Shrimp boats make for a good breakfast!

As I was driving around at the crack of dawn, I noticed a lot of bird activity on one shrimp boat in particular. It was apparent that it had shrimped the previous night and the nets still contained  some small fish and shrimp. Various birds were climbing about the boat looking for breakfast.

Immature black crowned night heron

Mature black crowned night heron,

Night heron finds a a small fish.

Night heron with a small flounder.

 

Great blue heron with a shrimp.

  Great blue spears a flounder.

Sometimes you have to take a break after all that eating.

Old Bob

Here in North Florida the loquat trees (Japanese plum) have been loaded with fruit for several weeks and it is beginning to ripen. My neighbor has a large tree that is covering the ground with ripe fruit.

Every year the grey foxes start making the rounds to all the loquats and eating the fruits that have dropped. This gives one a good cause to fix a cocktail and sit on the porch as twilight approaches. Those of you that play with cameras know that low light is less than idea for photographers. These pictures were taken at an ISO of 3200 & 6400, so they are a little noiser than I would like.

There are at least 3 foxes coming through and my favorite is "Old Bob". Now Old Bob is the last one to show up and is the most skittish of them all. (These pictures were taken at 2040 EDT.) After you see him you can understandwhy he might be cautious...

As you can see Old Bob is missing his tail, not to mention all the battle scars on his face and chest. Looking at the his grizzled muzzle it's a safe guess that he's been around awhile. He appears to be in good health and able to take care of himself. He's the "Rocky" of the neighborhood! Here are couple of the youngsters.

The great blue heron chicks are really growing. Here's picture from last week.

Eagles, owls, herons and tarpon.

I pulled into the Old Ferry Dock Landing earlier this week and looked up and saw a crow in hot pursuit of a mature eagle. Fortunately my camera was next me because they were closing very fast.

I got another shot as the eagle went into a dive to pick up speed and get the crow off his tail.

This was a successful maneuver and the eagle cut into the trees, unfortunately blocking any additional pictures.

The great horned owlets that I've been following have apparently left the nest, as I haven't seen them in the past week. Here are a few of the last pictures that I took.

 

The St. George Island great blue heron's eggs have hatched and the nest has two very active hatchlings.

Fishing has been excellent for both trout and reds, plus tarpon are beginning to show up. I've had a couple of inquiries about doing photo trips or a split photo/fishing trip and may be putting together something along those lines. Let me know if you're interested. 

Carnivores in the bogs, savannas and trees.

The upland savannas and bogs are very colorful with the emerging pitcher plants.

These plants reside in damp soils too poor to support most plant life. They supplement their nutrient intake by absorbing insects that they trap in their "pitchers".While the pitcher plants are probably the most prevalent carnivores across Franklin and Liberty counties, the sharp eyed travelers may also spot butterworts (Pinguicula spp.), sundews (Drosera spp.), bladderworts (Utricularia spp.), and Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula) - this last species is native to the Carolinas and has become naturalized in north Florida in limited locations.

The great horned owl nest has generated a great deal of interest, but now they have become "branchlings"-actual word-they are more difficult to photograph because they tend get up into branches with more needles. There is also a significant difference in size, possibly indicating an age difference of several days. 

The smaller bird spends more time in and around the nest, while the larger sibling is all over the tree.

 

The ospreys have gotten very active on their nests and probably have eggs by now.

The herons have started to stand in their nests more, so we should be seeing some nestlings very soon.