Hibiscus

Not at all thrilled with my scanner's choice to wash out the colors, but what to do?  It was a very pretty flower.

Florida Birds

Having lived in Florida for four years, and having hooked my husband on birding, I was sorry to have visited recently and walked away with so few birds identified.  The ones I did see were so classic "Florida", in my opinion.  I know there were more, but these were the ones I remembered.  And no shore birds!  I thought I'd have a million.  But we were on rough seas most of the time we were there, and I'm sure the smart birds were on the other side of the state, enjoying the Gulf sands.

Sea Shells

Recently while on vacation, I picked up these bits of shells from the beach.  Here they are, identified as best as I can.

Birding by Call

I come from a family of what I consider to be fairly hard-core birders.  Not "Big Year" types, but still pretty intense.  Due to family circumstances, the younger crowd has sort of dropped off the "intensity" level, but once a birder, always a birder.

A week and a half ago my cousins were here to visit, and we took a hike together.  This was a family hike, where the kids were loud and rowdy.  We were not going with the intent to bird.  But I grabbed my cousin, Tom, and told him, "Tell me the name of every bird you hear."  And so I started my list.

Prairie warbler (saw)
Eastern towhee
Blue-grey gnat catcher
Hooded warbler
Northern perula warbler
Yellow-billed cuckoo
Chimney swift (saw)
Cardinal (Tom didn't bother to name this one, as it was a "common" bird)
Kentucky warbler
Indigo bunting (saw)
Barred owl
Red-eyed vireo
Scarlet tanager
Eastern phoebe

Yes, all these were "found" based on their call.  I could actually still tell you what half of these sounded like.  It was a neat experience.  Thanks, Tom!

Eastern Box Turtle

This morning as Husband was driving off to work, he spotted a turtle in the driveway.  Dodging the downpour, he ran back to the house to share "the find" with Dear Son.  As nearly everything dies that makes it into his hands, I was not excited to see the demise of such a sweet creature, so told Dear Son to let it go.  Suffice it to say that the downpour doubled in intensity.  I caved, for the morning only, and turned it into a nature journaling experience.  This is the result, by Dear Son, aged 6.

Not to worry, he will go crawling off into the rainy yard this afternoon.