A Salute

To all the service men and women, past and present, who have given so much!

Just killin' time

The other morning I was scouting an area to see if any tarpon had moved in on the last moon. As I drifted with the current, I was reminded of all the shy animals that inhabit the marshes. Many of these are never seen, unless you make a point of looking for them. One of the first birds that I noticed was a red winged black bird. While not the shyest in the marsh, they always seem to be back in the reeds.

As I drifted a little further along the alligators began to show themselves. They tend to sink out of sight until things settle down, then will go about their routines.

I began to hear the call of least bitterns, but couldn't see them. These smallest of the heron clan are very shy and stay perfectly still when alarmed. I finally found a couple of them and managed to get a few pictures of a couple of males in breeding plumage.

I didn't find any females in this area, but did find one a few hundred yards away.

The female's coloration is very similar to that of an American bittern, but they are much smaller in size. While I looking at her, I saw something dark moving through the reeds. I eased around the corner and spotted a common moorhen moving through the reeds.

 

As a parting shot, a group of snowy egrets flew over. Here's my rendition.

 

Oh yea, the tarpon that I was looking for ...well you'll just have to come down!

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.

Spring has sprung and things are getting busy!

All the citrus trees are loaded with fruit, as this orange shows with last year's fruit and the start of this year's crop.

Click on the picture and watch the little owl's eyes on the snake! (These pictures were shot at 8 frames per second, so this happened in about a half of a second)

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to get one the mature great horned owls bringing a tasty snake offering to the the two nestling owls. Actually at this stage they are now "branchlings". The term used to denote that the young owls are venturing out on the surrounding tree branches, but are not flying yet(fledglings).

Here's a shot of each of them on their branches today.

Still have ospreys and herons on nests, but it's fishing time so I can't check them as regularly as I'd like. Between the trout, which have really turned on in the past 10 days, spanish mackerel which are all over the bay and the bream which are destroying fly rod poppers...it time to go to work. If you haven't booked your tarpon days get with me. It looks like they may start early!

You've got to love Franklin County

This was a local news release, concerning a recent military operation held in the state & national forests north of here.

Operation Emerald Warrior a little louder and closer than expected

A military training operation held in Franklin County this month was not as quiet as it was expected to be.

Operation Emerald Warrior provided training to nearly 2000 troops in locations around north Florida including Franklin and Wakulla County.

The operation was supposed to be relatively quiet and much of a bother to residents but county commissioner Cheryl Sanders said that was not how it happened.

She said there were people were jumping out of helicopters and throwing hand grenades near at least one neighborhood – keeping people awake and on edge.

Miss Sanders said she supports the military program and wants them to come back next year, but with 205 thousand acres in Tate’s Hell State Forest and thousands more in the Apalachicola National forest she feels the military could move further away from homes.

And she pointed out that it might also be safer for the soldiers, because in this area there’s always the chance that residents could get scared and return fire.

Mom's Back!

When I stopped by at lunch today, so had she!

Eagle attack!

I'm fortunate to have two great horned owl nests to monitor and photograph. When I checked on one this morning, I saw a large bird sitting next to the nest. My first thought was "the chick/chicks have pushed the adult out of the nest". But as I got closer, I could tell that it wasn't an owl. It was a juvenile bald eagle and there wasn't an adult owl in sight.

The eagle sat starring at the nest for about 30 minutes before leaving and the entire time the owlet did not move(see light colored lump in the nest in the picture above). Once the eagle flew on the owlet's head popped up and he started looking about.

That was early this morning. I've checked on the nest 2 more times, but I've yet to see an adult owl. I'm afraid the eagle may have attacked the owl on the nest, but I guess I'll have to wait awhile to know.

While I was working on this update a neighbor called to tell me there were 5 or 6 large birds screaming and fighting between his house and the bay. I hurried over and parked a couple of hundred yards back in the woods. I could hear eagles fighting but, unfortunately the trees were too thick to get a picture of the 4 juvenile eagles trying to take a fish away from a 5th bird. The one with the fish was shielding it from the marauders with its wings and screaming it's head off!

Eventually the attackers saw me and headed out over the bay, while the 5th eagle took his fish deeper into the woods.

We have a bumper crop of eagles this year and like most youngsters these are into everything in sight.