Tag Archives: south florida

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

A few more from Flamingo Gardens

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The Flamingo Gardens near Ft. Lauderdale takes in a lot of permanently injured animals to live their lives out here. As I was walking around the aviary this pelican came right up to me as if to say “Come hang out with me.”. It looked like he had an injured wing.

A barred owl with a missing eye.

A few other birds in the aviary.

The white pelicans had very distinctive faces.

The pelicans were nesting and swimming around.

A pretty cattle egret posing for me.

All taken in the permanent injured aviary.

 

I’ve been recently posting a lot of older pictures on Instagram. If you are over there you can find me at @dinaj1.

Scenes from south Florida

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On the road to south Florida, this famous eyesore sits at the Yeehaw Junction right before the Florida turnpike exit.

Sitting poolside at Brett’s aunt and uncle’s winter condo, we had a nice dinner with the family, watching the dinner boats go by.

Construction cranes are everywhere here, including next to our hotel.

On the road to Hallendale Beach sits a big statue in the parking lot at the horse race track. After the statue, we turn right to head over the bridge to the beach.

We stopped by Hard Rock Hotel to see the new guitar shaped hotel going up. The last 2 are shots from the top of the parking deck. You can barely make out the skyline of the beach.

The road back to Tampa, we headed across Alligator Alley (I75). We never see alligators on this road though. Just miles of the above view.

SkyWatch Friday

 

The hotel window

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Brett and I spend a long weekend near Hollywood Beach visiting relatives. When we got back to the hotel to change before dinner I looked out the window and noticed this palm tree had bloomed. I realized there were tons of bees buzzing around it and grabbed my camera to try to get some shots of them.

As I was trying to focus on the bees through the window, I noticed several green lizards also on the tree. It looked like they were drinking the sap. We were on the 4th floor so they had climbed up pretty high.

I stood there for a while watching the bees and the lizards buzzing all over this palm tree, right on a busy street.  It was hard to get clear shots through the dirty window but it was fun trying.

Photographing New Zealand

South Florida

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Late afternoon on Hallandale Beach, north of Miami. A quick walk before dinner.

Things on the beach. The beach was littered with Portuguese man o’ wars. I would not want to come close to one of these in the water. They are known to have a painful sting.

Tile on the walkway and hibiscus near the parking lot.

Big boats are common along the inter-coastal waterway.

Heading home before crossing Alligator Alley.

Some parting shots from our quick trip to south Florida to visit Brett’s relatives.

SkyWatch Friday

The land of fruits and nuts

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More pictures from my trip to the Fruit and Spice Park in south Miami. Lots of different things growing there. I did learn that you could tell the difference between edible and non-edible banana plants by the bloom. If the bloom is growing up, the bananas are not edible and are just ornamental. Has anyone else ever heard that before?

SkyWatch Friday

A trip down south (south Florida)

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Every year in the winter Brett and I head down to the Miami area for a long weekend to visit some relatives before it gets too hot. This past February we were looking for something to do with his aunt and uncle and were going to be close to Homestead one afternoon so we stopped at the Fruit and Spice Park.  We were way down south of Miami right before heading to the Keys. Lots of farmland down there. The park is a farm that grows different exotic spices and fruits that you can tour. We took a long tram ride with a guide who explained all of the different plants that are farmed there. We got to taste and smell some of them. It was a nice way to relax and spend the afternoon outdoors and I took a ton of pictures.

The above Rainbow Gum tree was very cool. As the bark peels off, it exposes different colors. It can only be grown in frost-free areas of the country.

There were lots of critters crawling around from the pretty green lizard to the big iguanas. The kids on the tram went crazy over them and we stopped and were allowed to get pretty close.

More to come on this trip down “south”.

SkyWatch Friday