Color and babies

Random things at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo.

There wasn’t many birds when I was there in late May. You can always find brown thrashers there but the kestral was the first time I had seen one here.

After leaving the botanical gardens, I headed over for a quick stop at Largo Nature Preserve to see how the flickers were doing. I got there right as Mom was feeding the babies. I love that flash of red on the back of Mom’s head.

Mom left and the babies kept poking their heads out of the hole. This was probably right before they fledged.They looked fully grown at this point.

The red bellied woodpecker was still hanging around the hole in the tree next door. They will probably nest later in the summer.

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A surprise limpkin family

Little critters in the flower beds.

Pretty things around the botanical gardens in Largo including some type of fruit.

In the butterfly garden, the flowers were starting to over-grow in late May.

A Carolina wren watching me take pictures of the bees.

I found a limpkin family across one of the ponds. I haven’t seen baby limpkins in a long time and there were two with this parent. They were still pretty small and stayed close to Mom.

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End of summer colors

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These were all taken at the Florida Botanical Gardens in late October. Some things were just starting to bloom and some things were starting to look tired.  The purple coneflower were all at the end of their season but red berries were sprouting up everywhere and bananas were growing in the fruit garden. Of course there’s always something growing in central Florida.

Random things at the Botanical Gardens

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I think this little guy was chowing on a pine cone. He was high up in the tree.

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Bug or bee?

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Dragonfly with a frown on his face.

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Tropical dogwood.

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Teeny island in the creek.

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Jump! I think he was sick. He was moving but didn’t jump and hide like he should have.

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Lizard on a leaf.

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Orange and pink.

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Peaking out.

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On the way home from the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, I passed this spoonbill in a ditch. I stopped and snapped a few pictures since I hadn’t seen one in a while.  He looks like a young one with that clean white face.

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