The Daily Pic - Dinner Time

Ibis' feeding in the shallow water at
City Beach Park in Punta Gorda Shores, Florida.

The Daily Pic - Monarch Butterfly

I took this picture right outside of my apartment.  A gorgeous Monarch Butterfly....enjoying the sweet nectar of the beautiful Lantana.

The Daily Pic - An Unknown Wasp

This wasp looking thing, outside my door...

...is it a wasp or is it something else all together?

Thank you waspy creature for indulging my desire to photograph you.

The Daily Pic - Pigeons in the Rain

The heading says it all...

Around Town - Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

One place that I really enjoy visiting is the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  You never know what you will see, but no matter what you see, you are guaranteed to find plenty of things to take pictures of.  This last time that I was there, it was raining like crazy!

The rain made for some beautiful and unusual lighting, but it also made it difficult to get my camera to focus on anything...

I'm not sure what type of tree this is...but if I had to guess, I'd say it was some type of juniper tree...whatever type of tree it is, it was covered in little white berries and I thought it was pretty.

Eventually, the rain stopped and the sun came back out...the greens and the blues looked so vibrant!

Look at the motion in the water....after the rain, schools of hundreds of tiny fish all started surfacing at the same time!  It was very cool to see!  This also brought out the big wading birds...it was so interesting to watch the birds running around chasing after the schools of fish.

And then we rounded a curve and I saw something I have never seen before...I wild hog!  It was quite far out, in the middle of a pasture type area.

Almost immediately after we saw him, he turned and started walking towards our vehicle.

And sure enough....he found his way all the way out to the road.

He didn't even care when we pulled up right next to him, to take a picture!

Check out this bird, spreading his wings to dry, after the rain.

And last but certainly not least....we came upon a very large alligator that was laying in a puddle, in the middle of the road.  He didn't want to hang around with us, so when we got there, he got up and walked away.

If you live in Central Florida and have never driven through the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, I totally recommend it!  And if you are a tourist in the area and want to see wildlife in their natural habitat...I cannot recommend any place better!

The Daily Pic - Baby Lizard

So with all the lizard mating going on outside my front door, it stands to reason that I'd start to see baby lizards running around.  They are SO cute and tiny.  I took these pictures 2 days ago, of a baby lizard who had positioned himself on my pineapple plant.  His body (not including the tail) was only about 1 inch long!

Can you spot him in the above picture?

Around Town - Baldwin Park 1

Spent a little time in Baldwin Park yesterday and took a TON of pictures...I can't share them all with you, but I have narrowed them down to my top 50...lol.  Since I can't post 50 pictures in one blog posting, I shall spread them out and share them with you over the next several days!

Today, I am going to share the pictures of birds that I took.

Momma was very vocal anytime any other birds came near her babies!

3 Males and only 1 female....the female was fine with it, but the guys not so much.  It happened to fast for me to get a picture of it, but I watched one the males grab ahold of the tail feathers of the other males and attack them until they flew away!

I think this is my favorite bird picture from yesterday...

I love the full reflection of the reeds and the bird, in the water!



This little bird was fishin' and did not at all like the fact that I was interrupting his dinner!

I really like the contrast of the grass and the water in these last photos....and I love how the grass is blowing in the wind, between the camera and the birds! :)

The Daily Pic - More Lizard Love

Ok....so I don't know what the deal is, but today when I can home I saw another pair of lizards mating.  Kind of cool....but not sure why my entrance way is a lizard hook-up spot.

The Daily Pic - Love on a Flower Pot

Today as I got home from work, my arms full of laptop, purse, cell
phone and keys, something caught my eye.  Once I realized what I
was looking at, I immediately did my best to quickly (yet without
making any sudden movements) put everything in my hands down, on
the ground, and find my camera.  I was able to get two shots of this
act of pro-creation, before these two lizards tired of my voyeuristic
ways and ran off.