ;-)

Another fun animal sighting - Tricia saw a bobcat in the edge of the trees at work last week! We were both in our cars, and she tried to get my attention, but it was too late. Oh well. She's lucky!

The shuttle came back on Thursday, and I finally heard it! It sounded like a really big tree branch cracking twice. No... not even a really big tree branch... a tree branch so big that it doesn't exist. But the type of sound was the same despite how loud it was.

So those are my udpates. The biggest excitement in our lives right now is the house. It may be a while until we have another adventure. I'll keep you posted on the little things until then!

Beach Relaxation

2006-09-11T07:36:00.000-05:00

We just got back from the beach. We sold out to do a timeshare spiel in exchange for a free night at the RonJon resort. Yes, that's right, RonJon now has a timeshare. The address is Cocoa Beach, but it's technically located in Cape Canaveral. And you all know how I feel about the Canaveral beaches. :) That is.. if you've read this blog you do. haha. However, that also meant that we could see the shuttle launch site from the resort! How cool would THAT be?! Unfortunately it just went up on Saturday. We saw it in Orlando though. It's so amazing to see that fiery tail and huge smoke trail blaze into outer space in minutes. We've seen it 3 times now, and I still get excited. I think I may even post a photo of the trail for you all even though it's not wildlife related. We really need to try to see it up close. Wow. I'm told you can often actually hear it landing here. It sounds like a very very large sonic boom. We've never been lucky enough to hear it, but our friends have! The conditions have to be right where you live.

Anyway, back to the beach. It was lovely and relaxing. The waves were HUGE due to Florence. That was GREAT for our boogie boarding! (Any of my relatives remember that?) There were also tons of surfers. One of the maintenance guys pointed out where some turtle nesting sites were, but we didn't get out to check if any hatched last night. :( I really want to see that! The beach was in a very natural condition, and we saw lots of what seemed to be least terns, but I'm not sure since my trusty bird guide is still packed away from the move.

The take home message though? Do the timeshare thing for free stuff if you can stomach a sales pitch, but it's too expensive for the average Joe to actually buy into!

Bok Sanctuary - back post from summer

2006-09-05T19:06:00.000-05:00

Edward Bok, early 1900's editor of Ladies Home Journal, collector of famous signatures, and wealthy, nature loving man, decided to create a sanctuary for himself on his estate that would be left for future generations after his death. This is called Bok Sanctuary in Lake Wales, FL. Ron and I had always wanted to visit and hear the carillion from the Bell Tower at the highest point on grounds. At 298ft above sea level, it is very high indeed for Florida. It made me laugh though when I thought about the fact that I used to live thousands of feet above sea level.

The sanctuary is an amazing haven for all kinds of creatures and rare plants. One
plant that startled me was the Australian tree fern. It literally was a fern that looked like a tree! So bizarre. This monstrosity of a plant had no sign, so I have no idea what it is. I just know it's cool! The whole sanctuary was laid out beautifully with gorgeous architecture. It was a normal Florida summer day - HOT, and muggy. But we had a great time anyway.

The Bell Tower is a gorgeous homeage to native animals and stone.
After looking it up, I believe this is a hispid cotton rat. It was very cute, totally unafraid of people, and we saw them everywhere.
There was also a beautiful little hut with a window from which you could observe the animals at the pond. I saw the most wood ducks I've ever seen at one time! There had to be at least 60 of them! They're such an elegant little duck. I would have gotten a photo except that we startled them. We also saw a few turtles and some black snakes.

When we couldn't stand the heat any longer, we explored the gift shop and beautiful cafe. All in all, it was a beautiful day in a place I highly recommend.
Now I'm finally caught up!!

Labor Day at Leu Gardens

2006-09-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Labor Day! Or at least, Happy Labor Day yesterday. :) Ron and I went to Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando yesterday since we had Sunday AND Monday off together!! Another bonus is that the gardens are free on Monday mornings. That's a lovely word for brand new homeowners. It was a pretty & peaceful place, but not quite as lovely as Bok Sanctuary. (which I will post soon I promise!)

Ron finally saw a blue-tailed skink! I caught a flash of his blue tail high up in a tree. I've only seen them a few times. Of course we saw lots of birds and squirrels as well. One red-bellied woodpecker came very near us.

Most of the flowers weren't in bloom since it's so late in the summer. The butterfly garden was probably still the most colorful. There were butterflies all over the place. We even saw a very dark orange one that I've never seen before.

Oh, and that frog from Sunday? We thought we'd lost him, but this morning when I walked back into the apartment from the balcony, guess who hopped in with me?!?! I had to catch him and escort him back to his proper home. It was very amusing.

Tree Frogs Galore!

2006-09-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

We've seen a lot of tree frogs lately. And we've not just seen the Cuban kind, which are everywhere. We've seen green tree frogs! They're the Florida natives and smaller (and cuter in my opinion) than the big brown Cuban frogs. The Cuban tree frogs actually eat the smaller greens and out-compete them for food and habitat. It's much the same problem we see with Cuban anoles and green anoles. We see a lot of both native herps here though since we have a forest behind the apartment.

Yesterday, I found what I'm pretty sure was a green tree frog on our railing. If anyone out there is more of a herper than I, please correct me! It was SO tiny and cute! I took two photos, one for size reference, and one up close and personal.

They're baaack!

2006-09-03T19:03:00.000-05:00

Well, the pileated woodpecker pair has been back! I'm so happy because we probably won't see a lot of birds like that in our new home, lovely as it is. The female, who has black in her facial lines and a smaller red crest, was pecking away at the dead tree behind our balcony. She was very intent. After a little while, the male came calling and gave her a break so she could fly off. I watched them for about 40 minutes, and they didn't even seem to care that I was there! Here's one of the photos I took.

Interesting Factoid

2006-08-23T19:55:00.000-05:00

I just found out last night on TV that mules (the result of a cross between a male donkey and a female horse) can see all 4 of their feet, while horses can only see 2. That's one of the reasons why they use mules to traverse the Grand Canyon trails. Interesting, no? I was absolutely fascinated. Can you imagine? Horse girl didn't know that! I just had to share.

I have one more back post that's been sitting idle while I satisfied my Alaska obsession. I will get to it, I swear! Ron and I also now have one day off together! HURRAH! So maybe we'll do more exploring. :) By the way. I don't know how I messed up my font, but I know that little one is icky, so I'm going to try to change it.

The Last Day :(

2006-08-15T14:18:00.000-05:00

Finally - the last of my Alaska posts! After our boat tour in Seward, we headed to Exit Glacier so Ron and I could see a glacier up close and personal! I guess that means we did see some of Kenai Fjords National Park because it encompasses the area we visited. In fact, it's the only area of the park accessible by car.

We first walked the lower trail that took us to the outwash area at the glacier's base. We touched the water just to see, and it was FREEZING! We got a kick out of it though. We didn't want to cross that cold water in our shoes, so we next hiked the upper trail that goes closer to the glacier. As we neared it, we started to feel the icy air flowing toward us from over the hill. It was like standing near an open walk-in freezer door. The air was extra fresh and crisp. The glacier itself was beautiful. It's an alpine glacier that is part of the ancient Harding Ice Field. You can hike the 7 miles to the ice field, but we didn't have the time or stamina. That's another on our list for next time! Click here for an account from someone who did. It's very interesting. My favorite part was seeing the blue spires in one section of the ice. I had always seen those photos of gorgeous blues in glaciers and was happy to find them on that one section there. This photo gives a decent perspective on size and color.

We stayed overnight in Seward in a lovely Army townhome, and visited the Alaska SeaLife Center the next morning. It's a beautiful center of native sea animals, made possible by money from the Exxon oil spill years back. We highly enjoyed ourselves and managed to get a closer murre photo.

We then headed back to Anchorage and explored a little more of it before our 1am flight to Phoenix. We were very very sad to go. Both Ron and I could have easily spent another week there. And it was made all the more wonderful by our fabulous hosts whose love of Alaska is infectious. Thanks and love ya!

This chocolate waterfall at the Mooseberry store in Anchorage has nothing to do with wildlife, but I think it was Ron's highlight (aside from the whale sightings), so I had to post it just for him. :)

July 28th - Our trip to Seward

2006-08-10T20:34:00.000-05:00

We made the drive to Seward with the whole family! The drive is just gorgeously full of picture perfect views. Of course isn't that Alaska? The first part cuts along the Turnagain Arm (fun name huh?) with the mountains to one side and water on the other. Here we saw dall sheep MUCH closer than in Denali. They were easy to spot because of all the cars pulled off on the side with people pointing. :) It's also said that you can often find Belugas here, but we weren't so lucky.

As you get closer to Seward, the mountains start to surround you again, but the views are no less startling.

Our main draw for going to Seward was to take a boat trip into Resurrection Bay to view wildlife and alpine glaciers. It would have been nice to go into Kenai Fjords National Park (pronounced KEE-nye, but we were worried about seasickness, time and money. Oh well, on our list for next time!!

The first things we saw on the trip were tufted puffins! I was so excited to see them because puffins are just adorably clumsy little birds. They are much smaller than they seem in photos.

A short time later we saw horned puffins, which I find even cuter. Their bones are more dense than usual for a bird to better allow for diving. As a result, watching them take off for flight was very interesting. :)

Along with the puffins, were lots of common murres up in cliffs. Though they are capable of flight, I've heard murres referred to as the penguins of the north.

We also saw the huge stellar sea lions. It was so funny to hear so many of them vocalizing at once. This was the "young adult" population. The rookery is farther out.

The last boat photo we have is of the kittiwake colony farther out in the bay. We didn't see any babies, but it was cool to see even a small colony of cliff nesting birds.

As we were looking for birds, our captain caught a blow from a whale. On the second blow we saw it too! It was a young humpback doing "sounding dives" according to the captain. We had one good view of his flukes and back, but he never came up out of the water. We saw one other young humpack doing the same thing. Even though they didn't breach, it was still so cool to see them. We didn't manage to catch it on film though.

When we headed back toward the dock I was a little bummed. We hadn't seen any sea otters. So I scoured the waters in the hopes of catching a glimpse. At the last minute, I saw a body floating on the top of the water. It was the otter! We actually saw two on the way in. We didn't see them close because there were too many boats, but man were they cute! A harbor seal also popped its head up on the way in to see what was going on. She was so close I could see her big dark eyes. It was very exciting.

When we got in, my aunt steered us toward the fish filet table. Ron was in his element. We saw salmon, rockfish and halibut. The halibut were SO huge! I had never realized how big they were! It may sound silly, but I also hadn't realized they were built like flounder. You can see them here in the big cart.

OK, I know, I know, this is a huge post, but I have to close with this shot of the cousins.
I only have one more Alaska post to tell you about the SeaLife Center and Exit glacier. It's been hard to get to it with our house closing coming up tomorrow!

We saw the mountain!

2006-08-08T15:32:00.000-05:00

On the way back from Denali, the clouds started to lift, and the sun came out. We stopped in that beautiful area we've come to call "our valley," and took more photos. As we were pulling out, I looked up and saw a white peak cresting just above a line of clouds. I whipped out the binoculars and said, "Ron LOOK! It's Denali!!!" We were still just a few miles outside the park, so that 20,320 foot elevation was absolutely astonishing. It's not the tallest mountain in world, but it has the greatest gain in elevation. It juts straight up to its full elevation. I can't even explain how massive and breathtaking it is.

You may have noticed that I referred to it as "Denali." In that area, most Alaskans call the peak "Denali" even though nationally it's recognized as Mt. McKinley. I preferred to call it Denali (the great one) as well. Go to this site for more information on the fascinating conflict over the peak's name: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/liesacrossamerica.htm

When we were in the park gift shop, we saw a 30% pin. The cashier explained that only 30% of the people who come to the park ever see Denali because it's so often in clouds on the south side. We felt very fortunate to be in that minority and decided to get to the state park lookout site as fast as we could. We kept getting tantalizing and majestic glimpses of the mountain the whole 2 hours to the state park lookout point. The difference from our first stop there was amazing. Even from hours away, Denali was so imposing and gorgeous. Yay! We saw it!!

And the biggest deal for me??!!!

2006-08-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

DENALI NATIONAL PARK! This was the cornerstone of my experience. Everything else was awesome, but this was beyond for me. I've wanted to see this park for as long as I've known it existed. It is 6 million acres and the only complete ecosystem that's protected in the United States. It's large enough for all is wildlife so that wardens don't have to drive animals back into the park or introduce hunting to keep numbers healthy.

We had shuttle bus reservations for 9:30 am to Toklat. (which is a river and means dishwater by the way. haha) We got up bright and early so we could have time to meander and get front row seats!

The trip is 53 miles into the park and almost 6 hrs long, but so worth it. In fact we want to go deeper into the park. You wind through lowland scrub spruce terrain up into tundra and on trails etched into mountain sides. At one point, buses had to stop for oncoming buses because you couldn't pass each other on the same cliff road. One lady was having vapors, but I thought it was fun. Anyway, I thought I'd just give you a rundown of what we saw and let the photos speak for themselves. In the beginning we saw mostly ground squirrels that look sort of like a prairie dog, red squirrels and snowshoe hares. They were so beautiful with their soft gray fur and huge ears and feet (the better to hope through snow with!).

By the end of the trip, we had seen 10 grizzlies, 2 while we were standing at a rest stop overlook, 4 caribou and countless numbers of dall sheep that looked like white dots on the mountainside. We also saw a male northern harrier which I didn't even identify right away because I was so not looking for it. :) There were so many other animals to be on the lookout for, like pikas, wolverines and marmots, but they're harder to see.

Enjoy!
Polychrome Pass was my favorite scenic point on the drive. The photos don't do justice to the gorgeous mountain colors and beautiful overlook.
Dall sheep far off on the mountainside. Nice sense of scale huh?
This caribou ran directly in front of our bus. Both sexes have antlers and lose them at different times, but this one is a male.
We were lucky in that we saw this mother and her cub twice. This second time they were much closer to the road. This cub is the only one they've noticed born this spring. They know that because he's such a dark color. In Denali, the bears become blonde as they age. The cub was eating the white bear flowers that only cubs eat.

The Perch

2006-08-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

The Perch is the cabin "resort" where we stayed south of Denali. It was an
absolutely charming, if spare, little place. We shared a bath house. You should have seen me sneaking out, fearful of bears, at 3am to use it. I made Ron go with me. hehehe

Anyway, the Perch's restaurant is a beautifully Alaskan decorated little building "perched" on the side of a hill, overlooking the mountains. We had breakfast there the morning of our Denali adventure. It was a sunny, beautiful morning, and we played on the deck and watched the birds and squirrels eating bread thrown by the proprietor. (which I don't endorse, by the way! ;-)

The red squirrels were so small and cute! I'd never seen them before.
The gray jays there are slightly larger than blue jays, but so much fluffier that they look a lot larger. They were such a gorgeous soft gray, and less bold than ours.
This is a dark eyed junco (I think). Very cute.
Since we didn't see an actual wolf, I had to show you this gorgeous carving.

A Beautiful Drive to Denali

2006-08-01T18:06:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday we picked up our rental car and headed out on the 4.5 hr drive from Anchorage to Denali. We actually took 7 hrs because we enjoyed stopping to drink in the scenery so much. As far as wildlife goes, we saw tons of common ravens and heard their crazy calls. We also saw many black billed magpies. They were so pretty with their mix of black, white and blue. It was hard to ID small birds from the road. We DID manage to see a rock ptarmigan though. He was standing in the middle of the road and didn't move even when we swerved to avoid him! As the cars behind us swerved, he still refused to move. Let's hope the silly bird made it.

Here are some highlights:
This is the only way we saw a moose. ;-) These signs were all along the raod from Wasilla on.

All the town signs farther up north were hand detailed, but this one cracked us up. Talkeetna is a base camp for climbing Denali. The "tna" on the end of words means "river."
We could not see Mt. McKinley because of the cloud cover, as is usually the case, but the scenery in Denali State Park outside the national park is spectacular. This was Hurricane Gulch and caught us entirely off guard. We stopped and Ron ran back onto the bridge to get this shot. Good job honey!Much closer to Denali, we came upon this valley. The purple flower is fireweed. The absolute silence, fresh pine air and larger than life scenery was so overwhelmingly beautiful.It was so odd to have daylight until 11pm and then to not have any total darkness at all, but it sure allowed us to enjoy more views! Here's the view from our little cabin.
Think that's enough? Too many photos? Just wait until the actual Park and Seward posts... mwahahahahaha

July 25th, Our first day in Alaska!

2006-07-31T19:04:00.000-05:00

I love flying across the country. I've only been lucky enough to experience it a few times, but it's always awesome. Once I even saw the Grand Canyon. This time was even more exciting because we were on our way to ALASKA! That meant that I flew over Washington State for the first time ever as well. In fact, after our first 6 hr flight, we connected in Seattle. We like to take photos out the window. :) Here's one of Mt. Rainier.

It was about 3.5 hrs to Anchorage from there. Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud cover, so we only caught glimpses of the Chugach mountains and muddy sections of Turnagain Arm at low tide. What we managed to see was breathtaking though.

My Aunt, Uncle and cousins picked us up at the airport. What a treat! After a brief
stop at their lovely Anchorage home, we headed to Potter Marsh for some waterfowl viewing. Yay! What gorgeous scenery.

We saw a beautiful female greater scaup with her little fuzzy ducklings, a northern shoveler female, tons of black ducks and a couple of red necked grebes! I took photos with my big camera, but messed up the film. :( bummer. We also saw some of those famous Alaska salmon! We were so lucky to see two sockeye in the midst of spawning! The female was hovering over a particular spot and every now and then would turn on her side to furiously brush it with her tail. My uncle explained that she was trying to clear her nest spot to lay her eggs. The male was hovering near, aggressively defending against some investigating pink salmon. (At least I think they were pinks. Am I right Uncle Andy?)

My Uncle also indicated that the the salmon only develop the red color, hump and beak-like mouth when they come in to spawn. The extremely dark red of the male was a sign that he was nearing the end of his life. As soon as he fertilized the eggs, he would die. To come the whole way into the marsh from the ocean without eating only to spawn and die... amazing.
On the left is the male sockeye. The female is on the right.

I know this is a wildlife blog, but I have to discuss food as well. I just can't help myself. Back at the house, the Aunt and Uncle cooked up a scrumptious meal of fish like I've never had. There was cedar smoked sockeye salmon with black pepper, halibut in an asiago cheese mixture and some yummy veggies and rice. I have never had salmon that I've loved. Now I know that's because I've only had salmon in the "lower 48." There is no way it ever compares with fresh caught Alaskan Salmon. It was dark red with a light cedar flavor and came off in tasty chunks. The halibut was so rich and full that it was almost a dessert! Yum. Ron was so sad that he was too stuffed to eat more. Thanks for the awesome food guys! Tomorrow - the incomparable drive to Denali National Park.

We're Back!

2006-07-30T21:29:00.000-05:00

Hi all! We're back from Alaska! It was gloriously, amazingly, awesome and beautiful! How's that for a glowing endorsement? Sorry I couldn't update there, but now I'll just catch up. :) Our flight back started at 1:15am Alaska time, which was 5:15am EST. We just got home at 5pm EST. We are just a bit spent, and I think Ron got sick. Thanks to those of you who answered the animal question! It was fun for me.
;-) Dad, I don't know the Star Trek answer. Too long ago!

Anyway, I'll probably start my posts tomorrow! I'll start with our first day there which was spent flying into beautiful Anchorage and exploring the area with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins!

Wekiwa or Wekiva?

2006-07-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

We've been to Wekiwa Springs many times since our first visit, and I'll tell you a little about some of the subsequent visits. But before I do that, I want to challenge you all to find the difference between the words Wekiwa and Wekiva and what they mean. (You Floridians should have an advantage! Any takers?)

Now.. back to our trips. :) A co-worker taught me how to kayak (props Kevin!), and one trip was on the Wekiva. It was gorgeous, with swallow tailed kites skimming the water, baby 'gators, immature white little blue herons randomly splashed with their adult blue color, and even a limpkin! Since I loved it so much, I wanted to share it with Ron. (of course!)

Ron and I went in the spring and saw all kinds of turtles and many baby alligators. Have you ever seen them? They are adorable with their little baby grunts. Ron even got to hear that, though we were cautious of watchful mama nearby.

Where the river opens up into still water and wide grasslands, we spotted the elegantly gorgeous swallow-tailed kite soaring overhead. Wekiva must be a big breeding ground for little blues because we saw the juvenilesagain as well. The competitive croaking of the bullfrogs even cracked us up.

On the way back though is where the trip got the most exciting for me. We heard people jibbering excitedly as we pulled up to an area known for otter sightings. But I saw no otters. Then, just as I was about to give up, a sleek brown head popped out of the water and disappeared again. I saw them a few more times before continuing on to the beginning of the river. It was just so cool to see a whole family of otters swimming around our kayaks. I had never seen that before and haven't since. I think Ron's favorite part though was the silly turtle we watched flailing his legs wildly before he plunked gracelessly into the water.

Here are some photos from when we took my parents, sister and her boyfriend and my nephew Cole to Wekiwa. That boy is just a baby after my own heart. He loved seeign the birds, plants, lizards and even insects. And he's only one year old!

Cole pointing out the birds and trees on the Wekiwa forest walk.

I have no idea what this is, but I'm just so darn proud of the photo. Any entomologists out there?

A question for you all....

2006-07-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

If you could get up close and personal with any one animal (without fear of mauling for stomping ;-), which one would it be and why?

Just leave your answers in the comments section! My current answer is a whale shark because they are just too darn cool! But it changes all the time. :)

Alaska is coming up soon!! We leave Tuesday morning! HURRAY! I don't know how many computers I'm going to have access to in wild Alaska, so I may not post for the week we're gone. I have two more catch up posts until then, and then I'll be up to date! YAY! Wish us much fun and lots of cool animal sights! I really need this vacation...

Canaveral National Seashore

2006-07-20T08:44:00.000-05:00

This seashore is... You guessed it! Next to Cape Canaveral. Thank goodness for the space program. It's part of the reason why this section of gorgeous coastline has remained unspoiled. It's developed just enough for sunbathers. We came on the second trip to Merritt Island and visited Playalinda Beach. The road on the way in was lined by yet more gorgeous wetlands. We got to see the white pelicans that only visit here in the winter. (thanks for the tip Grandfather!) They mainly feed by swimming along and searching the water, unlike the brown pelican's plunging dive. They're also larger. Very cool! Note also the ever present black mob of coots.

The beach is part of a barrier island backed by mosquito lagoon. The dunes are lush and full, and the beach is soft with an inviting surf.
Beautiful dunes full of sea grape.

Different types of terns along with a few gull species.

Another cool thing is that you can see the NASA launch pad from the access road. I got a photo, but it's too grainy. :( All in all, from the Atlantic beaches I've seen, this is by far my favorite.

A little side note...

2006-07-18T11:35:00.000-05:00

Since the photos on here don't always come out as clear as the originals, a little hint is to click your mouse on a photo that you want to see more clearly. It will come up larger in a separate window, and you can see more detail. For example, if you click on the roseate spoonbill photo, you can see some duck butts (blue winged teals) in the air behind the roseates. :) Pretty cute stuff. They were eating so much we hardly got to see their heads. There is also a huge grouping (or should I say swarm?) of coots off to the back left... Happy viewing!

More Merritt Island photos!

2006-07-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

On my second trip, I went with friends later in the winter. We saw a much greater variety, but fewer numbers of ducks. The only raptor we saw was an osprey. (I've seen these guys catching fish. They're amazing!) However, we saw much greater numbers of wading birds and rails. Many of these were well hidden, and seen only due to the great spotting techniques of my co-worker. I think the delicately sculpted black necked stilt was my favorite discovery. My second favorite was probably all the tricolored herons in breeding plumage. Note the little white shock of feathers coming from its head. They are just lovely.

We also saw a sora, tons of greater yellowlegs and killdeer, lots of different types of plovers and sandpipers and all the ducks I'd seen before along with green winged teals and possibly redheads and ruddys (cute little things). We saw a few lesser scaups on the drive home. Roseates were flying overhead quite often, so they must have been ready to be on the move. We saw none on the ground, but they are beautiful in flight.

The Osprey we saw.

A little snapping turtle, just a little larger than my hand, was in the roadway. We very carefully moved him to the side so he wouldn't get squished. How cute huh? We saw a lot more large 'gators this time too... along with a lot more silly people trying to feed them marshmallows and poke them with sticks. sigh.

Merritt Island here we come!

2006-07-17T09:43:00.000-05:00

This is the first of 2 Merritt Island posts because I loved it so much I've been there twice! I had been told that I was very likely to see roseate spoonbills here in the winter along with glossy ibises and reddish egrets... more of the birds on my list of "birds to see."

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is situated on Florida's Atlantic Coast near the NASA launch site. In fact, the whole refuge is closed on the day of a shuttle launch. It's a 140,000 acre wetlands preserve that serves as a very important breeding ground for many wintering birds and as a home for various other reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Ron and I decided to go in January as part of "operation enjoy our remaining weekends together."

The visitor center did not disappoint, just like all the Florida visitor centers we're seen so far. There was a boardwalk with a few trails behind it where we could see an active Osprey nesting platform up close. The ospreys didn't seem to care that we were gawking at them. The main attraction was Blackpoint Wildlife Drive - a meandering 6 miles of scenic beauty.

At the beginning of the drive we saw the teeny pied-billed grebes. They aren't flashy, but SO cute! Each pull off point was labeled with a number that corresponded to our little guide map. One of the points indicated that it was popular spot for bald eagles. Ron had never seen them, so we stopped to try to find the nesting tree that the guide indicated. We never needed to though, because directly above us, 3 of them were wheeling. Even from the ground, they are so impressive. We've since seen more near our home, but we were excited for Ron's first sighting!

Farther on in the drive, the land really opened up into sweeping areas of grassy wetlands and ponds. Here is where we started seeing 100's of ducks and coots! No, there were probably thousands! They were mostly far off, so we couldn't identify all of them with the binoculars, but we definitely saw blue winged teals, northern pintails and northern shovelers. (more ducks for you Heather!)

I was really enjoying the ducks, but was wondering if I'd get to see any of the birds I had been told were here in abundance when we almost passed a reddish egret! it just looked "funny" in shape compared to the other herons and egrets I'd seen, and I happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye in time to yell, "Ron. Stop!" This was less dramatic than you'd expect since we were only going about 5mph. It was sitting quietly in a clump of grass. They hang out mainly near the shores, so I've still only seen this one.

I was beginning to despair of ever seeing my roseate spoonbills, when we turned the corner and bam!

I again yelled to Ron to stop the car. That vivid pink, so beautiful during breeding/nesting season, caught my eye yet again. We watched them for about 15 minutes. It was hard to get a good shot of them because they barely lifted their heads from the water. They were sweeping their bills back and forth through the water, searching for food, moving and stirring up the sediment with their feet as they went. You can see a few of the ducks in front of them in the above shot as well. It was funny because we watched the first set for so long because I was afraid I wouldn't see them again, but then we came up on probably 50 more as we wound through the park.

I even got to see the glossy ibis! They are another bird seen more at the shorelines. So while I've seen so many of the white ibises that they seem like pigeons, I've never seen their darker cousin. There were quite a few of them feeding as well.

We also saw raptors all through the area. I'm sure ducks were a big draw for them. A
red shouldered hawk can easily catch a small teal. There were also red tailed hawks and northern harriers! I saw one in the sky with its characteristic slim, bent-tipped wings and white striped rump and just knew it was a male harrier. We saw the female a few minutes later.
(Yes, I know I look silly in the photo, but that wind was cooold!)

After the drive, we couldn't go to the National Seashore because a Saturn 5 rocket was set to launch, and it was closed. So, we gawked at a few juvenile alligators and left with the refreshing sight of a non-roadkill 9 banded armadillo.

A morning hike

2006-07-15T21:58:00.000-05:00

Our next outdoor trip was a very quick and simple one. Sometimes it's good to just take a walk and save some money. :) So we headed to the Tibet- Butler Nature Preserve on the Butler chain of Lakes in Windermere, FL. There are certainly no shortage of lakes here!

It's a smaller, 438 preserve surrounded by parks and homes on many sides. Thank goodness it's there! It's hard to find much of the natural world around Orlando anymore. The Vera Carter Environmental Center at the beginning of the walk was lovely. There was a little garden outside complete with native turtles and engraved plaques describing the plants. I'm still trying very hard to learn more about Fla plants! The inside was small, but full of intrepretive and interactive exhibits. Outside the building, there were a myriad of trails snaking through the park. We took the Osprey Landing Trail since it ended in an overlook. It was nice to take a simple walk in the woods again. We saw mostly bugs, but near the end, we heard a great commotion and squeaking. Suddenly a black racer (snake) darted at full speed across the path, followed closely by an angrily squeaking wood rat. It was kinda cool. ;-)

We came to a boardwalk at the end of the trail. It started in the pine forest, but when we turned the corner, we were suddenly in the midst of a gorgeous cypress hamock. The trees were so straight, tall and smooth and draped in spanish moss. The reflection in the water beneath them made it all the more perfect. I wish I could find the photos we took, but they are nowhere to be found! Sometimes digital pictures aren't a good thing.

At the very end of the path was an overlook over the water. Despite lots of searching, the only thing I managed to get a glimpse of was my first green winged teal through our binoculars. I was glad though because most of our ducks are only here for the winter. This one was a very impressive male.. My cousin Heather would have loved this beautiful little duck. I can't even begin to describe it, so hopefully the photo does it enough justice.

Then it got hot, so we went home. The end. ;-)

backyard birds

2006-07-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

I haven't heard our friend the Chuck Will's Widow lately. They're an evening birdwith a really interesting call. It took us a long time to figure out what it was since, being northerners, we'd never heard it before. We even wondered if it was a type of owl!! (silly people) We figured it out when I stumbled across a description that said they they call "incessantly" in 3 notes (chuck-wills-widow!). I thought, "Yup! That describes our little birdie friend to a T!" I highly recommend listening to this recording of their call.

Chuck will's widows are the largest of the nightjars. Since they tend to stay hidden at night though, I've only gotten one glimpse of one of the many around our complex. I have seen and heard their family relatives, the common nighthawk, many times though. I've seen them swooping for insects in floodlit areas, and heard them as they made their nasally little screech in the forest near our apartment.

We have a lot of owls around our place as well. A great horned owl hooted all night long for a few weeks, much to my friend Kathy's dismay when she visited. I saw the owl once perched on the apartment rooftops. I was so excited that I stood out there in the dark, with my groceries, for about 15 minutes looking around for anyone who was excited as I was. A barred owl made its prescence known very faintly around 6pm one day, and some species of owl screamed so loudly and angrily outside our window one night, that we bolted upright, hearts pounding, sure a murder was being committed. We'd like to think it was a barn owl, since they are harder to spot, but other owls are capable of screaming also.

Another bird I miss is the pileated woodpecker. We had quite a bold raucous pair every evening for a few months. I haven't seen or heard them in a while.

Watching birds (and the occasional racoon ;-) from our balcony has taught me a lot. I can now identify cardinals, pileated, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, great crested flycatchers, the tiny northern parulas, catbirds, mockingbirds, red shouldered hawks and ruby throated hummingbirds by sight and sound. I never would have imagined bird watching would be so fun and relaxing. Does this mean I'm getting old? ;-}

Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama to Key Largo...

2006-07-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

...and Islamorada! If you can believe it, we drove in one day from South Beach (with its own unique brand of wildlife ;-) to the Everglades, and then, on the way back from the Everglades, we spotted a sign. It said, "Key Largo - 25 miles," or something to that effect. We thought, "What the heck! Let's give it a go!"

Neither one of us had ever been to the Keys, so we didn't quite know what to expect. First of all, it was difficult to tell when we crossed into Key Largo from the mainland. I expected some sort of huge bridge or demarcation, but the bridge was rather small. Key Largo itself looked much like the mainland of small town Florida. We'll have to visit John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park next time we're there. It's a State Park entirely under water to protect the fragile reef system. Since it was getting late though, we decided to venture farther on to Islamorada, the "sport fishing capital" of the Keys.

Once we hit Islamorada, things started to change. The second key is much smaller than Key Largo, so we could see a lot more of the ocean on all sides. The smell of sea air and the constant breezes were invigorating. We headed first to Robbie's Pier; a recommendation from our Frommer's Guide upon which we rely heavily. ;-) The pier was very hard to see, as it was surrounded by weather beaten wooden buildings scattered around a small gravel and dirt parking lot. The small building that led to the pier housed food to feed the tarpon along with hundreds of photos of beaming fishermen holding up massive fish.

We paid a small fee to walk out onto the surprisingly small pier where about 15 people were pointing and shrieking as the huge fish battled for any morsel of food dropped their way. To give you an idea, tarpon can weigh up to 200lbs and grow to approximately 4 feet in length. They are massive! It was almost scary to see at least 50 of these twisting silvery fish swarming the water. When people tried to hand feed them, they would even grab fingers! We didn't feed them, but enjoyed the show. Something I enjoyed seeing even more were the brown pelicans. There were about 20 of them waiting for any food the fish happened to miss. The really interesting thing was that we were able to get close enough to tell from the different feather colorations which ones were adults, chick breeding adult, juveniles etc. Many birds change feather coloration for breeding purposes, but brown pelicans change from juvenile, to subadult, to breeding, to non breeding, to chick feeding. The picture below illustrates it.

From top to bottom, the first bird, almost out of frame, is a subadult. The next 4 are immature birds, then a chick feeding adult with the extensive brown framing on its neck and another immature. And the farthest one down in the frame is a non-breeding adult.

We decided to turn around after seeing Robbie's Pier since the keys are a 150 mile long chain of islands connected by a slow, mostly 2 lane Route 1. It would have taken too long. Someday we'll drive the 6 and a half hours from Orlando to Key West. I never imagined it was that far.

On this whole trip, there were a few birds I was really keeping my eye out for. Two of them were different color morphs of the Great Blue Heron. One is white and one has a mix of blue and white coloration and is called "Wurdemann's" heron. Both of these are found mainly in south Florida and in the Keys. It can be difficult from a distance to tell the great "white" heron from the great egret, which are both white and in the same genus (Ardea). However, the heron's head is shaped differently, it's much larger, and the most obvious sign is its light colored legs. The egret's are black.

I'm describing all this because on the way to Robbie's Pier, I thought I might have caught a glimpse of a large white bird out in the water. On the way back, I very much wanted to check it out, as I thought it could possibly be the white morph I wanted to see so badly! We pulled into a little oceanside restaurant, got out the binoculars, and sure enough, it was the lighter legged white morph great blue!! I took tons of photos, but even with my large camera, it was too far off, and my dubious photography skills didn't make it easier.

We played around a little more after that, but it was getting late, and we had to head back to our hotel in South Beach. I saw a few terns and gulls from a distance before I conked out and let Ron take control of the directions. Next trip to the Keys... it's Key West here we come!

Everglades - Our only subtropical wilderness

2006-07-05T17:06:00.000-05:00

"There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them...." - Marjory Stoneham Douglas

Aaaahh the Everglades..and one big post. Back in January, Ron and I found out that we would no longer have weekends off together. Since we'd been hoping to get to Miami and other parts of South Florida, we decided to book a trip! We did South Beach the first day, and the Everglades and Keys the second.

The everglades is something I've always wanted to see. It was designated a National Park in 1947 due in no small part to reaction from Marjory Stoneham Douglas's book River of Grass. It was the first park to be created because of its biological rather than geological significance.

The park comprises 1.5 million acres or 2120 square miles. That's just under 20% of its original size. It's not a swamp. It's a 40 to 60 mile wide, shallow and slow moving river that serves as a haven for countless numbers of endangered animals and plants and serves as a natural filter for biological pollutants. For those reasons, I had been intrigued by the idea of visiting the park. And finally, I was going to get to see it!

We decided to enter the park at the Ernest F. Coe visitor center, south of the Shark Valley entrance. We'll visit that in another trip.

After miles of farmland, we finally came upon the beautiful visitor center. I could have just spent hours there!

The park beat the visitor's center hands down though. About 30 seconds after we entered the gates, I saw a flash of movement next to the car. A red-tailed hawk had landed directly beside the car to catch a smaller bird, and then flew off to our left. It was amazing! I wanted to get a photo, but it happened so fast that all I have is a small brown blip in the far left corner of the photo.

We went on to enjoy the wide stretching vistas and multiple views of wading birds, osprey and hawks until we reached Anhinga Trail. Anhinga Trail is one of the most popular walking trails in the park. Because of this, the animals tend to go about their daily routine as if humans were not there. Here we saw many many double crested cormorants along with anhingas, herons and egrets. The cormorants were so accustomed to people, I was able to get close enough to get a shot of their emerald green eyes. Aren't they gorgeous?

The alligators also had no fear of people, as you can see by how close Ron got to take this photo. Did you know that the southern tip of Florida is the only place where you will find alligators and crocodiles living together? We didn't see any crocs, much to my dismay. The areas where they are usually spotted were inaccessible to us due to hurricane Wilma. But I was happy to see our friends, the toothy 'gators. I had never seen large ones that close before.

Before we left anhinga trail, we got to see the orange barked gumbo limbo tree. Its smooth, coppery bark is really beautiful. We also had a little bit of humor when we observed a crow begging for food from some woman near her van. I had run to the restroom, and when I came out, Ron was urgently motioning toward the van. There a crow stood, on the pavement, making a strange, "aglurk glurk" noise. It was definitely not a sound in a crow's normal repertoire. Our only guess was that it was one of the sounds he had learned to mimic from somewhere, and that he was using it to gain attention and thus... food. He obviously had been rewarded for it in the past. Crows are part of the corvid family and can mimic sounds much the way parrots can. It was pretty darn funny, and the first time I was able to see it in action.

We were both pretty excited about Anhinga Trail, but two of the birds that I had really hoped to see were the roseate spoonbill and the purple gallinule. The roseate spoonbill is a beautiful blush pink with a long flattened, spoonlike bill, and the gallinule is a gorgeous deep purple. I just couldn't imagine seeing birds of those colors in the wild. So we trudged on, stopping at various amazing pull off points on the way until we made it to the tip of the Everglades...Flamingo. We were very excited about visiting that section because flamingo, being the point where fresh water meets salt, has an amazing array of animal life, and an unrestricted view out into the ocean on all sides. It's the tip of the continental United States. It was here that I had hoped to see the two birds I sought. However, as I mentioned before, hurricane Wilma damaged that end of the Everglades so badly that it wasn't safe for us to proceed past the parking lot. The lodge and marina there had been utterly destroyed. All the vegetation was wiped out and replaced with foul smelling mud and debris. And the gnats were so thick it was hard to breathe. We could only see a glittering tease of the ocean just beyond the horizon. We hope to go there again once nature has had time to recover so that we can see even more of that awesome place.

I couldn't possibly have mentioned this whole day in detail, so for those of you wondering what animals we saw, here is a list. And keep in mind, that most of these we saw very up close and personal. :) I think if we went again, we would see more, since our animal watching skills have improved.

boat tailed grackles
common grackles
cattle egrets
cardinals
red-tailed hawk (adult and juvenile)
snail kite
ospreys (nest building, fishing etc)
red shouldered hawks
kingfishers
American alligators
white ibises
great egrets
snowy egrets
little blue herons
green herons
great blue herons
wood storks
coots
double crested cormorants
American crow
anhingas
green anoles
Cuban anoles (invasive species - Haf, these are the ones mostly missing their tails at the Grandparents' house ;-) )

Our last shot... and the closest we got to seeing a real Florida panther. ;-)

cute baby moorhens

2006-07-02T19:58:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing a pair of common moorhens hanging around my workplace for a while now. Today I noticed two tiny black chicks with red head spots stumbling around behind the parents. They look so funny with their too big feet. This site has some cute photos and talks a bit about what moorhens are:

Common Moorhens

Beautiful Wekiwa Springs - and BIG BUGS!

2006-07-01T19:44:00.000-05:00

Soon after we moved to Florida, we started seeing signs all over for Wekiwa Springs State Park. I was eager to see some of "natural Florida" as Seminole County likes to advertise. Seminole County is the beginning of some of the northern Florida ecology. Northern Florida is more mixed forest and tends to be of higher elevation than central and southern Florida. In fact, the Everglades ecosystem used to extend almost to the middle of the state into Kissimmee where the higher lands then started. In any case, I'd seen those lush forests before, and was eager to experience them again.

The entrance to the state park was very unassuming. When we pulled into the parking lot though, we saw the attraction. The springs were right there at the base of a lush green hill surrounded by trees. A very large swimming area had been built up in the 1800's complete with steps leading into the warm, clear blue water. Bubbles erupted from the sandy bottom where the spring originates. The view beyond the swimming area is my favorite though. This photo was taken from the footbridge that divides the swimming area from the start of the Wekiva River.

Exploring more, we hoped to see fox squirrels, alligators and maybe a few birds. Instead, the
big highlight of our visit was a lubber. What is a lubber?? It is the largest grasshopper you have ever seen. We were completely astounded and spent many minutes dancing around it, taking photos and half afraid it would suddenly jump on us and make us squeal like little girls. At the time we didn't know what it was. Only later did I learn that Floridians know it well, and that it's no big deal to them. As Tricia told me, "It's just a lubber." I wish this photo did it justice. They're at least 3-4 times the size of the largest grasshopper I'm used to seeing. (6-8cm long)

Luckily, we've explored Wekiwa many times since then, and seen other things that I'll post here, but you'd be amazed at how excited we were to see that crazy grasshopper on our first wildlife excursion.

An Introduction

2006-06-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

I have kept a diary for most of my life. However, I never considered blogging. I watched blogging grow in popularity yet never really felt like posting my personal feelings on the world wide web. Then my husband Ron and I moved to Florida and started visiting places with the express intent of finding certain types of wildlife. Capturing our adventures in my journal didn't quite cut it. I couldn't add photos, and I wanted to share the wonder at what we discovered with anyone who cared! Thus, I finally found a reason to want to create a blog. I plan on posting back posts starting with our move to Florida. We've obviously had wildlife interactions before that. Some include seeing frigate birds in Antigua, iguanas in Puerto Rico (on the runway!) and a beaver in Ellicott Creek in Tonawanda. We weren't taking trips specifically for wildlife viewing until now though. This will be a nice way for us to keep those memories alive. I will post one every few days or so until our next big adventure (Alaska!), and then will hopefully be up to date. We hope you enjoy!