Animals in Nature

This is a Zebra Longwing. To be accurate, this is two zebra longwings.  This is the Florida State Butterfly (which isn't surprising; these guys are all over!)

This was really cool. The butterfly has its antenna in the center of the flower and is pulling out of the flower as the pictures progress (the butterfly also puts a leg on the antenna as they progress).

See that big, round, "furry" thing at the end of this Mellonworm moth? Yeah, that thing moves. It's funny--search mellonworm moth on youtube.

This little guy goes namesless for right now :(

Just a seagull...but what a cool shot!

These are black whiskered vireos. They look so much like a red eyed vireo, except they have little black whiskers below their beaks (which you can see well in the picture on the left).  The little guy on the right was a ham for the cam :)

This is a white crowned pigeon.  I didn't believe the guy who, as this bird flew into the tree, said, "see that white crowned pigeon?"  I did not see any white on this bird. Sure enough...there it is on his head!

This is a painted bunting. Definitely a find of the day!!  Funny story...a few days before a friend asked if I had ever seen a painted bunting... :)

These are sandhill cranes. Endangered species! I saw these guys leaving Bill Baggs...had to pull over to get this shot

My camera can take 8 pics/second...So I used that technique with this woodpecker.

This is the Northern Harrier making its call

Banana spider...in action.

These guys just chill in neighborhoods, in a gang, in the middle of the roads :)

Common yellowthroat...much to my dismay :)

American Redstart. It is very, very obvious that I stalked these birds. The top row (more orange) is a male, the yellow a female. These guys caught my eye right away!

Prairie Warbler.

Pelicans!

Yellow billed cuckoo. That's right, a cuckoo bird.

 This crab was in a tree...as if to say, field goal!

Limpkin. Hoping to see more of these - this was a serendipitous finding!

A little creepy... 

This is an Osprey....in this picture, he was on high alert because a bird was flying by overhead and he was definitely looking for his next meal.

Northern Shafted Flicker. You can tell by the distinguishing red triangle on the back of the head (using those terms in google search is how i found out its name!)

Turkey Vulture...holding up bike traffic.

This is a wood stork and is an endangered species...maybe because it stands on one leg?

This is an Anhinga. They go "fishing" for food (top right picture), but their wings are not waterproof, so they sit and dry out their wings after fishing (bottom right).

This is the Anhinga doing its fishing!!!!

Ibis

These are baby white Ibis'.  They turn from brown to white when they grow up!

Yeah...this is the 7-foot alligator by my apartment that seems to always escape capture! At this place, the ducks and Ibis' refuse to go in the water because he has been eating these animals in the water lately.  I had a terrible dilemma with this picture...I saw the alligator and wanted a picture but my batteries died. Also, there was a duck was near him on the edge of the water. I wanted to scare the duck away but that would in turn scare the alligator and I wanted the picture....so I ran to my car to get batteries thinking i could do it all - take the pic and scare the duck.  Well, the duck was walking towards me as I was coming back.  He didn't seem hurt but was all wet and quacking his tail off...but the alligator was in the same place...Gosh, I hope that duck is okay!

Cooper's Hawk.  Very strange this one...see him freaking out on the left? It was all because of the stick that he's sitting on (picture on the right).  He couldn't carry it!

Spinyback Orbweaver spider.

Parrots!