Another bird fashion show at Gatorland

Great egret flying by.

Great egret landing on an alligator.

For some reason the birds like to go gator surfing. Actually, you can feed the alligators hot dogs. Birds like to try and steal the dogs from the alligators when they fall in the water. It's a risky meal for the birds.

Cattle egret and friend.

Great egret preening.

I made my last trip over to Gatorland in Orlando in early May. Things will start winding down there at the bird rookery. By now there are mostly cattle egrets with babies. The great egret babies are all grown up and the tricolored heron babies are growing up fast. It's still a great place to get easy bird pictures. The birds pose and are use to having people around. This was my 3rd spring to shoot pictures there. The first year I was clueless. I had bought my first DSLR a couple of months earlier and was just learning how to use it. I didn't realize you could use flash in the shade. I thought flash was just for indoors. The next spring I knew a teeny bit more and I went to a great Flickr meet-up there. Everyone was nice and helpful with tips. This spring I made 3 visits, trying to get different bird babies being hatched. Soon the new zipline ride will open and it will be interesting to see if it has an impact on the birds next spring. The zipline runs across one end (the end where the birds don't nest for some reason) of the big alligator lake and along side of it. The birds may be totally oblivious to it. The park has been building it all spring and I think it opens soon. So, if you want to zipline over alligators then head to Gatorland.

A few non-bird animals at Circle B Bar Reserve

Always lots of alligators around.

My first wild pig sighting. Thrilling, huh?

There's always tons of cute turtles along the trail.

Fish were coming through the pipes between the ponds and flopping around the rocks until they made it into the pond.

There's always something interesting to find at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. Sometimes you forget to look around for other things besides birds. I never thought to notice the fish but I was standing right above the pipes that run the water through the different ponds and saw something shiny flopping around in the water. I'm surprised there weren't any birds around at the time. Seems like the fish would have been any easy meal. Maybe all the birds were full from breakfast there and were napping (it was getting close to lunch).  I've always heard about the wild pigs running around and hadn't seen any until my recent trip. A big mom was across the creek at the beginning of Alligator Alley so I couldn't see her too well. I saw one piglet hiding in the bushes but it never came out.

Spring at Boyd Hill Nature Park

Lily pads are blooming and bees are buzzing.

Cormorants resting near the trail.

Anhinga is trying to hide under the statue. (Downtown St. Pete in the background.)

Butterflies are everywhere.

Big tooth giving me a grin. This guy was laying right under the boardwalk.  Since the water was so high he had traveled far into the swamp.

Lots of spring nature happening at Boyd Hill Nature Park in St. Petersburg. Tons of people are coming out to see the grooved bill ani that is still there but there's so much more to see at the park. This was the only alligator I saw. I think since the water was so high most of them were hiding. The place was full of butterflies and dragonflies. There were osprey flying around. They probably have nests somewhere in the park. It's a nice walk when it gets hot because the front trail closest to the lake is almost all shaded and you get the breeze over the water. I'll be heading there a lot this summer.

Alligators and birds at Gatorland

The big gators were bellowing when I walked into the bird rookery.

A big one standing in the water.

You can feed hot dogs to the gators in the lake but I think the birds eat more of them than the gators do. I once saw a kid throw the hot dog on the gator's head and a bird picked it off his head. I have also seen a gator catch and eat an egret so it happens.

Wood storks close to the boardwalk. I think they were walking around looking for lost hot dogs.

Big smile!

It always seems funny to see the birds use the gator tails as logs to stand on.

This snowy egret was stepping over the gator.

A loud video of the gator bellowing. Birds are calling in the begining. Towards the end you can hear the bellow.

I got to Gatorland right when they opened at 9am and headed straight for the bird rookery. When I got there I heard the strangest noise. I have been to Gatorland several times in the spring for the last 2 years and had never heard that sound before. All of the alligators were bellowing. It sounded like a sick dog groaning. It was very loud. Creepy but interesting. I was just glad I was on the boardwalk and not in some swamp with that sound. The weather was cool when I got there which I think is why the gators were so active that early. It warmed up pretty quick though. It's interesting the relationship with these birds and the gators. They are both just looking for food in the same places. The alligators in the lake provide a safe place for the birds to build their nest over to keep raccoons out (until one of the babies falls out of the nest).  I posted this picture last year on Flickr of an alligator with a great egret - flickr picture. Sad but I know everyone has to eat.

Animals at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park

Lulu, the hippo, lives there. I caught her in a big yawn.

Lots of alligators there. It's fun to hear the gasps of little kids who see these animals up close. Especially with those teeth. I think he's looking right at me.

There are two river otters but only the one was swimming around while we were there.

Lots of wild wood ducks live at the park. The male is the beautiful one in the front. The female is in the back with a bored look on her face.

There were several wild great blue herons working on nests high over the alligator enclosure.

These are the permanent residents at the park being fed.

Now that it has warmed up the wild manatees are heading out into other areas. There were very few hanging around inside the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park when we were there a couple of weekends ago. The park opens the gates to let the wild manatees into the warmer water of the river during the severe cold tempatures (severe by Florida standards). When hubby and I were there in mid January the river was full of them. Now there's just a few straglers. Most are heading out into other rivers, the intercoastal waterway and upper Tampa bay. There are lots of other animals at the park and a lot of wildlife that hangs around as well. 

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My first King Rail and other birds too.

My first king rail. This one has been in the same spot for a couple of weeks at the park, just look for the big group of photographers hanging around the corner of Heron Hideout and Marsh Rabbit Run.

Red bellied woodpecker looking at something interesting.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher looking up at the sky. Probably checking out a hawk.

One of the sandhill crane couples had laid an egg in a small nest in the middle of the marsh.  Hopefully, in the next week or two there will be a fuzzy brown baby running around.

Great egret flying along Lake Hancock.

This is why helium balloons should be outlawed. Some poor animal is going to choke on that. I would have grabbed it but I wasn't in the mood to step over the alligators.

One of the smaller ones at the park.

Another gorgeous weekend and another trip to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. These were taken a couple of weekends ago during one of the first nice warm weekends we had. People were disappointed that the white pelicans had left but there are still so many things to see there. I never did see the sora rail or virginia rail. Or the orange crowned warbler. The list goes on. You will always see lots of alligators there. I'm going back soon to check on the status of the sandhill crane egg.

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Amazing Circle B Bar Reserve - Skywatch Friday

These blue-gray gnatcatchers are so cute. He was like "Look up in the sky."

Ring billed gull eating a fish on the trail.

Limpkin walking around the trail with a snail.

My first decent American bittern picture. This is only the 2nd time I've seen this type of bird. The first was probably the same bird. It has been hanging around near the intersection of Heron Hideout and Marsh Rabbit Run trail at Circle B Bar Reserve for a while now. They are really hard to spot because they blend in so well and don't move for hours but if you're there on the weekends just look for the group of photographers taking pictures at that intersection.

Circle B has several bald eagle nests but they are very far away.

This one was a pretty decent size.

I took this looking north across the marsh on Wading Bird Trail. Usually, this area is full of coots but for some reason it was nice and quiet that afternoon.

I had never been to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland in the afternoon. Only in the morning and I'm usually on my way home by noon. One Sunday recently it was just too nice to sit inside and watch my husband watch golf on tv. I decided to head out for a long walk at Circle B. I thought the trip might be a bust since everything would be hiding and napping in the afternoon. It was late enough that all the animals were up and moving around. I saw a few things there that I had not seen before including northern shovelers. I'll be posting more on those later and also have an otter video to post later. Next time I go I think I might have to pack a lunch and spend the whole day there.

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Chesnut Park birds and animals.

I was walking along the boardwalk and heard a scream. I backed up thinking "that's a hawk close by". I look all around and found the above screaming right above my head.

All of a sudden he notices me. He looks at me like "where'd you come from" and took off.

I found this male anhinga posing on a stump. I like the way his white feathers stick out on his head.

I found this green heron poking around in the reeds.

My goal every time I go to Chesnut Park it to get pictures of the wild deer that live there. This is all I got. I saw it right as it was dashing under the boardwalk and ran deep in the woods. My husband said "Why do you keep taking pictures of deer butts?" Cause that's all I keep seeing. One of these days though...

This small alligator seemed to be smiling at me. Alligators are like dolphins in that they seem to both have a permanent smile on their faces.

Visit to Circle B Bar Reserve - Skywatch Friday

Great blue heron with a small snake. He eventually gulped it down.

Black bellied whistling ducks flying by.

One of the resident glossy ibis.

Another blue-gray gnatcatcher. These guys are everywhere this fall.

Cattle egret on the trail. He seems lost. He should be hanging out in the cow pastures that are close by.

Not sure what this little bird is.  It looks like it's got some yellow under the tail.

The infamous "Bubba" that lives at Circle B.

The first Saturday in December turned out to be nice and warm, high of 70 degrees by 10am. I started out with a sweatshirt on but soon had just the tshirt on. I hadn't been in a while. The white pelicans hadn't arrived yet so that was a disappointment. I've heard they are there now so I'll have to head back there in the next week or so. Last December it was amazing to see the large flocks of white pelicans flying back and forth between the marsh ponds and the big lake.

I spent most of the morning walking the trails with Klaus (http://virtua-gallery.com/wp/) who has this amazing ability to see every tiny animal that is hiding. He spotted the otters but we weren't able to get a good picture from where they were hiding. We did not find the bittern he was looking for but he showed me where it had been before so I'll keep my eye out for it on the next trip.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.