Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Pictures of South Floridian Wildlife

Madeline and I took a short walk through the park, near our RV, the other day. Here are some pictures of the various critters we saw.

The first picture in Part I, (the second set of pictures) is of an Anhinga. The feathers of this bird are not waterproof, so the bird swims with just it's neck out of water, then dives looking for fish and resurfaces about 30 feet further on. Since it's feathers become soaked with water, when it gets through swimming, it comes out on the bank or sits on a branch, spreading it's wings to get dry.

The next picture is of a turtle sunning itself on a log. As you can see it is about to jump.

I thought the bird in the next picture was a Great Egret. But the picture shows me more than I could see from a distance, and now it looks a little like some type of crane. I need to work on this.

There is an Iquana in the next picture. Although this is a domesticated animal gone wild, there are quite a few of them here. The people in Boca Raton, a city near here, want a program to irradicate them, but I am not sure what damage they do, other than eat a few leaves. Maybe this is Florida' version of the white-tail-deer, a nuisance in more nothern cities.

The first Picture in Part II, the first of the top three pictures, is a Tricolored Heron.

As, we were walking along , I wanted to show Madeline an Aligator, that I have seen here from time to time. Well, I almost walked on it as it was sunning itself on the bank on a grassy spot. It was startled (and startled me) and jumped (the aligator, I mean) into the water with a big splash. Madeline got a nice picture of it swimming in the water.

Finally there is a not-very-good picture of a Common Moorhen. There are quite a few of these in the water here. They have a bright red bill and a bright red face. They seem to be diving a lot. I think they are mostly vegetarians, so i suppose they are eating submerged waterweeds.

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