Heron Tracks

I just spent a very busy four days walking up and down the beaches of Florida's Panhandle. I was counting heron tracks for a wildlife index. I had three sites, each about an hour and a half walk along white-sand shoreline. I learned a lot about heron habits and tendencies but also made some sketches of the tracks out there in the state and national parks. Besides heron tracks, I also encountered some other big bird tracks. The one on the right isn't from a heron. It's an osprey track. The real giveaway was the slightly sideways projecting toe. It was nearly as large as the track of the heron, though.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Osprey

An osprey (Pandion haliaetus) cruses over the pine flatwoods of Big Lagoon State Park. I just grabbed a photo out of my files and stuck it on here. Like most of my photos these days, this one was taken way back in months gone by (September 14, to be exact). Indeed, I have been amazingly busy and, if I know what's good for me, I'll get back to studying.

The End of Columbia River Gorge Photography: Part I

With time running out, I will just have to throw some of the photos from our trip out there, with little text. Hope you enjoy the beauty of nature.

Getting up before everyone else at about 6:00am has its perks. I just swagger about the countryside stopping at what I please and noticing the corners of the canyon were the dawn shows through. Below, I took some photographs of the wildflowers. As usual, I am tormented by the fact that I have no idea of knowing what species they are. Any comments on that would be helpful. You might be wondering about that whitish stuff int he middle photo. It's poop. Maybe a coyote or some other carnivore I think. It was just before some real thick brush and it seemed to contain hair.

Kingfisher nest holes. I could hear the chicks inside one of them. 

The kingfisher carrying a crawdad back to its nest. It kept swooping close to my head, but I think I was too close to its nest, so it never did land to feed its young while I was there. I chattered its disapproval at my presence, which probably goes to show I was too close. Next time, I'll keep my distance since it seems to be a more easily disturbed species. 

This might be a better picture than the one above, simply for the kingfisher's sake, but it doesn't quite illustrate the unusual plains-type habitat that the bird was inhabiting.

I love flower longhorn beetles. My previous post had more great shots like this and a bit of biology on the beetle. 

Talus slope. The true meaning of the word.

I'm a big fan of black specks in grey abyss. Actually, this one is an osprey with a catch of fish. I saw another one fly by the next morning dropping bits of down from its fluttering catch. I wasn't aware that ospreys catch ducks... 

"Scorpions love their mothers..." Sometimes just the sight of an animal will make one burst into song. Thanks John Acorn. Don't you just love 'em? I'm not sure what species this is, but a bit of research might reveal the answer. Bellow, is another shot of that drop-dead-gorgeous scorpion and, on the right, me, with that "gloating grin that these beautiful reptiles usually elicit from naturalists," as Alan St. John put it in Reptiles of the Northwest. 

There's the beauty. What keen eyes! Snakes aren't often credited with being among the most intelligent animals but, sometimes, it is more of a mind game, predicting what the other will do, which determines who gets captured- me or the snake. This one had no intention of biting me, anyways, but he outwitted me the first morning. They certainly think and calculate there next move, considering their options and reevaluating based on my movements. 

He thinks my camera looks suspiciously like a predatory bird, like a crow. I noticed that placid snakes would often turn aggressive when I aimed my lens at them.

If you enjoyed this post, check out Part II and Part III. You can follow this link to part II, or skip ahead to part III here.