Its been two weeks and still no Jaycob. I am resigning myself to the fact that he is gone. There has been a lot of raptor and raccoon activity around the yard lately so its not really a safe place for him anyway. The other bluejays have been around, off and on, but not as much as before.

Went to Flamingo Gardens again since it is nearby and peaceful. Things have been pretty hectic lately, plus we are going to Puerto Rico the week after next so trying to catch up on everything before that.


Juvie night heron

This laughing gull begged constantly for food. I held out my hand with some dog kibble (they sell it in vending machines there- youre meant to feed the birds!) and after he finished it off he bit my finger. It hurt! The funniest part was that after he got the food he would just drop it and keep on begging.


Laughing Gull


Laughing gull


Noisy peacock


Flamingo


Ibis

Still no sign of Jaycob. I keep hoping each time I see a bluejay in the yard that it is him. Its been over a week now. I just hope he has gone to be with the other jays and is having a good life.

Here are a couple more from the zoo. The tortoises were surprisingly noisy and gathered quite a crowd of onlookers.





Last Saturday we went to Everglades National Park and watched the sunset. It was peaceful and blissfully mosquito free until the sun went down, and even then it wasnt bad. After it got dark we drove around looking for wildlife. No panthers this time but we saw a few snakes and a barn owl.

I took two days off last week to chill out and take some pictures. We went to Miami Metrozoo on Friday and had a great time. It wasnt too hot or too crowded.



Feeding time for the poison dart frogs. When we first walked by there was no sign of any frogs. But then the keeper misted the terrarium and suddenly they appeared. He was kind enough to leave the door open to let me and another photog take better photos, not having to shoot through the glass. They snapped up their dinner, which was ants.

I took about 300 photos. Have not gone through all of them yet, here are a few interesting animals that we saw:




Eland


Okapi



More to come soon.

In other news, we have not seen Jaycob since Saturday. I am worried that something might have happened to him, but I have noticed him associating more with the wild bluejays, and he has been spending more time away from the yard over the past few weeks. So its possible that he has just moved on. Still hoping that he will come back.

Last week I visited the Loggerhead Marine Life Center of Juno Beach, a rescue/rehabilitation facility for sea turtles. There were some sick/injured juvenile and adult turtles recuperating from their injuries, as well as a tank of hatchlings that had been found on local beaches. Unless the hatchlings are sick or injured, they are usually released within a few weeks.

They also have educational programs and a gift shop that I could easily have spent a few hundred dollars in- they have every type of sea turtle paraphernalia you could ever want. Its a great little place and I can't wait to go back and visit with the baby turtles.


Loggerhead SeaTurtle, Caretta caretta


Loggerhead SeaTurtle, Caretta caretta


Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas

Following in the footsteps of my last Orlando trip, the first stop was Gatorland on Friday evening. It was late, and rainy, so didn't get too many shots there. Rich was enthralled by the "Gator Jump Show" which is not a bad show I guess, at least the animals get a feed out of it.



I went back to Lake Kissimmee on Saturday in hopes of getting some more snail kite shots. Unfortunately none were to be seen and there was an annoying drizzle. There were lots of caracara and sandhill crane around though, and tons of barn swallows in the road and perched on the wire.



Luckily, the weather soon cleared up, and we proceeded to the nearby Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area. Bowhunting season had begun so there were quite a few hunters around. But I always got a friendly wave as I drove by them so they seemed nice enough.
Again, not much by way of wildlife shots, but some incredible scenery. I was fascinated by the various types of vegetation and natural communities- very different from down here in South Florida. I fell in love with the ancient live oaks draped in spanish moss. Will definitely be going back there for some more landscape shots.



The final stop of the day was a quick drive through Highland Hammock State Park in Sebring. The Cypress trail is amazing. It is a boardwalk trail that winds through the cypress dome and across a small stream. Again, not much wildlife, only a few ibis and a yellow-billed cuckoo. But beautiful scenery.



I added some more shots to my gallery also, check them out here.

A few months ago, I posted about the baby iguana that lives in the backyard.
It has grown at an alarming rate. No doubt eating up the dogfood and fruit we put out for Jaycob.
We get a lot of exotic lizards around here- so far I have seen Cuban Anole, Brown Basilisk, Green Iguana, various Geckos, as well as the common Brown Anole. Unfortunately I have not seen any native Green Anoles for quite a while.