Tell Me a Story: November 2014

Tell me a Story is live, and I was not sure what to do this month.  I have been having issues with my feet recently.  I developed a Morton's Neuroma in my left foot which made it painful to walk on. In compensating I have irritated something in the heel.  So I have tried to keep walking to a minimum recently.  

So what I thought I would share is my little piece of heaven.  Having lived on an acre of land, we were a little shocked at the postage stamp size properties the houses were on.  I look at all of 6 houses and decided on this one.  The very reason, behind the house was a canal and beyond that was the Florida Everglades.  When I sit on my back patio or on the deck, I look towards the trees.  

The nice thing about living on the Everglades is that there is an abundance of critters.  And I love critters, whether they have legs or wings, I love them.  I am not crazy about spiders and I really do not like snakes, but the rest I can handle.  So today I thought I would share one of my typical days out back.  

I have a morning routine.  Feed Moonshine - the cat.  Once she is done, I head outside and feed my Mallards.  For the longest time I had two that would come daily. With winter coming along I sometimes have 8 out there.  I have discovered that even what appears to be the most timid of birds, has a nasty little streak in them.  They are very territorial and do not like other birds trying to eat their food.  Half the time they are so busy chasing each other up and down the canal that their food is being eaten by some other bird, either the Mourning Doves or the Boat Tailed Grackle.    

Third on my list to feed in the morning is my favorites the Squirrels.  I have Ms Squirrel as I call her because clearly she has been feeding babies.  And there are at least 3 youngsters running around.  They are all named Baby Squirrel because I am not sure which is which.  Ms Squirrel is easy to spot.  Breakfast consists of peanuts and conversation, and generally a photography session.  

In South Africa we had something called and Indian Myna. In Florida we have a bird called a Boat Tailed Grackle.  They are similar in mannerisms.  Both are noisy, pushy and fly in packs. If one discovers food, it will call the entire neighborhood.  In this past week we have had flocks of them flying over the back, stopping on houses and in trees.  It really looks like something out of the Alfred Hitchcock horror movie Birds.    However, one thing about the male Boat-Tailed Grackle is the iridescent colors to it feathers.  When the sun catches the colors are gorgeous.   

These are the birds that are typically eating the duck food while the ducks are chasing each other.  

Fake ducks hold down the water pipes, but they also make a great landing spot for the Cormorant as it dries out it's wings.  Very often I will find the Cormorant or an Anhinga, or both sunning themselves on the dock a the back of our garden.  Both these birds swim underwater to fish.  Both, I believe have porous feathers and their wings become waterlogged making it very difficult for them to fly.  So they will hop onto the nearest perch and stretch out their wings and stay there until their wings are dry. 

About 2 months ago we were outside and this Great Blue Heron wandered up to the patio and starred at us. He stayed at the edge of the patio most of the day. I am assuming someone has been feeding it, and it was looking for food, but I feel that this guy needs to do his own fishing. But for the last two months, it seems like when ever someone is outside on the patio or in the garden, Big Blue, as I have named him, appears.  He will stand close by.  If you walk towards him, he will walk away and if you walk away, he will follow you.  Just weird but I love it.  

He has the most interesting knobbly knees and this birds knees bend backwards.  It's feet are pretty big and I am convinced that this bird has a tail that wags every time I talk to it.  Yeah I talk to all the critters.  I was telling Richard tonight that I think I am a critter whisperer.  Since I wrote this post Big Blue as I called him has disappeared.  I guess he has gone looking for his mate.  

The highlight of my day however, was my local screecher. For months now I have heard screeching in the trees.  In fact, I now easily identify where the screecher is. But generally it is up high in the trees and my camera lens does not easily reach it.  However, today I think it was hungry and decided to head on down to the edge of the canal.  I saw some movement in the trees and headed down along my neighbors property.  I was not happy to see my ducks swimming down that way, but with me moving down they swam down away from the activity. Next thing I realized is that it was heading up the canal closer to Big Blue.  I have a rule for my back yard.  No eating the family.  As I got closer to my property this Red Shouldered Hawk took off flying straight at me. At the last minute it swerved away from me and fly down to the waters edge. This is the first time I have been up close and personal with a raptor in its natural environment.  And I was in awe.  

From breakfast routine to evening routine, I close the day off watching and photographing the sunset if there is a good one.  Tonight Big Blue and I settled in to watch the sky change to a subtle pink before it finally set.  

Since I wrote this, I was asked and agreed to change my job description at work.  In order to do that I am required to go into the office 4 days a week. Week 1 is done, and it was a little harder to take photographs each day.  I wake up a little earlier and get the routine done and give myself a little bit of time to catch whatever critters are out, but evenings are harder.  By the time I have driven 1 hour home, it is dark, the critters have given up and gone home. 

Although the dark has critters of it's own and tonight while we were sitting outside, the possum that is living under our deck made its way out to forage in the garden. I was pretty pleased to get a good look at her.  Aside from those you have seen today, we get a great variety of Birds, we also get Turtle, Alligators, Racoons, Vultures, and we have even seen a Bobcat at the edge of the water.

I hope you have enjoyed me post.  Don't forget to follow the link and look at what my friend Stacey Markel Photography / Maryland Family and Child Photographer as for you.  I always enjoy reading her blogs.  

Down in the blades of grass: November 2014

It is halfway through the month and almost time for 30 minutes in the Life, and I wanted to get mine done early.  Life changes for me as of tomorrow.  For the longest time I have worked 2 days in the office, 2 days from home.  My home hours have always been less than my office hours.  That has allowed me to have the freedom to get up in the morning and go for a walk, or work early and walk in the afternoon. From tomorrow, I up my hours of work, and I drive 1 hour each way to the office 4 days a week.  I am not really a morning person.  I like late nights and late mornings.  It sure is going to be fun.

This weekend was quiet.  I have been having a few serious issues with my feet. It appears that I have a Morton's Neuroma in my left foot and the way I have compensated walking has caused an issue in the heel.   

So Sunday afternoon I decided not to walk but rather to go out on the back canal, sit quietly for 30 minutes and see what was going on in the world of critters.  Not much, I'm afraid.  Just my Great Blue Heron looking for food. While the ducks and the squirrels are fed, he has to catch his own.

So while I was sitting waiting for him to do something I started to look around me.  Now something you will not know about me is that I have a real love for the mythical - fairies, goblins, orcs etc.  I love the Lord of the Rings and I am making sure that I get to see the Hobbit as soon as the December episode comes out at the cinema.    

I grew up on stories.  My father would read to us when we were young children, Rabbit Hill, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Fin.  Our English friends will get me when I say I delved into the world of Enid Blyton.  I love the Magic Faraway Tree, and the Wishing Chair. I wanted to be part of the Famous 5 and if not them, then the Secret 7.  I took a year to read Lord of the Rings, and that was in the days when the print was tiny and the book was big.  I could not stay out of Duncton Wood and the lives of the moles that inhabited the United Kingdom.  

So as I was sitting on the grass, I decided to look around.  What could I see in the world of the blades of grass?  I did not have my macro lens on because I was supposedly watching my Great Blue Heron, but I did have my zoom. Perhaps in the world that is sometimes pesky for home owners, live the fairies and friends under the leaves of tiny tiny little plants.  Wander through the blades of grass and see what I got to see when I got down on the ground.  

When life is not coming up roses,

Look to the weeds 

and find the beauty hidden within them

~ L.F. Young

Still within my 30 minutes I glanced back up to find my Great Blue Heron stalking it's catch. Sadly I think it was a baby turtle.  But since I am not feeding him I guess he has to eat.  

Next time you are sitting on the grass, look around, look down.  What are weeds to some, are mana to the insects, the bees, and the butterflies.  The flowers are so pretty and colorful. And, perhaps if you get up real close you may find a little person hanging out down there.  

When weeds go to Heaven, 

I suppose they will be flowers.

~ L.M.Montgomery, The Story Girl

Don't forget to follow the circle and take a look at what the other photographers have for you this month. Amanda Voelker Photography/Naples, Italy soon to be Poulsbo, WA Photographer is up next.  Amanda has great images and I love to see how she has shared their lives while living in Italy.  Hop on over to her page and enjoy!

If you are interested in seeing more of my photography take a look at my Facebook page or my Flickr Page. 

Alligators

About a month back I went for a walk around the wetlands.  Right now from a bird point of view the wetlands is very still.  Most have migrated and the birds are few and far between. However, you will get the odd one. However, I was not holding my breath for birds.  I heard there were new babies at the wetlands and I wanted to see them.  

My first look as I walked around was this guy.  Most of you know that I grew up in Africa, and so the Crocodile is my go to reptile, and I would not want to cross paths with one.  The Alligator is it's American cousin.  A little more docile than a Crocodile, but still not one to play around with.  Interestingly you only find Alligators in the USA and China.  American Alligators live in freshwater.

You will typically find large male Alligators alone.  Most often I see just the tip of their nose and their eyes sticking out the water

As I walked further along I found what I was looking for - the tail of the mother Alligator.  I certainly do not want to get whacked by one of those. Apparently Alligators use their tails in what is called a "death roll".  They implement the death roll when they are trying to break up meat/food that is too big to swallow in one gulp.  They cannot perform the death roll if for any reason their tail is unable to move.  From what I recall Crocodiles do the same to drown their prey.  As they grab their prey, they go into the death roll.  

Here is mom.  A rather large mom by all accounts.  I was very happy to be situated above her on the board walk.  Although I have to say - mom did not move the entire time I watched her. That's they thing with Alligators, they are pretty cool to see but they don't do very much.  You could stand and watch them for the longest time and all they do is lie there.  

And in relatively close proximity are the babies - about 8 of them in total. They are not tiny tiny, but probably about one and a half lengths of a ruler.  Most of these babies had moved away from the mom. However, just the other day I saw a photo of them all sitting on top of mom.  

Another interesting fact that I read was that temperature plays a deciding role in the sex of the baby alligator.  If you are looking for female gators, make sure the temperature is 86 degrees F or lower.  Males occur when the temperature is higher than 93 degrees F.  It does seem like the females are in the majority.  

The biggest threat to a baby Alligator is ironically bigger Alligators, and the mother will protect the babies for up to 12 months. The hatchlings will eat mainly small fish, insects snails etc.  As they mature so does the size of their prey.  There have been occasions when I have heard a large splash and a whole lot of squawking.  That sounds decidedly like the Moorhen or Purple Gallinule. 

 This little guy below decided that it would be safer to stay by mom.  

This is the first time I have really been up close to Alligators this tiny. We did kayak the Turner River in South Florida, and find ourselves in Alligator Alley in more ways than one. There were a few young gators, but not as small as these. 

I have only once seen a Alligator on my back garden grass area and that was the first year we moved into our house.  Since then I have only seen the Alligators swimming in our back canal. Sometimes I think that they watch my critters. Ducks, Anhingas, Herons are all part of their dietary food chain.   

While I was watching the gators this Tri-colored Heron made an appearance and was walking towards the mother Alligator.  I kept saying "I don't think that is a good idea", "change direction now".  Fortunately for the Heron it did change direction.  I am not sure I would have been happy to see feathers flying.  

And in case you are wondering - this is mom.  She is definitely not petite, and is probably one of the larger Alligators I have seen in this wetland.  

I kind of like alligators - just from a distance or through my zoom lens.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I did.  

If you are interested in seeing more of my photography take a look at my Facebook page or my Flickr Page.