Wild Backyard

Last week when I stepped out into the back yard there was a lizard party going on. There were Lizards everywhere so I stepped back inside to grab the camera and get a picture or 2. On my return most had scampered off, but this Anole hung around to say "Hello."

"Hello."

I was surprised to find his twin on the other side of the cage.

"Hello, have you seen my twin?"

There were also a pair of brown Anoles on the fence courting..well..beyond courting. I didn't take a picture because well...this isn't "Anoles Gone Wild" or anything.


It's been warming up down here, so the Anoles and birds have been all a flutter with their speed dating. When we stopped for gas this weekend this poor male Grackle had gotten chased off by another male with his woman. He squawked a bit and hopped off. Upon hitting the sunny black top she started doing a funny little goose step before flying away for cooler perches.

"Hot..Hot..HOT!"

Ah spring. ;)

Caught without my camera...again.

This happens far more often then I like, but while sitting on the back porch I saw this amazing little bird. It came and landed on the burn barrel and hopped and twitched its little head so much it should have just fallen off. It was brown with this amazing bronze-orange belly and a white stripe over it's eye. After it flew off I decided to try and find it via google, and I did!

A Carolina Wren. Isn't it beautiful? from the pictures I found their bellies very from a pale yellow to the bronze-orange that I saw. (This one is obviously more yellow) I am not sure if this differs between sexes like say cardinals, or if its just a variation from the norm.

So, I lob this over to our resident wild bird expert. Sara, what do you think?

Lake Mirror Part 2

Welcome back to part 2 of the Lake Mirror picture post. Now where was I?

Oh yea, I remember now.

Hubby and I were waling around the lake when we were honored with this ducky display.

A swimming V, classic. :D

Then when we stopped at a bench and John broke out the bread we found out that Ducks will kick Coot tush if they get too close to their perceived bready bits.

"Whaaaaaat!"


Lets move on to some massive cuteness. I'm telling you it's a cute over load! You've been warned.

What is this I see? A Muscovy Duck with something going on there.

A dirty yellow cotton cloud.. Must. Get. Closer.

It's.. it's.. BABY DUCKS! *Squeee!*

There are 20 baby ducks following Momma around. 20!! Thats a lot of baby ducks!

Here John is feeding the ducks, as you can see there are 2 Muscovy Ducks there. (The ones with the white heads and black bodies) The one closest to john is -not- the Momma.

I note this because we kept getting confused, and so did the chicks. When the not-the-momma duck waddled off, 4 baby ducks went with her, and she was none to happy to find them tailing her. She attacked them and this led to baby duck squeaks and and loud Momma quacks to help them scurry back to her side. (All were fine, just a bit upset until the were safe with momma again.)

Here John sits down and gets all Zen with the ducks. He had them eating out of his hand by the time he was done.

I'm not sure why but it seems that every time I turn on the video recorder John finds something interesting to talk about. Here he turns into Dr. John, Duck Obstetrician. XD



Enjoy!

Lake Mirror Part 1

Lake Mirror is the social hub of the artistic and free spirited folk here in Lakeland. Or so they say. Being that I don't do crowds I tend to not pay attention to any of the festivals they advertise, but they put a lot of effort into the area and it shows. I took quite a few pictures here so I am going to break this up into 2 separate posts.

First take a look at this place, it's really taken care of, unlike the other lakes we have been visiting. It was a really quiet Sunday, there was hardly anyone around when we got there.

We arrived just in time for the duck parade.:D

These ducks are called Indian Runners, and they look like walking bowling pins.

They also had some Ring Neck Ducks which allowed me to actually get a half way decent shot of this guy here. (Those eyes make me think his head is gonna start spinning around any moment now.)

His girlfriend was a bit more aloof.

This Great Blue Heron (GBH) flew over when he noticed us feeding the ducks. I would have had an awesome picture if it had not been for a pole getting in the way. Stupid pole!

GBH wading and snatching bread away from the ducks. This is the same GBH from the video I posted a few weeks ago.

One bonus for Lake Mirror is that the ducks and coots are acclimated to humans so we were mobbed by both. This allowed me to get pictures of some coots out of the water and show off those wild looking feet.

And now I will bring this picture post to it's feathery end.....

Get it? Get it? Feathery end....duck butt! Bwahahahahaha! I amuse me. ;)

Friday Picture Post

A few weekends ago we ventured out to a few different lakes in the area. We hit Lake Bonnie first. Lake bonnie is rather secluded, only one small area is for visitors with one small grill in dire need of maintenance and one rotting picnic table we didn't stay around for very long. While I was there though I did take a few pictures.

Lake Bonnie is bigger then most of the lakes around here, not the biggest of them but pretty darn big in it's own right.

A bird, possibly a coot, followed us at a distance. He seemed as curious about us as we were about him.

Then there was this guy, that looks kinda chicken like but swims and has a bright red beak, I have no clue what it is but I think it maybe coot related.

Ok, in the center of the picture there is a tiny bird. I have these guys all over my yard and have not a clue what they are. They make humming birds look like body builders, so I am guessing they are some sort of finch.

There were a bunch of trees bearing these pretty yellow flowers on them. I of course have no clue what kind of tree this is, so if anyone out there has an idea of what it is leave a note in the comments please.

Thats it for Lake Bonnie. I save the next lake for next week since there are a whole lot of pictures I'll probably break it up into multiple posts. Have a great weekend everyone!

Morning

I am not a morning person. I never have been. My body wakes up hours before my brain does so to say I am grouchy or cranky in the morning is an understatement. The good thing about this is I basically just sit and grumble until my brain catches up with the rest of me which tends to lead to some pretty quiet mornings.

Yesterday morning my normal grumpy mood was being bullied by a lot of back pain, lending me to be not quite my usual growly self, more of a whimpering state actually. I shuffled out of my room hunched over like I should be residing in a bell tower someplace, my bed head and half mast eyelids just giving the whole bell tower theory more credence. I made my way through the living room to a hail of greetings like every morning...but not quite.

Echo: "Hola!"
Me: "Hola Echo."
Duke: "Hello!"
Me: "Good Morning, Duke."
Kenya: "Go Lay Down!!"
Me: "I just got up."

Gotta love those morning conversations with the feathered ones. Kenya has never minced words and always seems to find just the right phrase for the moment. ;)