I spotted more than ospreys at the Myakka River this Sunday. This red-tail hawk took off from a tree nearby, and I managed to get a single picture before he flew out of range. I spotted a couple of others, but couldn't get the camera on them quickly enough. I need more practice with shooting quick critters, I guess.
The coral bean plants are in bloom again. I love these things. I've heard that they attract hummingbirds like nobody's business, but I've never seen them around.
What else did I see at Oscar Scherer this past Sunday? How about this barred owl? If you happen to be a mouse, that beak is going to put a hurtin' on you. Well, it might put a hurtin' on you even if you're a person. I guess it sort of depends on what kind of mood this owl is in. Luckily, he was pretty happy when I saw him.
The calendar page for this week in April is a big gold fish. This guy is a decoration at Baywalk in St. Petersburg, Florida. They've got all sorts of gold fish and octopus and crabs and I think a couple of birds, too. But this particular fish was the one that caught my fancy, so it's the one I'm sharing with you this week. You wouldn't want to have to flush this guy if he were to pass away while in your care.
Somehow, I shot two deer today. I guess that makes me luckier than most hunters. I've only seen deer in Florida less than half a dozen times, and never when I was out shooting, but today I got lucky, and saw these two does. (Yes, yes, I did see and photograph deer in Ohio, but that's not nearly so exciting to me as seeing and shooting them on my home turf.) They were about half an hour apart, and over a mile separate, so I'm pretty sure it's two different deer. Both times they just looked at me, and slowly walked away. I think they were coming out of the woods to get a drink from the nearby river. With the dry winter and spring, many of the water holes they would normally frequent are all dried up. I found these ladies in Myakka River State park today, which I visited after Oscar Scherer. I've got plenty more pictures from both locales, so it should be a good week to hang around the blog.
I stumbled by accident on an Earth Day celebration (the day after Earth Day?) down at Oscar Scherer State Park today, which meant I got in for free, and it also meant they had lots of things to see and do above and beyond the usual pretty scenery. For me, the most exciting thing was a booth from a wildlife group where they showed off some of the birds they had rescued. It's a rare chance to get up close and personal with creatures that normally fly away before I can get within camera range. The first fellow I want to show you is this red-tailed hawk. This is the same species I shot up in Ohio, only then I was a few hundred feet away, and here I'm about 5 feet. All good pictures, but different. I offer up the picture below in case you wondered why they are called red-tailed hawks. Now you know.
It's springtime here in Florida, so everything is blooming. Here are a couple of impressive trees I wanted to share with you folks. The one above is a silk oak, and the one below is a jacaranda. Who cares about DC and their cherry trees?
OK, the suspense is killing me. Who's in Tallahassee that's hitting my blog all the time? You know who you are, there at the Department of Health. Just curious.
I told you that I saw all these birds together tonight, and I wanted to prove it to you. Here's a good shot of three different species, all together in the water. I also spotted a little blue heron, a white ibis, a great egret and a juvenile little blue heron, which meant he was white instead of blue, with occasional blue feathers popping out making him look spotted. I would have stayed and got his picture but he didn't fly in until I was in the truck and pulling off.
Is this the fourth species of bird I've posted tonight? I think it is. Anyhow, this is a moorhen, and there were a pair of them in my magical lake this evening. I only got one of them in this shot, but I liked the way you could see some of the harder-to-spot parts of the bird in this photo. You can see the white stripes, the red face and the yellow tip on the bill. Cool, eh?
I seem to have shown you these guys a couple of times before. I didn't think I'd shot and shared them that often. Oh, well.
The nearly-dry drainage pond where I found all the birds this evening was a suprisingly diverse habitat. You've seen a pair of spoonbills, a pair of ducks and now you get a glossy ibis. This is only the second time I've shot one of these, and the first time hardly counts. In this case I got one individual as he paused during feeding, and another one as he came in for a landing on the other side of the lake. It takes a lot of light to illuminate these dark birds, most of the time they look black, but I got very lucky this evening and caught them with full illumination from just the right angle. You can see for yourself the color that is usually hidden in these birds.
This pair of ducks was in the same body of water as the roseate spoonbills this afternoon. They aren't as attractive as the bright pink birds, but they make for a nice little picture anyway.
You never know what you might find if you just keep your eyes open. I spotted this pair of roseate spoonbills on the drive home from work today. I think this is only the third time I've ever shot these birds, the first time I've shot them with the new camera with the longer lens, and only the fifth time I'm ever seen them, period. And I got plenty of shots. Stay tuned for more photos of these guys and other birds in the same mudhole, err, I mean lake this evening.
Hmmm, let's see what we have this week. This is a very tight shot on a purple flower I found up at EPCOT during their Flower & Garden Festival last year. They had a large butterfly garden set up, and I found this flower in there. None of the butterflies would hold still for a nice portrait, but this flower was more than happy to remain immobile for me.
I think this is the last of the cat pictures. This is a cheetah, but his name is... No, wait, I got that backwards. This is a leopard named Cheetaroh. That's not confusing at all, is it? Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed all these big cats.
Update: I think I'm still wrong. This is a jaguar. Or at least the enclosure was sponsored by Jaguar of Tampa. Why else would they sponsor the enclosure if there wasn't a jaguar in it? I'm so confused...
OK, I'm running out of cats to share with you, but I've got a couple left. This is a serval. They're a smaller cat than the other tigers, lions & cougars you've seen today.
Trust me when I say these guys are next to impossible to get a picture of. This is about the best I could do. Everybody loves the black leopards, but did you know they aren't really black? Look at the coat on this one, the part that's in the sun, and you'll see it's actually dark brown and spotted. Cool, eh?
Here's a little bit more to mess with your mind. This detail of Spaceship Earth was taken just after sunset as they were turning on the lights. That's pretty much the natural color of the sphere at that moment. All those little triangles will make you ill if you stare too long.
Just a little bit of psychedelica to make your day. This was the view inside a ride up at Epcot Saturday night. The ride was terribly boring, but the image is pretty interesting, don't you think?
Ah, this one I know. It's a cougar. Or is it a mountain lion? Now I'm not so sure. Well, all I can say for sure is that he's tired.
I really have no idea at all what species this cat is. I was too busy shooting pictures of the animals to shoot some pictures of the names on the cages. I guess I'll know better next time.
I'm afraid I don't know the names of all these different cats. I think this one is some sort of lynx, but I'm not sure.
Here's another big cat for you on this Easter Sunday. This lion is just lyin' around, watching the world (and tourists) go by. In case you're curious, I found these big cats at Big Cat Rescue, up in Tampa, Florida, right across from the Citrus Park Town Center. I guess the cats were there first, but development is trying hard to squeeze them out.
The photographer in me wishes that wire weren't between me and this tiger, but the survivor in me is glad it was. More on this guy later, but I wanted to throw up a picture real quick to wish you a Happy Easter. What does this picture have to do with Easter? Well, nothing really.
Remember Black Sheep Squadron, the show about Pappy Boyington and his motley crew of fighter pilots in the South pacific during WWII? Well, this is the plane they flew. I always liked those bent wings. I always wondered what the deal was with those, and I still don't know.
Wait, I found a better shot of the underbelly of an F-14. It lacks the cool rings of flame, but you get to see the landing gear instead.
I don't know why I like the pictures of the undersides of these planes so much. Above you have the bottom side of the F-22 Raptor. It bugs me that there is a little Air Force star on only the one wing. It looks off-balance, but I guess it's supposed to be that way. It's the same way on the underside of the P-51 I showed you the other day, too. The F-14 below doesn't seem to show any logo at all on the underside, but it does have the really cool rings of flame in the afterburner exhaust.
Now that I've shown you all three of these planes individually over the past few days, how about some views of them together? No photo trickery here, they actually had the F-14, the F-22 and the P-51 in the air at the same time flying in formation. The two jets were pretty close to stall speed, and the P-51 was flying as fast as it could to keep up. This is what they call a heritage flight, where they get new planes and old planes together in the air so that it's easy to see how far military aviation has advanced in the years since WWI. Those old biplanes can't keep up too well, but at least they can get these fighters into the air together.
There's something soul stirring about seeing these planes in the air together. It never gets old. I first saw such a display back in 2004, and I shared the photo from that day here.
All this week I've been bringing you pictures from the Sun N Fun Fly-in in Lakeland, Florida, this past weekend. And you may think this blimp is from that show, but it's not. I spotted it down in Bradenton as I was leaving to go to the airshow. I don't know what it was doing flying over the interstate, but there it was, using Snoopy to sell mutual funds.
Any idea what this might be? Turns out that it's the very absolute tip of an F-16. Yep, the point at the very front of the nose. I guess those little tiny holes are for air sampling or something, I'm not sure. The diameter of the tip is about half an inch, if you're curious.
If the fighter jets were your speed yesterday, you might also like this WWII fighter plane. You might not recognize it from this angle though. This is the bottom side of a P51 Mustang. I caught it in mid-roll during the airshow last Friday. I'll get some more pictures up later so you can see the top side, too, but I always like to bring you pictures from angles you've never seen before.
If the F-14 below isn't powerful enough for you, how about this brand-new F-22 Raptor? It's big, it's bad, it's nationwide! This was the first or second appearance (depending on who you believe) of the Raptor at a civilian airshow, so it's still a rare sight. You saw one earlier in the week here on the blog when I teased you with a shot of the back end of this plane while it was still on the runway.
I think the coolest part of air shows is when they bring out the most powerful planes on the planet, then put them through their paces. This F-14 had just taken off (you can see the landing gear is still in the process of being retracted) and the pilot was pouring the juice to the goose. You can't watch a demonstration like this and not be impressed. It makes you proud to be an American.
Here's a fun little picture from the airshow showing my own reflection in a polished engine shroud. I'm so goofy...
Something about the grill on this plane reminded me of a giant chrome smile. I guess cars weren't the only vehicles to go a little over the top in the fifties. Even the instrument panel on this plane looks like an auto dash from the period.
I think the next time I go to one of these airshows, I'm going to spring for a ride in a plane. Or in the case of these tourists with deep pockets, a helicopter ride.
Here's another shot from the airshow this weekend. I have no idea what sort of plane this is, or who's flying it, or why it's important, but here you go. Look close and you can see the pilot in the cockpit, pressed into his seat by the g-forces.
It's a new week around here, and that means a new calendar page! Today you get a nice view of the skyline of Sarasota, Florida. This one is from a different spot than the night view I shared last week. I shot this from the bridge to Siesta Key. All I can say about this view is that those are an awful lot of condos.
Here's another shot from last weekend that I neglected to blog. These three anhinga chicks are nothing but ugly! I hope I didn't ruin your breakfast by posting this.
I meant to post this last weekend, but I forgot amid all the hullabaloo of the eagles and the osprey. I spotted this red-winged blackbird on the little island at the Venice Rookery. I see them there all the time, but never out in the open, and never showing off their red-capped wings. In a couple of weeks I'll get my longer lens, and I hope to get more shots of smaller birds like this. Wish me luck!
