Around the yard in early September

The juvenile bluebirds were still coming to the feeder and bath in early September. They still had their cute spots and acted like toddlers. One was eating the berries off the ferns that bloom in late summer.

House finches were migrating through and stopped at the bath as well.

The bunnies were still coming to backyard.

I caught this one looking at me through the window. I’m always yelling at them “Stop being cute and stop eating my flowers”.

Fred was flirting with me in front of the window.

Mushrooms growing in the yard from the summer rains.

Sunsets across the street.

I went out to get the mail right before dark and the bats had just come out and were buzzing around. Florida is home to 13 different types of bats and I have no idea which ones these are (not going to get that close and we only see them at dark). They are beneficial and one can eat thousands of mosquitos in one night.

I spotted these two bucks in the utility field down the street coming home from the grocery store.

Saturday's Critters

 

The Venice rookery

While Brett and I were on our staycation in Manasota Key we spent a day in nearby Venice (just south of Sarasota). Our first stop in Venice was the Audubon rookery. This was my first visit but I had heard a lot about it during bird nesting season. I knew we would be too early to see any babies but I still wanted to stop by and see if it’s worth another trip down. The rookery is smaller than the one in north Tampa but great blue herons nest here and not in Tampa. There were only a few of them on the morning we were here but I was able to catch some flirting going on.

This was the only couple that had started a nest. They were both just hanging out together. It looked like the one in the back was napping.  A few minutes later he woke up and quickly took off.

He flew right by me and over to the other end of the little island.

He pecked around at several branches and picked one out and flew back to the nest with the big branch.

He flew back to the nest and gave the branch to his lady. She took the branch and put it in the best place that she could find. I was hoping they would mate and we waited around for a while but they both started napping again so it was time to go.

I saw another one fly over to the back of the rookery, just out of sight but the below could see it and started doing his mating dance.

I’m not sure if he was showing off for the one that just flew in or he was staking his territory.

There were several kildeer in the field across the street.

We saw several bat boxes near the rookery. Brett never believes that actual bats are in them so I cranked up my ISO and put on the spot meter and took a shot with my camera. This box was full of them sleeping. I wouldn’t want to wake them up.