Snowy Plovers Nesting

My friend Liz Noffsinger spends a lot of time on Sanibel Island.  She hits the beach just about every day with her camera and is an avid bird photographer. She's obviously been watching the nest and was anxiously awaiting the hatching when I spoke to here two days ago. Here are some of her shots of the snowy plover nesting and showing new hatchlings.  Brand new babies on the sands of Sanibel.

See more of Liz's photography on her website.

Raptor, Inc. New Facilities

I stopped by Raptor, Inc. new facilities, still under construction, today to discuss photo shoots for the upcoming season.  I'm quite impressed with their progress.  Things are really shaping up and Dan is working hard to get things done by the end of the year.  Here are some photos of the current progress.

Panorama of the whole site.

This is the house where the permanent residents (the education birds) are housed.

This is where they will house birds who are on the mend and candidates for later release.

Here's Dan installing ceiling joist/rafters for the new flight cage.  This is the last structure to be completed.  Everything else is grounds work and trim work.  The birds have already taken up residence.  Congratulation to all.

Tree Tunnels

Tree tunnels have long been a source of fascination for me.  Every now and again, in life, you run across one that is just fabulous.  As they are few and far between, I never forget the ones I have seen.  Unfortunately, a lot of my old photos from Europe are no more, but I do have a couple left.  They're not the greatest because they are scans of scans of negatives, which I am not very adept at, but they evoke memories of the places I have been and serve that purpose well.  These first two are from Italy, taken somewhere in or near the town of Gaeta, where I lived at one time.

Having made plans to do some work in Florida, via a short stay in the mountains of N. Carolina, I decided to stop in Savanah, for the sole purpose of photographing the tree tunnel at the Wormsloe Plantation.  I'd seen and admired this shot many times over the years and wanted one for my very own. There's not much left there, but some ruins of a few buildings and some recreations of some workers camps from days gone by, but if you don't go for any other reason, the entrance and the lane lined with live oaks and hanging moss will be a good enough excuse.

This image was shot at night, as I was returning from a trip to Tybee Island.  I thought I might stop by and see if I could do any better than the early morning shot below.  However, the area is lit with some really nasty deep yellowish orange lights and it doesn't lend itself to a natural light exposure, in my view.   For a good photo, I suspect this place would be best visited during an overcast day, as the high, hot, Savanah sun, on a cloudless day, gives all kinds of contrast difficulties.  Unfortunately, I couldn't hang around and wait for one of those days.  Thank goodness for HDR and Photoshop.

If you are interested in tree tunnels, this is the best link I have found on the web with many photos.  I would also recommend visiting Charleston and Edisto, which are on my bucket list for the next trip down under, USA style.  There are also quite a few in Louisiana, from what I have seen during research and the Live Oak habituates almost the entire coast line from Virginia to Texas.

St. Augustine's Alligator Farm

What a beautiful town St. Augustine is.  I actually lived in this town when I was a toddler.  Born in Jacksonville, Fla, my mother reminded me of how much they enjoyed St. Augustine when they were young.  Full of beautiful architecture and history.  I only wish I had been able to spend more time.  As it was, I considered myself lucky, for my short time there was amazing.

I had heard of the Alligator Farm in the past, but it was not on my radar.  It was fortunate that my friend, Nancy, reminded me about it and strongly urged me to stop there.  I'm glad I did.

There were so many of these guys around, it was incredible.  It's no wonder they call it a farm.  I'll bet the even sell them for consumption.  The place is not really big and is set up like a zoo.  Some animals are caged or have their own areas and there is a boardwalk that roams through the swamp where the gators live, which meanders for several hundred yards.  I'm guessing there are several thousand gators living in this place, and if there is food about, they swarm.  Don't want to fall in the water at this place.

Even though it's called an alligator farm, gators were not my reason for visiting.  I was told there was a rookery here, and that is no lie.  This place is amazing.  There are so many different kinds of birds here, and they all nest together in this small place.  Not sure what the attraction is, but, there are a lot of birds here and they are easy to shoot.

I witnessed a lot of nest building, territorial squabbles, and eggs in the nests, as well as some young being fed.  I didn't want to leave, but, time was running out and I was getting a bit too much sun, or I would have stayed all day.  I'm glad I had some time there and I'm pretty happy about some of my shots as well.

There were also a few pens which were home to some African birds.  There were a couple different kinds of vultures and a stork of some kind, but my attention was drawn to this African Crowned Crane.  I really wanted to get a capture of it with it's wings spread, but that was not my luck this time.

Hopefully, I will be able to visit the Alligator Farm again, for I could tell there is much more to be had here.

There are a bunch more shots here.  Thanks for looking.