I went back to the site with the killdeer nest today and there are now four eggs!
I was impressed by the arrangement of the eggs in the nest. (This is exactly how I found it).

The blue jay is growing up so fast! Will post pics later this week- photoshop is acting up and creating abstract art out of my photos.

There really have not been many bugs around my garden lately. I suspect the recent drought and high winds have something to do with it. At least we are blissfully free of mosquitoes. The downside is that there are not many dragonflies to photograph- I was surprised to see one in the garden on Monday.

Elsewhere in Florida, love bug season is in full swing. I hate it when they splat on the windscreen but are still alive and their legs are wriggling but their body is mush. According to Wikipedia, there is a correlation between love bug abundance and Florida hurricane season- highly abundant love bugs predicts a very active hurricane season. Let's hope not. Although we could use the rain.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from last weekend until i sort out the photoshop weirdness.

This is Pebbles, a bearded dragon. She is 2 years old. She enjoys a morning soak followed by some basking in the sun and a run in the grass. She dislikes airplanes and vultures flying overhead. Her favorite foods are crickets, waxworms, and millipedes, but she will try to eat weird things like feathers, snails, and pebbles (thats how she got her name).

Had to go check on a project this morning. Yes, on a saturday, on a holiday weekend.
It was worthwhile though, got to watch a couple of loggerhead shrike babies get fed.


Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus


Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus

There are baby birds everywhere!

Yesterday one of my crews found a baby bluejay. There was no sign of the parents and it was severely dehydrated so I took it home to raise. I dont want to post pics yet because I am trying not to get attached in case it doesnt make it.

Today another crew showed me a killdeer nest at one of our work sites. And while we were walking we got buzzed by an irate mockingbird.


Killdeer nest Charadrius vociferus

This week has been crazy at work. I think this picture expresses my feelings well:


Florida softshell Apalone ferox

Ok comments are back. Thanks Rich!

I was gardening today and encountered the scariest ladybug ever.

Comments are disabled here and on the gallery until we sort the comment moderation thingy out.
Until then, I can be reached at janine AT janine-images.com (take out the spaces and replace the AT with the @ thing).

Well it looks like the spammers have found me. So I will probably be forced to use one of those comment moderation thingies where you have to type in the nonsense word. Those things annoy me, personally, but it seems like the only way to block them.

In other news, I finally got around to updating my gallery. Check it out here.


Black Skimmer Rhynchops niger

We finally got some rain this week. Hooray!
I have been at a conference all week so havent been out and about taking pictures.
I just took a couple this evening when I got home, a bunch of sad looking birds were eating wet seed out of the birdfeeder.


Monk Parakeet Myiopsitta monachus

Here are some more from Tigertail Beach in Marco Island. I had gone in hopes of seeing the skimmers and terns nesting on the beach. I went there around this time last year and saw tons of them, but none this year. Maybe they are nesting later this year.

I saw some dolphins hunting in the shallows:

Bottlenose Dolphin Tursiops truncatus

And this little blue caught a weird fishie. I have no clue what it is.

Little blue heron Egretta caerulea

I am going to be at a conference all week so won't be out in the field taking photos. Not to worry, Ive got a bunch saved up from a recent trip over to Marco Island.

MORTAL KOMBAT

Electric sheep is a wonderful screensaver. Get it HERE.
It has a very calming effect. Put on some soothing music, be it trance, tribal drums, power metal, whatever you like. Watch the "sheep" morph and evolve.

Here are some screen captures of sheep.







You can rate the sheep by pressing the up and down arrow keys- here's an example of a "sheeps up."



There is so much variation in terms of shape, pattern, speed, color...
I prefer sheep in greens, blues, and purples, with circular or spiral patterns. Yellows and reds, especially with spiky or jagged fast moving patterns, elicit a "sheeps down."
Any other sheep watchers out there? What kind of sheep do you like?

I am tired of all this smoke. Not only are we getting smoke from our own fires, but the air currents are now bringing down the smoke from the Georgia/north Florida fires too. Peachy.

So here are some photos from earlier this month when the sky was clear and the colors were bright.


Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula


Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula

Two stilts gettin' it on.


Black Necked Stilt Himantopus mexicanus

There were about a million of these rough green snakes out on the Holeyland levee this afternoon. I got out and chased the first dozen off the road, but after getting tired of that I just went around them, they were everywhere.


Rough green snake Opheodrys aestivus

It was surprisingly cool and nice out this morning. Apparently the frogs thought so too because I saw a lot more than usual today.


Unidentified toadling


Pig Frog Rana grylio

I visited a small aquarium exhibit last week. They had various habitat tanks set up and each one represented a different ecosystem: sea grass, coral reef, mangrove, etc. It was pretty cool.

These are manicure shrimp.

Scarlet Lady cleaner shrimp Lysmata debelius

Here is a nice fishie scene.


Look, its Nemo and Dora!

I found the mother cardinal and the two babies dead at the nest today. Something had attacked them violently but had not eaten them, just killed them. Some grackles had been harassing them on Friday- we chased them off but they knew where the nest was so they are likely suspects.
The male is still around and I can hear him singing. I hope he finds another mate and a safer nest site.
I keep trying to tell myself that this sort of thing happens all the time in nature and there is nothing I could have done. But I am still very upset about it.

Cardinal eggs hatched yesterday and there are at least two nestlings. I can hear them from in my bedroom.
I know these pictures aren't great but they are the best I could get.

I like to look at clouds.

Here is one from earlier this week. It was a bright sunny day but as I watched I saw lightning flash deep within this maturing thundercloud.



The Air and Sea show is on this weekend. A whole bunch of airplanes and stuff put on a show at Ft. Lauderdale beach. Today I saw some of the fighter jets practicing their moves. Then these four came along.



When the sky looks like this, its time to go home.


Mammatus Cloud, so named because someone thought it looked like breasts. These clouds are thought to precede strong thunderstorms, or even tornadoes.

Last night I saw Type O Negative at Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale. Best. Music. Ever.
Here's a list of birds I saw while standing in line outside the club:

European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Eurasian Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto
Pigeon Columba livia
Lilac Crowned Amazon Amazona finschi

None of these birds are native to Florida, or even North America. I guess its a pretty good list considering it was downtown Ft. Lauderdale.

Oh and here is a picture of a swallowtail caterpillar.