Bedtime

Here are the pups, waiting to be tucked in.





Unless it's about 90 degrees, they like to be totally covered up at night.





chihuahuas

Topsy-turvy

It was so windy at the beach on Sunday...





the birds had to stay on the ground...





and the fish were flying...

More gouldian finches

You can't see them in this photo, but there are two tiny gouldian finch babies hidden under their parents, Victor & Pearl.





Once Pearl stepped out for a snack, I was able to sneak a peak at the babies. They're just a few days old in this photo.





Victor doesn't seem to mind me checking up on his babies multiple times a day. I can reach right in, remove the babies, and put them back without him moving away. One time I accidently picked him up instead of one of the babies and he took it all in stride. The babies are about 12 days old in this photo.





gouldian finches

Cocohatchee tour

Some friends came for a visit on Wednesday and we went on a boat tour on the Cocohatchee River. Here are a few photos I took that afternoon. There's been no shortage of pelican photos on my blog lately, but I couldn't resist posting one more - his mouth is full & I think I see a fish fin sticking out of his beak.





I like how the next photo turned out. The egret's wings look like a parachute or a jellyfish with a bird head on the top.





A second later..





Cocohatchee River

Anhinga anhinga

Last year we went on a guided nature walk led by a very nice volunteer named Tom from the Nature Conservancy. My conversation with Tom turned to birds, naturally, and I mentioned that we were beginner birders. Tom's not a beginner. Somehow we got onto the subject of genus/species names for birds and I mentioned that I thought I would like to try to memorize the genus and species names, along with the common names, for the birds that I was learning to identify. Tom informed me that I already knew one - "You know what an Anhinga is, don't you?" I replied "yes". "Well, its genus/species is Anhinga anhinga." Well, it's been a year & that's still the only one that I've memorized. Thanks Tom!


I took this photo a couple days ago. This anhinga was right outside our back door - the first time I've seen one right here at our place.




Anhinga

Florida State Bird

The Yellow-throated Crane - not an endangered species...

gouldian finches - mom & babies

Here's Lana with her 3 babies - 1 week old. She's a great mommy, keeping their crops full all the time, just not sure why she's stepping on Baby Three's neck...





gouldian finches

Squirrel feast

These little orange fruits are growing on the palm tree in our back yard -





This squirrel loves them!












squirrel

The pacifier

My dog-sitting job is going well. The 2 "boys" love me & if my sister doesn't return soon, I think they will adopt Aunt Sue as their new mommny. But Lizzie (below) and I are having a bit of trouble communicating. She is blind, deaf and in my humble opinion, clueless. She probably thinks I am clueless. I am barking - why don't you understand what I want???? According to my sister, if she starts to wander around it means she wants water or wants to go outside. But sometimes neither seem to satisfy her, so my sister suggested giving her a chew stick. Whew! Here she is sound asleep with her "pacifier".





The black blob in the lower right portion of the next photo is "little brother" coming to steal the chew stick"





Now look what you've done! You woke her up!





Little brother pouting...





You know that chew stick will be mine as soon as you walk away...





daschunds

Waiting for spring

There is a huge winter population of robins here on Don Pedro Island. Yesterday morning there were hundreds of them around my sister's house - in the trees, on her roof, on her deck railing, on the neighbors' roofs, etc. I took about 60 photos of them, only to have the memory card on my camera screw up - the dreaded flashing "Err CF" message. I had to format the card, losing all of the photos. I was hoping the robins would come back this morning, but they didn't show. But we did see a few when we headed up to the north end of the island. I wasn't able to get very close, but I was pretty happy with this photo after I cropped it.





robins