Flying critters in November

I had just gotten out of my car for a walk when I heard the monk parakeets screaming towards me. I grabbed my camera out of the back and started shooting as they landed in the trees in front of me. Unfortunately it was right into the sun. Monk parakeets are smaller than the nanday parakeets and they don’t have the black heads. Both types are not native to Florida and there are tons of them here.

They were bouncing and moving around across the trees and I was able to catch a few shots with the sun behind me while they were feeding.

After a few minutes they all took off across the water.

After my walk along the waterfront at the Safety Harbor fishing pier I stopped at Folly Farms to see what was flying around. Even though it was mid-November it was still pretty warm and there were lots of little critters buzzing around.

Little critters buzzing around

It was early August when I visited Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales. I knew there wouldn’t be a lot of birds there since fall migration hadn’t started yet but I was ready for a road trip. There were a lot of other flying critters though so I had a fun morning torturing myself trying to get pictures of little things buzzing around.

I found this spiny orb weaver with a bee in his web.

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Tiny critters at the botanical gardens

I think this lizard was flirting with me at the Botanical Gardens in Largo.

Tiny critters were buzzing around the butterfly garden.

A few of the butterflies in the butterfly garden. I was expecting to see many more than this. I didn’t see any yellow ones. I keep saying I am seeing less and less of them every year. I wonder if it’s all of the spraying that is being done. Spraying for invasive plants, spraying for mosquitoes.

A soft shell turtle swims by under the bridge. I was only able to get his funny shaped head in the shot. He almost blends in with the brown lily pad leaves.

A young moorhen walking around the spatterdock lilies in the pond.

A few of the flowers blooming in early June.

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