Tag Archives: fort lauderdale

Those tiny grumpy owls

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Brett and I took a trip to the Fort Lauderdale area to visit his relatives for the weekend. Sunday morning we got up early and went over to nearby Brian Piccolo Park to see the burrowing owls. It was early May and any babies should be big enough to be out of the nest (or burrow). The park is a busy ball park with baseball fields, soccer fields, bike tracks and other sports but the owls live among the fields and have been here for a long time. The burrows are all roped off so they are easy to spot. And, there is usually an owl sitting out of each of the them.

These were all taken from the parking lots with my 400mm lens and cropped up. There were a lot of owls out this morning.

I only saw 2 burrows with babies and they were almost as big as the parents. They still had some fuzz around their heads but otherwise looked like adults. We didn’t stay too long since we had to get back and get ready for lunch with the family.

Road trip to the other side

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In early May Brett and I took a road trip to the Fort Lauderdale area to visit his relatives. It’s just a quick 4 hour drive from our house in Oldsmar. We always pass this old historic spot at Yeehaw Junction. The old Desert Inn Bar was built in 1889 and has been standing in this spot since then. In 2019 a tractor trailer truck ran into the side of it and did a lot of damage. Original word was that it was going to be restored but that hasn’t happened yet. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

The new hotel addition of the Hard Rock Hotel can be see from almost any of the main roads through Fort Lauderdale. We passed it on the way to a restaurant during our stay.

We were in our hotel room before heading out to dinner and Brett was looking out the window and saw this large iguana walking towards the hotel. I jumped up and grabbed my camera and ran down. He was already in this palm tree when I got to him. That doesn’t look like a comfortable spot.

I saw a lot of these lizards everywhere we went. It was the first time I really noticed them around.

A sun halo high up on our way to lunch.

We were checking out of our hotel and Brett went to get the car. I looked over and saw a tiny bird sitting on the sidewalk. I walked right over to this black throated blue warbler and he let me pick him up. He must have hit a window. I put him on top of the bushes and by the time Brett came and we loaded the car he flew off.

Heading home over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. They were repainting the yellow cables. I can’t image being high up in those little boxes painting while cars are whizzing by. The view is probable amazing though.

BLUE MONDAY BADGE

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

Flamingo Gardens

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Pretty flowers.

Things in the water.

Peacocks had free run of the gardens. They were everywhere. One lady was even taking a dirt bath.

Yes, there were flamingos at Flamingo Gardens.

Egyptian geese also had the run of the gardens. They are also pretty common out in the wild in the south Florida area.

A wild hawk was building a nest near the aviary.

Brett and I stopped in the old Florida attraction while we were in the Fort Lauderdale area visiting some of his relatives.

Our World Tuesday Graphicimage-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

Always looking up

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These cute little burrowing owls are looking out for predators. If anything looks suspect, they run back into their burrows. We don’t have any living in the Tampa Bay area so on a recent trip to see Brett’s relatives that live near Fort Lauderdale, we stopped by a sports park on the way that is known for having the little owls living there year round. It was the beginning of nesting season so they were all sticking close to the burrows. Many might have had eggs already in them. While Brett sat in the car and answered emails (it was a Friday after all), I ran around and took all of the above. All were taken with my 300mm with extender and cropped up.

Our World Tuesday Graphicimage-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

Breakfast with the burrowing owls

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Yum, dirty frog for breakfast!

He’s completely ignoring me while he’s chowing down.

He looks over like “Wait, someone’s watching me eat.”

This one looks like he’s eating dirt. I think it’s a bug or something just completely covered in dirt.

Okay, now it looks like he’s eating twigs. He was chewing on it.

They looks so cute when they are holding something.

Just a few more pictures from my trip to Fort Lauderdale. I caught two owls eating for a few minutes. I didn’t see them catch their food. They seemed to have had it stored in their hole.

Cute burrowing owls

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“Oh no, here comes another photographer.”

“What do you think? Should we do something cute?”

“She’s just getting the standard pose from me.”

“Wait, I gotta itch. Don’t take the picture yet.”

“Boring!”

“Let me dig a deeper hole to hide in.”

“What, she’s leaving already?”

Recently I was visiting relatives in Fort Lauderdale and had to stop by Brian Piccolo Park to see the burrowing owls. This was my 2nd visit there and the owls were still there looking as cute as ever. They have so much personality for such a little bird. There were not as many active holes as there was last year when I visited and it was the same weekend. It was a lot colder last year. I don’t know if they live at this park all year-long or if they just come in seasonally to nest. It was quiet while I was there. No soccer or baseball games. Last year as I was leaving, the park was getting packed.  Of course, I took a ton of pictures so there will be more to come.

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