Saw this nighthawk at one of the wetland sites today. She was dragging her wings and making a really weird noise to distract us from her nest. I took this picture with the little kodak. Really wish I had the D200 with me instead!

Its been pretty crazy around here lately, what with work and everything else going on.
Jaycob is still around, he comes to the back door and begs for crickets periodically. I throw them out and he catches them in midair.
He is making friends with the wild jays and has been joining in the alarm calls when the cooper's hawk is nearby.
The yard is full of baby grackles and mockingbirds right now, they hang out in the elderberry bushes and make a ruckus.

Last week when I was on vacation I went to Flamingo Gardens, a small wildlife sanctuary and botanical garden. They have a free flight aviary with injured or otherwise unreleasable native birds. Its a nice quiet place, well except for when the peacocks yell out to each other.







These otters were the funniest. The keeper would throw out fish and they would catch them and swim backwards, floating on their backs, gnawing at the fish.

Last night, for the first time, I went to Everglades National Park at night. I know this sounds crazy in JULY when the mosquitoes are abundant, but it actually wasn't so bad. There were some evening thunderstorms that made for an interesting sunset. Plus there was a lot of nocturnal wildlife: numerous snakes and toads on the roads, common nighthawk, barred owl, barn owl, and the highlight of the trip: a FLORIDA PANTHER!!! I only saw about 3/4 of it as it disappeared into the brush but it was still very exciting.

Jaycob update: He is still hanging around the yard. Yesterday he decided to grab a fish out of the pond and drop it on the ground so I had to go rescue it.

I let out Jaycob a couple of days ago. He hung around the yard for a while but is gone now. I am a little worried but I know he can feed himself so I hope he will be ok. There are lots of other blue jays around so hopefully he will learn all about mobbing snakes and other things that jays do.

We have had three cottonmouth here in the yard in the past week, as well as corn snake, ribbon snake, and everglades racer. And, the other evening there was an adult and a juvenile bald eagle out in the preserve out back.

Its been a pretty quiet vacation for me, which is what I needed. Ive got a bunch of photos that I will start going through and posting this week.


Jaycob


Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin Agkistrodon piscivorus

This little baby has been hanging out under the bird feeder. I think he is eating the dog food that I put out for the blue jays.



In other news, I am on vacation!

This Red Bellied Woodpecker brought its babies to our birdfeeders last week.



We have had many fledglings in the garden this year: northern cardinal, red bellied woodpecker, bluejay, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, white wing dove, grackles, redwing blackbirds...

Speaking of fledglings, Jaycob is just about ready to go. Although you wouldnt know it from this picture. He still acts like a baby when he wants to.

Here's a quick little lizard that I saw on the job yesterday:

Eastern Six-lined Racerunner Aspidoscelis sexlineata sexlineata

Happy Independence Day!

Finally the sixth and final posting from the Orlando trip.
I hope to go back and visit the snail kites soon. Until then, enjoy the following hunt series! More in my gallery HERE.