Sunday, October 25, 2009

Celebration Wildlife



These are a few photos I took of the wildlife around Celebration, Florida - here where I live. These were taken on one of the walks that Bill, Nano and I took one afternoon. The group of birds at the top seemed to be on some sort of migratory pattern as they all showed up one day together, and stayed for about a week at this lake then all but about 5 or 6 disappeared one day.


This is one of the birds - pretty sure a blue heron - that is a native. It graces our fine community year round. It loves to stand on the side of the lake, then poke its head in for the fish that come close to shore. They also can be seen sunning themselves with wings spread wide - it really is gorgeous.



And, of course, this is an alligator ... we have several of these in the lakes and ponds around Celebration. As long as you keep away from them and DON'T feed them, you are OK. We make sure we keep Nano away from the shoreline, because these guys can be really fast. This guy was stalking the birds on the shore.



These next incredible photos were taken by my very good friend, Patti, during her bike rides around Celebration. She is also an animal lover, and great respecter of animals. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I did. I have her permission to share them with you and I thank her very much for allowing me to do so:


These are Florida River Otters, otherwise known as "Rotters". I had never heard of them until one day when Bill came home from a walk with Nano and told me about this strange creature he had seen. After some research, I showed him a picture on Google of a Rotter and he said it was what he saw. Then one day while talking to Patti, she said that she had seen them before, and she sent me these photos. They are truly amazing creatures.



We have several deer that roam around town, we saw a female during our afternoon walk with Nano just two days ago. This young buck was seen by Patti back in the Conservatory near where she lives. It is truly a beautiful community to live in.


Here are a couple more pictures of our less than friendly neighbors. Patti assured me that she didn't get that close to this guy, she said she used her telephoto lens... but still, this last one really got me thinking: he looks pretty mean. I don't think he is saying "cheese", I think he is saying, "LUNCH"!!


Thank you, Patti, for letting me share your beautiful photos with all my readers, so that they can see the kinds of critters I share my neighborhood with.


Oh, yeah, a couple that I forgot, the scariest creatures of all:

HUMANS!!
Until next time..... Lorie





2 comments:

Liz Mays said...

It's beautiful around there! The second photo of the alligator looks like he's squinting in anger!

I have never heard of a rotter either. It looks as big as a seal!

Last time we were in Florida we went to a cypress slough, and we were able to see some really neat creatures.

Maria's Space said...

Hardly scary, especially compared to the first creatures.

You guys look so happy. Could there be a more loved dog?

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