Shootin' Birds

A new painting which is not entirely new.  It was a painting which I was not totally happy with because it was too overwhelmingly yellow--school bus yellow.  I decided that I just had to "finish" it and this is the result.  Not much difference in composition just color changes.

Time to reflect lets us see things, even a painting, in a more objective way.


It is also the time of the year when the birds are starting the reproductive season in their lives.  A most interesting time, which with our warm winter, seems to be starting early this year.  My favorite place to see this happening is at The Alligator Farm down in St. Augustine.  I happily accepted an invitation to accompany good friends and fellow photographers, Stephan and Jo-Ann on such an adventure.  The entrance to The Farm is always a treat as it visually is a very pretty place with attractive plants included in their landscape, and a wide variety of birds and monkeys, all in addition to the many types of gators and crocs and other critters who reside there.  A visually exciting greeting once inside the gate were two of my favorite tropicals, a Pitcher Plant and a Bird of Paradise, in full bloom. 


Next on the agenda, soon after you enter the park is another rare and exotic gator, beautiful Albino Alligators.  They are both rare and exotic.  They are only found in Southern Louisiana.  They are kept underneath a roof to protect their delicate white skin from sunburn.  Usually the big female is in this enclosure but since this is mating season she may be out on a date with a handsome pale gentleman.  The Alligator Farm is permitted to do breeding programs with several of the endangered critters they keep in their Park.  These gators are part of that breeding program.


I stroll onto the boardwalk where according to Stephan, who had been down the week prior, we should find lots of birds.  It would seem there were certainly lots of alligators as they were feeding them from the feeding platform when we arrived.  The water was "jam up and jelly tight" with gators all watching and hoping for a treat.  There was a lot of dogfood-like pellet chow thrown into the pool but the more prized treats were several large dead rats which were tossed into the mob below.  There was really a feeding frenzy when those special "rat" treats were thrown into the fray. 




As I walked on down the boardwalk over the alligator pond I couldn't help but think how interesting the reflections of the trees were with the alligator laying in the middle of them.  I especially loved the way his head was outlined with the reflected white and black reflection of a slight water ripple.


Reaching the end of the boardwalk where there should have been a hundred big white birds, we found only a few.  Very strange.  We began to ask around from some of the other photographers what had happened to the birds.  We found out that the birds had flown away after workers came in to do some work, some of which involved a chain saw.  Well that explained that.  But there were still some of the Great White Egrets working on nest building and getting ready for mating.




A few of the other birds which were still hanging around included the the Black and the Yellow Crowned Night Herons. This Yellow Crowned Night Heron was busy napping his afternoon away.  They actually do hunt in the daytime too but mostly I have observed them just sleeping, with a quick glance now and then when they hear the camera shutter click.


Only a few of the many, many Woodstorks which will eventually arrive were there.  They are the largest of the birds which nest in the rookery and are America's only Stork.


I really like palms which are left natural without the pruning to remove their petticoats.  This is how they appear if left to their own ways.  There is a similar one on the way home from the gallery which I see each day as I make that trip.  So many trees are pruned into being something they are not as in Crepe Myrtles.  It is called "the murder of the Myrtles".  I thought it was funny a couple of weeks ago, that a class was announced at the local Lowe's on how to "properly" prune a Crepe Myrtle, and then the same weekend their landscape crew came in and butchered their own plantings of Crepe Myrtles doing exactly what the class instructor was saying "don't do".  The girl who works in the plant department was livid.


But the Great White Egret was perfect and regal looking as usual.  The mating season brings on the beautiful long land lacy plumage for which they were once killed in great numbers.


This fellow was busy building his nest getting ready to have a nice new home for a young family with room to expand.  You can see the green lores starting to show up on his face also a sign of mating season.


Since there were not that many birds I head off to check out other areas of the park.  The Reptile building houses several interesting and varied snakes.  Besides some very, very large ones, there is the King Cobra, which I find interesting and yet unnerving to only be inches away from this deadly fellow.  Do you know that it is believed over 50,000 people die from snake bites in India and Bangladesh each year.  From this vantage point I can closely examine the intricate patterns in his body and head.  My favorite snake, who is always in this symmetrically draped position, is the wonderful bright green snake in the photograph.  I had to ask where he was because he had been moved from a small glassed cubical to a large more natural environment shared with two other of the really big snakes.  It looked like the female Monitor Lizard was the only one in residence (I know "Lizzard" is not correct but I'm sure you remember our adoptee Lewis Lizzard from last year).  I am not sure where the much larger male is.



I exited out the other side of the Reptile building to see some very active shenannegins by this colorful Cassowary.  This is a very large bird and from head to foot probably stands almost as tall as me.  He seemed to have a thing, whether love or hate I am not sure, for the park worker who was just leaving the area.  The big bird seemed to be trying to get to him in a very agitated state of mind.  In a few minutes the worker came back and he said he wasn't sure what the deal was but that the bird was all about wanting to get with him and follows him everywhere when he is nearby.  Could be the feeding routine.

I crossed over to the African section and found these guys also following one of the zoo keepers.  Food was the motivation in this case and maybe that was the reason for the other.


An exciting nesting is taking place there as well as one of the Buzzards has laid an egg.  One of the other females is looking on as mom stands up to turn her egg.  She glares at the girlfriend when she looks a bit too closely.  The Daddy is sitting up on the nearby snag.


There were four parrots out but the one in the center was the star of the show.  They are sitting out on natural perches unrestrained.  Parrots are very intelligent and this one began to interact with me as I talked to it.


It began to dance for me when I talked to it, prancing and swaying back and forth.  A very fun and unexpected interaction. We even got the attention of a little girl nearby who also came over to enjoy the show.  


An Angels Trumpet bloomed wildly through the fence back at the Alligator pond. They are a very beautiful flower and an easy one to grow from cuttings.


By now some of the birds are starting to settle back into the trees.  Some Roseate Spoonbills are flying on top of the tree we used to call The Woodstork Tree.  However, last year the Woodstorks moved over to other trees it was primarily used by the Great Whites.


Its always a challenge to try to catch a bird in flight.  Once in a great while I actually am able to do that.  The flight of these big birds is very beautiful to watch with variations in the species in the way they hold their heads, feet and flight patterns.  The way these great wingspans can catch and seemingly hold the flight form in midair gives you a chance to really see how graceful their flight is.



It was an overcast day and as an artist I love the patterns of light from the sun which makes me different from serious photographers who love the unbroken image of an overcast day to not have the sun patterns on their subject, but I am an artist, a painter, and artists love the play of light on their canvas.



But in either case the mating dance is a beautiful sight as it begins by this fellow as he bows and gracefully reaches his long neck skyward all the while spreading his feathers to show off for, and to attract the females attention.


Toward the back of the pond almost out of reach of my lens is what I call the swimming hole where the birds, especially the White Ibis, like to gather and bathe.  It may be that it is an area, because of the downed trees and underbrush, in which they are protected from the Gators in the main part of the pond.  A young Little Blue Heron who has yet to acquire his blue color wades in front.  His dark bluish looking bill tells me this is not one of the egrets.


With time running out for visiting hours in the park suddenly Jo-Ann yells out the word "incoming" which is the cue to all of us to look skyward.  And 'incoming' it was, -the birds return in great numbers to their favorite place as the calm of the park returns without tourists and chainsaws to mess with their comfort zone.


The trees suddenly fill with what had been missing all afternoon.


In a matter of minutes the trees begin to look like they are decorated for Christmas, adorned with lots of white ornaments.


There were a greater number than usual of the Little Blue Heron, one of my favorites.  The youngster from the swimming pool area joined this fellow so maybe it last year's offspring.


There were lots of the White Ibis although they never seem to nest here.  I wonder where that happens.


This old snag is a favorite perch for all of the bird species.  They seem to take turns getting this birds eye view of the park.  It becomes a "King of the Hill" type of game when the youngsters, later in the season, vie to see who gets the best spots.


All the photographers hedge their time a bit and wait snapping photos until the park worker comes to personally say it is time to leave (as if we didn't really know that).  It is just a few minutes to squeak out a few more shots with no one in the park but you.  We all appreciate the gift of about 15 minutes after closing time alone with the birds.  Today it was just five of us some who have come from far away.  One fellow from the Midwest says he comes every year to "Shoot the Birds".


Now the birds and the gators can have their park back.  Now it is their world only.


The clouds had finally broken up, allowing some light and a tiny patch of blue as one straggler makes his way and becomes my final shot before turning to the exit gates.  Another good day of shooting birds has drawn to a close but hopefully as the season progresses into nesting, hatching and juvenile's I will get to return for more rounds of shooting.

Into the New Year

What was a warm weather passion with the Sea Turtles has switched over to more beautiful and equally interesting creatures.  The Sea Turtles I have loved because of the ancientness, if that is a word, of the species.  They are one of the only species which was around to see the extinction of the dinosaurs and yet have flourished until recent times, each might live a century.  With the butterflies, they live such brief but beautiful lives, with just the process of change so fascinating to watch. They contribute to the workings of our natural world as they flit from flower to flower sipping nectar and spreading the pollen so necessary for all life, without which it would be a world without flowers, fruits, even coffee; and worse yet, -no chocolate.

This moment, as I type this, in the terrarium beside me part of the miraculous transformation begins to take place.  The caterpillar which had been hanging from his bottom end for a couple of days seems to be limp and I think, oh dear, it's dead.  Then I see the pale lime green start to show as his skin literally splits apart.  In a matter of minutes the skin is a crinkled black wad hanging by the  thread which holds the new chrysalis to the top.  Now the green form starts its dance, twisting, wiggling, gyrating and turning until the black old skin is shed dropping to bottom of the terrarium.  After two weeks this will be the result.  One of our releases just before Christmas.  Such color, such patterns, and such grace as they float with the greatest of ease, going from flower to flower to feed and lay eggs, starting the cycle all over again.  How can an artist not want to paint with such inspiration.

Sometimes we overnight them on the dining room table if it is a very cold night or if they hatch out too late in the day to take wing before dark.  This one was with us for dinner while Bruce's mom was here.  I bring inside whatever we have blooming outside and put it on the table in case they need a snack.  Sometimes if they are acting slow, we can trick them into sipping sugar water from a syringe.  This is a sticky wicket in itself.  Not aways are we successful, but sometimes it works.

Often they just hang around for a while looking like a Tree Ornament, then they will just be gone.  The ones I have watched fly away just seem to catch the wind and float effortlessly high above the big Oak Trees in my back yard and out of sight.  They don't seem to fly much in the morning or after the sun gets low.  I have found them sitting overnight in one spot clinging tightly to a plant not moving until midmorning.  We have only temporarily lost a couple in the house.  We don't know where they disappeared to, but eventually each reappeared on the dining room curtain sitting in the sunlight coming through the window.

Christmas dinner came and went as we all gathered at my nephew Chris's home south of Jacksonville.  Lots to eat and a nice visit.  A place with a child in the house although she made herself scarce playing with her friend, another Reagan from across the street.


Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" was what this Little Snowy Egret seemed to be saying.  It was after Christmas and a little time to relax.  After all the hustle of getting ready for the big day it was nice to have some down time to just show Bruce's mom around.  Unfortunately she thought it  was " very cold for Florida" even when we thought it was very warm for North Florida in winter, but  this day a cold front did come in.  Although I didn't think it very cold she was freezing.  I had hoped to take her to walk on the beach  for a little while so we headed on to the park.

Inside the park I spot some of our Christmas Fall Color in this Hickory Tree just as we make the turn toward the beach.  Our Fall is late as I told someone today we have Fall this week and next week we will have Spring.

On the beach I find my own forest in the beach trees left by the outgoing tide.  I sure do miss my time here.  Unlike last winter when I kept going, watching the turtle nest that never hatched, this year I have been too busy to make the time.  Instead my fishing trips have taken me to the marsh, which has been great fun also, but I do miss the beach.

I hope to make it over there (the two blocks) this next weekend to take in all the migrating birds who are visiting with us now.  Many species we don't have other times in the year.  In this group was a flock of some sort of tern that was larger than our Least Terns and were not our regulars at all.

Oh yes, then Lisa came to visit the island just after Christmas.  Of course I took her fishing, and we all gathered to eat our wonderful catch.  Keep in mind Lisa's stature and the angle of the photo when you think this might be over the size limit.  I can assure you it was legal.  It was a great catch and Lisa was soooo excited.  She even had enough meat left over to take to cook for her Grandfather, who has, along with her grandmother, mostly raised her.  Grandfather is in Hospice care right now, separated from his wife of so many years because they cannot afford a place for jointly living together in assisted living with his health issues and hers these last few months.

Monarch season is in the Fall in the South.  Just when I thought I was just about at the end as I only had about 5 Cats left, a friend brought at least 20 more to my door and left them with Bruce because of the cold front headed our way.  It took a lot of Butterfly Weed to feed that many hungry mouths and I had been begging, borrowing and stealing Butterfly Weed from everyone I knew who had any left.  I tried to be careful to not take it where there were still caterpillars eating on it.  Inadvertently, I managed to add to the stash of caterpillars even more by finding eggs and tiny caterpillars on the plants once I got them home.  New resolve:  Next year I will have plants galore for them to eat.  I have found out one good thing.  Once you cut the sprouts off to feed they will put out roots from the cuttings if left in the water.  If these all live, then I should be well supplied next year.

Enjoying a bit of time in my backyard one day, I heard this tap, tap, tapping.   I knew the sound, but now to find the source.  Looks like Woody himself is visiting.  This  branch was getting thinner and thinner as he sat on the big end and pecked on the top part where it was hooked into the tree.  Better watch out!  I have seen tree cutters make that mistake, but they didn't have wings, so I guess its not quite the same kind of mishap in the making.  I have new binoculars (Christmas present); the better to see them with.

On New Year's Day, niece Julie came for a visit.  She brought a good friend Steven and a youngster from their area, (Steven is his court advocate), that they were befriending.  We toured the park and found our kite-flying friends again, then we were off to fish.  We did catch some good ones, catching our limit, then bringing them home to deep fry once again. Deep fried fish and hush puppies, hard to beat.   I will start cooking them to be a little bit more healthy, once the "new" of actually coming home with a meal-sized quantity of fish wears off.  I need one of those enclosed grilles to contain fish while on the main grille, made like a basket so that you can flip the whole thing over without the fish falling through the wires; otherwise, I am going to look like one of those big round Puffer Fish pretty soon.

Frost was forecast, so I take a longing look at what might not make it through.  My Sky Vine was at its prettiest.

A close up of the blooms tells the story of why I like them so much.  They are very orchid like, and although the bloom does not last long, each is replenished by a new one, waiting to take its place as they make their way down the stem.  They bloom best for me in the winter but are not frost tolerant.  They were not destroyed, but they were "bit" back with many of the leaves turning brown, and the flowering has slowed with the frost bite.

I should have thought to cover these all up but it was dark when I went out to do it, and I forgot these pretty things further out in the yard.  One made it and one didn't, attesting to the spottiness of the freeze.  Of course the one which was sadly all limp the next day was the big beautiful one, while the smaller one is still fine.  The yellow flowers which the butterflies like so much were also causalities of the cold.

One nice shot of the beautiful blossom.  Yes, I know, these are not really the blossom, but leaves and the bloom is the part in the center.

Outside my front window, the sun always hits this Sumac, and it just glows as it is starting its "Fall" color transition.  Yes, I know it is almost Spring but the tree doesn't.   Wait until you see this week's change in it.

One of my Chrysalis is doing its change-over, as one next to it failed to fully shake off his skin; but you can see how shriveled that which what once was a caterpillar is now.  It was all for show.  The Green inner self is the true being...or maybe not.  They seem to change clothes as often as a teenager.  The terrarium has become a film of webs from all the caterpillar tracks on it, as they roam around hunting the perfect spot to hang around on and also when they hang themselves they spread a wide circle of web.  We are not sure how that happens.  Do they spray the webbing around or do they spread it around with their feet before hanging?  We haven't seen any such action going on.  It just magically appears.  If you try to move one when it is crawling around you will feel them sticking the webby stuff to the surface and you almost have to pry them off.

Here is our menagerie of Chrysalis' at this point. This continues to change as new ones come up top side and others emerge and get taken outside.  What causes them to all cluster on this end of the tank?  Is it the sunlight through the window?  The slick surface as opposed to the screen on the other end.  We don't know exactly.  Now we do have 3 which have attached themselves to the screened area today probably because it is just too crowded on the other end.  This has been better for us as I have to clean and feed through the other end.

A beautiful sunset was happening as I drove home a few days a go.  I was not alone in wanting to capture it.  I pulled into the property where Ten Acres' Kraft Athletic Club is located because it is one of the few places you can get an unobstructed view in my neighborhood.

The sun was sinking fast over the calm river and marsh area.  With a water sunset you get a double whammy with the sun's reflection almost stealing the show.

A wide view is not always as impressive as you just cannot take it all in with my camera.  A wider angled lens than mine would be necessary.

As I walk away I look back for the long view, which I love too, with the trees all siloutted against the pastel colors going from lavender to orange to yellow and pink to blue.  Such beauty; it is hard to image it can be real, but the camera does not lie...well not much.