Being out in the imperfect wild area adjacent to our home brings on a different mindset. The sounds of morning traffic and passing aircraft seem somehow muted, but the chirp of a distant phoebe and rustle of wing-beats overhead are magnified.
Immature Wood Stork:
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Eastern Phoebe:
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Time stands still, measured not by a clock but by the depth of morning shadows and the increasing heat of the south Florida sun.
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In a shady spot or on an overcast day I can spend the better part of an hour just staring into a thicket, tracking slight movements of limb and leaf, following shadowy figures among the twigs and enjoying the distractions caused by fluttering butterflies.
Zebra heliconian on Ligustrum:
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The touch of a breeze, the hint of smoke in the air, the sweet scent of Ligustrum blossoms and the turpentine smell of blooming Meleleuca are nearly subliminal but essential parts of the outdoor experience.
Ligustrum attracts a Polka-Dot Wasp Moth:
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Gray Squirrel eats Melaleuca blossoms:
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Where others may see black, I can see color.
Boat-tailed Grackle:
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At the rookery, watch and wait. The hidden beauty of a courting Yellow-crowned Night-Heron will be revealed:
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The Tricolored Heron includes many tints in its three-toned palette:
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Uninvited, but so welcome, a bright green female Painted Bunting decides to spend a few seconds before me, in perfect morning light:
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Another small but thrilling surprise-- a curious Bobcat cub makes ready to retreat:
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A Carolina Wren, often so elusive, is staged very prominently in front of a tree trunk, but look-- beneath it is a carpet of wild Poinsettias. Christmas is not far away!
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Close-up of Wild Poinsettia:
They are just a row of boulders along the path...
...but look closely and find "life on a rock:"
Back home, a Green Iguana sun-bathes on our patio wall:
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Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia
Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Our World Tuesday by Lady Fi
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh
________________________________________________
Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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We had three cold fronts move through in succession this past week, driving the overnight temperatures into the mid 40's F (7 degees C) with a brisk northerly breeze. Daytime temperatures barely reached the chilly mid-50s F (15 degrees C).
We get out early. Here is the view from our back yard taken at 6:24 AM, 40 minutes before sunrise on December 17, 2017:
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A half hour before sunrise, the sky is just beginning to lighten up behind the entrance gate of our subdivision:
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With Christmas and the holiday season upon us, I look back on some of my photos which convey the theme. Nothing rare, but lots of color and seasonal joy. We are in south Florida, so these are not holly berries--
Yellow-rumped Warbler...

...and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, on Brazilian Pepper:
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European holiday greeting cards often feature Robins and Turtle Doves. Here in the US, the most popular birds shown on Christmas cards seem to be cardinals and chickadees.
Northern Cardinal:
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Black-capped Chickadee (taken in Illinois, as it does not range into south Florida):
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No snow here. This Mountain Chickadee appears in one of my New Mexico photos:
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This loving pair of Common Ground-Doves must substitute for Turtle Doves (getting over a lovers' quarrel?):
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This American Robin, namesake of the unrelated European species, is an uncommon but welcome winter visitor to our local wetlands:
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It too was eating the Brazilian Pepper berries:
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Like our robin, the Eastern Bluebird is a member of the thrush family. Their images often adorn holiday cards. I saw this one in Illinois:
I wish I had photos of a Blue Jay on snow...
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...but I did catch this snow scene, of the closely related Steller's Jay, almost two miles high on Sandia Crest in New Mexico:
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Florida has many "snowbirds" of the people kind, but the Dark-eyed Junco deserves the name. This one was enjoying the snowflakes in our daughter's back yard in Illinois:
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I searched my archives for photos taken on Christmas day--
A back yard Wood Stork (2008):
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A wind-blown Tricolored Heron on our lawn (2010):
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Pair of Egyptian Geese approaching the near shore of our lake (2013)
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From the back patio, an airplane crossing in front of the full Cold Moon (2015):
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Also on Christmas, 2016, a Great Egret in the local wetlands reflected nicely:
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This photo of a Zebra Heliconian was taken on Christmas Day just last year. The butterfly is feasting on Lantana flower nectar. This year, Hurricane Irma struck on September 10, and so altered the habitat that nearly all flower buds and fruits were stripped off the trees and shrubs. This resulted in a serious lack of butterflies, even though the artificial "pruning" later caused a flush of blossoms which peaked in mid-November.
The Lantanas have now gone to fruit and have no flowers at all. Their berries, which normally ripen and persist through much of the winter, are an important food source for wildlife. The same happened to the Trema trees, but the ones which were not blown down have not yet recovered and show no signs of new buds.
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This photo shows a Northern Cardinal on a Trema rich with fruit. (I use it as wallpaper for this blog.) It was taken on September 5, 2016, almost exactly one year before the hurricane struck. Note that new fruit appears and ripens sequentially at the tips of the branches. The shoots continue to grow out and produce new berries all winter. Not this year!
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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all, and thank you for visiting and hosting my blog, which I started back in 2006. A good friend, who has since passed, created this Christmas Card from one of my photos only three years ago:
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On a happy note, I ran across many Christmas photos of our grandchildren. I thought these two, of our Illinois granddaughters were special (2007):
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(2008):
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Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia
Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh
________________________________________________
Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
We usually get out on the Wounded Wetlands early, about a half hour before sunrise. The walk to the lake over the gravel road takes about 15 minutes for Mary Lou, while I lag behind. It is too dark for photography, so I bird by ear. On December 3 the full SuperMoon was descending as we started.
The evening before, our granddaughter in Illinois texted me a photo she had just taken with her mother's phone, showing the SuperMoon rising over the schoolyard:
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I had forgotten about this unusually large Moon, and ran outside to see it ascending over our back yard:
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The next morning the sky was crystal clear and I wanted to catch a photo as it set behind the lake in the wetlands, but it already looked much too low, ready to disappear into the trees:
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There seemed to be insufficient time for me to get up to the lake before the moon set, so I tried to shoot between the trees for a clear image. It looked truly huge:
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Suddenly Mary Lou phoned me from far ahead, "Where are you? The moon is ready to disappear into the lake!" I then hurried along and arrived just in time to obtain one photo before the moon sunk below the horizon:
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As poor as this shot is, it does convey an idea of the Moon's super size. The next morning we got out extra early in hopes of making up for my faux pas, thinking the Moon would set a few minutes later. I should have checked the Moon-set Calendar. Whereas it had set at 6:36 AM on December 3, the next morning it set into a cloudy blue sky almost an hour later, at 7:43 AM. Well, I learned a lesson in astronomy!
Here are the results of my quest for the "perfect" Moon-set, taken at 6:52 AM, just after sunrise:
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The sun warmed my back as I stood there on the peninsula and watched the Moon disappear into the blue sky and cloud layers, at 7:29 AM:
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While I was waiting a Great Egret circled, croaking loudly, seeming to resent my spending so much time in its usual foraging space:
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A Little Blue Heron reflected on my presence:
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At the rookery, there were no herons in sight, but a female Anhinga was sleeping soundly only about ten feet from the near side of the canal:
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As I walked by I shuffled my feet to rouse it before I got any nearer, but it did not awake until I made a soft "shish" sound. It was too big to fit into my camera's viewfinder until it contorted into more compact pose, back-lit by the morning sun:
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On the way back home, a White-eyed Vireo seemed to be chiding me:
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A Loggerhead Shrike suddenly flew down from a roadside tree and plucked an elongated creature from the ground almost at my feet. I'm not sure whether it was a large insect or a small reptile:
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Back at the house, a pair of Egyptian Geese swam past a neighbor's fence:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia
Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh
________________________________________________
Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
________________________________________________