New Wildlife

 

Happy Memorial Day to all the veterans out there.  Your service and sacrifice is much appreciated. 

 

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 87, low 65)

We took a drive over to Tarpon Springs yesterday afternoon for a little photo opportunity.  We lugged both the “big” Canon Rebel, and also the “little” Canon SX50.

With the exception of the picture of Al and Baxter, these are all taken with the "little” Canon.

We went to a park on the Anclote River, found a nice boardwalk trail and just wandered around for a while.

We ended up at the marina where we used to store our boat.  That sure brought back some memories.  Of course, being the Memorial Day week-end, the place was packed, and just the kind of day we always avoided going out in the boat.

The following was a very long distance picture of Anclote Key, which was our favorite offshore island.  We spent many, many hours on this island.   This was just a small portion of the island and there were hundreds of boats docked there.  When we would go, we usually had the island to ourselves.

 

We drove around a while, snapped a few photos and then headed home.

Later that afternoon, a neighbor came by to inform us that there was a family of 4 otters frolicking  in the little pond behind us. 

Actually, the action was a few sites down from us because the portion of the pond  directly behind our site is dry.

I got a few pictures with my little Canon.  My big Canon is still waiting for it’s new zoom lens.

Notice the sharp teeth on this guy?

I have some work to do to get both the dark water and the sun reflected grass, properly exposed.  At that time, I was more interested in capturing the fast moving otters.

A neighbor that lives right behind them, got a few shots of them out of the water and walking on the bank of the pond.  There were so many people around watching them, that I think they got a bit nervous.  I’ll be checking back often.

There is also a bird nest box that was nailed to a tree, directly behind another RV.  Apparently, there is a Bluebird next inside, which surprised me because that’s not supposed to be the kind of location they prefer.

Al says we’re going to get a Bluebird box.  We left all of our boxes in Georgia because we felt the boxes belonged to the birds, not to us.  (even though we paid for them, installed them and kept them safe from predators)

 

More birds from our “back yard.”

Mr. Cardinal posed nicely for me.

 

This is Baxter playing with his new (and favorite) toy.

and this is the end

Back Yard Birds

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 88, low 69)

 

Al has been busy all week doing his pest control accounts.  We are looking for someone to buy the business and as soon as that’s done, he will be completely retired.  That will make it much easier to travel without having to worry about getting back here to do his monthly accounts.

While he’s been working this week,  I’ve been working around the house, cleaning, organizing, and learning how to use my new cameras.  A really good learning video was included with the “big” camera (the Canon Rebel EOS T3i)  and I’m slowly going through it to learn how to use all the features the camera has.   There is a lot to learn.

The “little” camera (the Canon SX50 HS) has a crummy little manual that’s not the easiest thing to understand.  I’m trying to learn a little more about how to use it and not just stay with my old tried and true settings.

We sat outside on our patio for a few hours last night.   We haven’t seen the deer lately and so far we’ve not seen the foxes that live behind us.

The birds were active though, so I had something to photograph.

First things first.  Al had to fill up the bird feeders to keep the birds happy.

Our rain this week sure did green up our back yard.

Our first visitor was a little Dove.  They are supposed to be ground feeders and a friend of mine keeps telling me they won’t come to feeders.

Wrong.

Notice the seed in her beak?

She sat there for the longest time, but there was someone waiting in the wings.

We have two feeders.  One is squirrel proof.

This one isn’t.

There were a lot of birds last night, including a family of Tufted Titmice.

I got a cute picture of a male Cardinal feeding a female youngster. Unfortunately, it was too blurry and I had to delete it. 

The moon is almost full, so I had to take a few shots.

I took some moon shots with the Canon Rebel with the 250mm zoom and all I got was a little white blob in the sky.  I really need my new lens!

We haven’t decided where to go for our anniversary.  We’re debating between Kissimmee Prairie Preserve and Red Coconuts Rv park.  One is right on the beach and the other is in the middle of 54,000 acres of prairie.   Maybe we’ll do both?   We hesitate to make any firm plans, because it seems that every time we do, something comes up.