Tibet-Butler Preserve

I thought it might be nice to have a break from bird snaps at Bahama Bay - but there are more to come! I put up a post about this wildlife (p)reserve last time we went to Florida. It's just a couple of miles away from the outlet centres and Interstate, and yet it's an oasis of peace (can't beat a cliche). We tend to get there a bit late, and walking along the paths can be quite hot until you near the water.
There's a small feeding station at the preserve offices, but by this time the birds were skulking in the bushes. As was this snake. You will note the lack of head. That's because it got into the bushes too quickly for me, and as I didn't know what it was I didn't poke around too much in there! I think it's a rat snake, and quite harmless, but it was a good couple of feet long.

I've realised a lot of these pictures are insects. This is good for variety, but I don't know the names! Every few steps the path would 'PING' into life as these quite large grasshoppers would shoot up and into the bushes. Except this one which stubbornly stayed put. Considering the pictures were all handheld with a 100-400 lens I'm quite pleased with some of the results below.




Is this a cicada?

As last time my eye was caught by the unusual lichens on the ground or on the trees.




The appearance of the dragonflies was a clue we were nearing water.


Yes that is a waterlily leaf in the background ........


we'd arrived at the large ponds. Lake Tibet (or perhaps Butler) is just behind the trees swathed in the Spanish Moss. One of the trees held an osprey nest.


No turtles (terrapins) this time, but the frog appeared below the viewing platform. It was pretty chunky, so I can see why the tadpoles are big. Unfortunately there was no way to get down for a lower angle shot.
I can't ignore the birds completely - Black duck .......



and Osprey.



(Not vignetting in the first of the two shot, but the edge of the viewing platform shelter!)

Black Birds - Bahama Bay

The small trees around the ponds provided ideal morning perches for two of the several US black birds (as against blackbirds) to stake their territories.
The redwinged blackbird doesn't look so dramatic at rest, but when it decides to call the effect is actually quite lovely as it flashes red and makes a Batman shape. The call itself is an unmistakable, but indescribable sound; one of those once-heard-never-forgotten calls.





The following pics are of grackles. I think they're all boat-tailed, but the differentiation between common and boat tailed seems to be largely on of size and sheen. Few common birds shine like these boys in the right light.

Green Heron - Bahama Bay

Every so often you come across a subject that grabs your attention, and you try that much harder, or want that much more to get some pictures. Hawfinch have done that to me (3 days and 12 hours+ in my hide for maybe 10 minutes of action on the middle day, but I'd try again if it wasn't that there will be too much else around over the next few weeks), and, for whatever reason the green heron captured my imagination last time we were in Florida. My book then called it a green backed heron, but it seems in the US as here names keep being modified.
They're just kind of cute, and I love the way that great long neck morphs out of the squat little figure you usually see.
The pictures below sort of show how I gradually got better views over my visits to the pond. It was almost as though they got used to this strange character (often in a degree of 'toy soldier' camo gear - but that's a story to follow) who kept turning up and eventually accepted me , at least if I wasn't moving around.
The pictures also show how the light went from too dark for decent photo's to really quite harsh in just 30-40 minutes on any day the sun was out.

Egrets - Bahama Bay

I was going to call this post white herons, to follow from the last, but in truth these are all herons and egrets so I might as well call it egrets. There is a bird called a great white heron which isn't an egret, so let's not confuse things or provide false hope! There were three egrets I saw regularly at B Bay. The snowy egret, much like our own little egret, always seemed to be on the far side of the pond, and I didn't get any shots worth putting up. The great egret shown first is a lovely bird with that beautiful plume of feathers that shows so well in the dawn silhouette. Stalking through the reeds it seemed to catch tadpoles primarily, but none so large as the lbh!



The surprise of this trip were the cattle egrets which I hadn't seen last time. At dusk they would fly into the reeds on the second pond to roost. We were usually still out at that time so I only watched them come in twice, and couldn't get any decent flight shots. In fact the thick reeds meant I struggled to get even these pictures below. In the early morning light they were off again, and I began to wonder if I would ever get a chance for a closer picture (the lower shot is a quite heavy crop, altho' it doesn't look too bad here).

'Blue' Herons - Bahama Bay

OK, this isn't a heron, nor is it Bahama Bay resort. It's an osprey catching a fish in a very artificial pond at a shopping mall, taken with a compact digital camera which only has a 3x zoom lens. Although it's a rubbish shot, this is uncropped and demonstrates just what you can see over there without trying too hard.

There'll be more examples to come from some of the theme parks, but I'll start with the place we stayed (for the second time). Bahama Bay is quite a big resort, and a pretty nice spot. It's out at Lake Davenport and so away from the main built up parts of Orlando.




For me the pleasure of the place is mainly around the 2 ponds, and the lake featured in the gator shots of the last post. There is a bigger lake - Davenport itself - but access is quite limited. The ponds especially allow good access to the water and surrounding bushes, small trees.



Since we were there last the second pond had got hard to access waterwise, and even the one shown had lost the shoreline where I'd seen kildeer and snipe. Still there was plenty to see, and the next few posts will show what you can find at the resort without too much effort. Bit of fieldcraft and patience to photo some of the wildlfie, but the first two of the six heron/egret species found here are shown below.

The little blue heron and the tricoloured heron (formerly Louisiana Heron) are superficially similar from a distance, but you can see the difference easily enough close up. They are not tiny birds, a bit bigger than our little egret, so you can appreciate what a whopping tadpole the little blue heron has caught. One of the l. blue herons had a fascinating way of fishing. It would fly up, calling loudly, and hover, after a fashion, low over the water before landing and stabbing at the same time. I saw it do this twice, and both times it caught a tadpole.






There are better (well closer) shots of tricoloured heron to follow, but I had to include the one in the tree! Not sure what had spooked it, but it certainly was spooked.

Sunrise in an alligator's eye

I saw the sunrise in an alligator's eye.
Some mornings there was mist that hung over the lakes at Bahama Bay. Coming round to the big lake I saw the pied billed grebes, my original target, and with them my first Bahama Bay gator. Not a huge one, but big enough to be glad it was a way off.
It lazily swam out across the lake through the reflections of the surrounding apartment buildings, and out of camera range.
A couple of mornings later I was back at dawn, and went down to the waters edge to try and snap the grebes. As always they were shy and skittish, not helped by the racket a moorhen started to make in the reeds. A bit slow on the uptake it was only when the gator slid out from the reeds nearby I realised why it was so distressed.
Making sure I had a route away from the water (yeah, I'm a wary soul!) and that there was sufficient vegetation around to discourage a bigger brother from wandering down to me, I got down low to get some better angle shots as the sun came up.
It drifted out to a patch of weed and just rested up, until I gave up first - more wildlife to try and photograph, and never enough time. I didn't see it again.

Sunrise in the eye?
Here's a Bahama Bay sunrise .......
and here's a close up of the eye.
Now tell me that's not the sunrise in there.