There’s so much wildlife around Florida this time of year. It’s alligator mating season, we’ve had white ibis and sandhill cranes in our front yard, and the ospreys have finished their nests and are sitting on eggs.
Ospreys (which aren’t eagles or hawks, despite their common names) have a high-pitched call that sounds a lot like a guinea pig squeal. During mating season, the calls can be pretty annoying, but the beauty of watching them wheel and hunt makes up for it (though there are a lot of fish heads lying about our neighborhood :-)).
An osprey in our neighbor’s tree, eating a fish. See the fish tail hanging off the branch?
Another zoomed-up image. Aren’t they gorgeous?
This one was checking out a dead palm in our backyard, calling to its mate and quite clearly extolling the virtues of such a wonderful site. We had to cut the tree down, though. :-( Once ospreys build a nest in a tree, you’re never allowed to chop the tree down, even if it presents a danger to your home in hurricane season, and this one would have, as it was close to the house.
Here’s a pic of the osprey nest across the street from us.
A gator in the pond near our house. This is a little one. There’s one more than five feet long just one pond down. (And no, I’m not close to this gator–another zoomed image.)
We had three of these gorgeous sandhill cranes searching our grass for bugs one afternoon. They’re about three and a half feet tall!
Another view.
And another.
And these pretty white ibis are often in our yard.
Wow…lucky you…I just get to see chipmunks and garter snakes and every so often an elk or a bald eagle. A nice Saturday surprise!
Very nice! Like Jay Lake, all I get is chipmunks. Phooey. There are deer nearby, but I haven’t seen any yet.
Oh, I didn’t get to see them all today. I’ve been needing to clean pics off my camera for a while. :-)
The coolest thing I’ve seen is a flock of green parrots–big green parrots–in the tree right outside the kids’ school. :-) They must have been there only seasonally, though, because I haven’t seen them in the last two months. I’d love to get a pic of them, though. :-)
Cranes are almost preternaturally beautiful, are they not? Every so often during winter when I drive by the bird santuary there is one amid all the other beaked fluffballs hopping and fluttering and jerking about, looking like a poem stuck amid a bulletin board of colorful ads.
Absolutely beautiful. We have so much wildlife around here too- native parrots and eagles, as well as cockatoos and galahs and the ever-present kookaburras! I can see I’ll have to get out with the camera and start capturing some images as well :)
The weirdest animal siting I ever experienced was the parrot nests in Chicago! It was like an apartment complex of nests, with parrots flying in and out and all around.
We lived in Fla in 98, and one of the things I miss the most is the wildlife. We lived just south of Orlando in an area that’d long since been lost to development. It’s a shame that most people don’t associate Florida with wildlife.(Except mice.)
Wow. One point in Florida’s favor. Fantastic!
I can think of at least two others.
What, you and Sandra?
We have several osprey pairs close by here in Mendocino. Our bird life is less exotic than yours, but we sure do enjoy our woodpeckers, various sorts of jays, sparrows, owls, ravens, junkos, chickadees and, unfortunately, wild turkeys.
I complain about the deer, but I’d rather them than the ‘gators! Friends of ours in Merritt Island area have told stories of lazy old ‘gators sunning themselves on their driveway. Sounds really creepy to a Californian.
These gorgeous shots remind me that I really need to get back into the habit of using my manual camera. My digital is great, but it doesn’t have a telephoto lens, and much of the year our little campus lake and the woods around us are home to hawks, a couple of blue herons, and the occasional osprey.
Yeah, I took these on a digital, but I zoomed them closer with Adobe. I’d like to get a proper telephoto lens.
They are gorgeous (and that’s an amazingly beautiful way of describing them!). I’ve seen some great blue herons around, too, but haven’t gotten a picture of them yet.
I’d love to see them!
There’s an osprey nest near the north end of the Springwater Corridor trail (in Portland, OR). Close to the one mile marker. I saw one bird working on the nest this morning.
Those parrots are getting around:
http://invasions.bio.utk.edu/invaders/monk.html
http://www.brooklynparrots.com/ (not just in Brooklyn any more)
Very close to ‘s school, that. We’ll have to check it out.
Thanks for the links!
oops…. didn’t mean to be anonymous….
Thanks for sharing those. I really ought be bring my camera with me on my commute, because lately I’ve been taking Ocean Parkway home to avoid all the commuters on the main Long Island highways. This takes me past Jones Beach through Fire Island, which has a huge wildlife area and salt mashes. Recently I’ve seen pheasants, shearwaters, sharp-sinned hawks, red-talled hawks and egrets (to name a few). Never mind the Friday cat blogging – I’m a birder and I loved your posted pictures, especially the Osprey.
Incredible.
The most exotic thing I’ve seen here is a cardinal and some mourning doves at my friend’s bird feeder on the fire escape…