Cactus

Gator

The gators are everywhere here.  I love watching them but I don't love how they love to watch me too.

Lubbock Grasshopper

This is known in Central Florida as the Lubbock Grasshopper.  They are very destructive and congregate in large groups.

Adult Little Blue Heron

 This is a Little Blue Heron at about one year of age.  This is determined by the amount of white plumage he still retains.  Sometimes referred to as calico because of the mixture of blue and white feathers.

Red Shouldered Hawk

I enjoyed watching this hawk hunt for a long time as he skillfully crashed down on crayfish.  Later he chased a pair of blackbirds out of his territory.  The southern variety that is found in Florida have paler faces than their Northern relatives.

This is what was left of a crayfish he caught.

Great Egret

Great Egrets are also the symbol of the Audubon Society which was started by the same group of women who saved the Egret from total decimation (95% were hunted) around the time of the Suffrage movement.  The breed was hunted for their plumage to supply the great demand for fashionable hats.  Now this breed thrives in the majority of the United States.

American Alligator

Here in Central Florida alligators are numerous and also one of my favorite animals to observe, from a distance.  In 1967 the American Alligator was put on the Endangered Species list and removed after just twenty years.  There are currently over one million individuals in the United States.  They are found in the southeastern US largely populating the marshes of Florida and Louisiana.