Empty Nest

The baby birds disappeared, one at a time. The nest is Empty, but the Mama and Papa and two of their friends are around. We are 99 percent sure, our resident black snake is he culprit. Sometimes nature's food chain hurts our hearts. We learned a lot about our Big Black Dog. He was an angel and did no harm to adults or babies.
I am trying for a pic of the female... She would sit and let me talk to her, if I was outside by myself. I could see her through the branches listening to me assure her we meant no harm.
I marveled at how the female when sitting on the nest, blended as though she were not there. The bright hues of the male are meant to distract from his family. I had never thought of that before when wondering why the male birds are more beautiful.

I talk to lizards and birds and frogs. Do you?

Papa C continues to brighten our landscape

The Cardinals and The BIG Dog

For about 3 weeks we have watched Mama C and Papa C, building a nest, sitting on 2 eggs, sitting on 2 chicks. I could never get a clear shot at any of them. We spent a lot of time watching Big Boy watching the birds. The nest was 4 feet off the ground, just at head height for a stretching Dog.

For the story of how I got these photos and what happened with the BIG Dog click HERE and travel to Big Boy's Blog Fourpawsetc.

Way up high in the tree, Papa sat on a branch, the sun beam touched him, the branch moved, he was in the dark..... the branch blew in the breeze, light to dark, light to dark.. He was watching Big Boy, daring him to touch his babies. I put 4 of the photos of dark and light into this gif...

Cardinals and Lizards on Nature Friday

Can you find Mama Cardinal in above photo? if not see below

Can you see her now?  The problem is I removed her fist nest from this dangerous place and she built another in the same place. She is sitting about 4 feet off the ground, in the powder puff bush JUST at Stand Up On Hind Paws Head Level of Big. She has survived for a week, and I dread the babies.

Glass Snake About 20 inches long

The most obvious way to tell this is a legless lizard, is it has eyelids and snakes do not.  NO, I did not bend close enough to check for eyelids, I just held my cell phone about a foot over him and snapped.
They are common in Florida and eat insect and spiders and they are often eaten by birds or snakes.

for those of you just dying to know more, these are called glass snakes because they can lose their tales and grow new ones. just like lizards that have legs...  You may have missed a few or two of my TWENTY EIGHT posts on lizards. Click HERE to see a few that have legs and no tails


Florida Glass Snake is a Legless Lizard  INFO HERE

Backyard Drama/Animal Kingdom

I had an adventure on April 10th  while walking my laps around the pool. Mrs. Cardinal almost hit my face when she flew into the bush 3 feet in front of my face, and sat at eye level in a half dead bush. I stopped and we had a stare down. As long as I stood and stared her in the eye, she looked at me. I had no camera in my hand. By the time I had my camera she was  way up in the tree..

cropped/lightened  for detail

Fast forward with me to April 15th. At 3 pm, Jake eats dinner, we go out by the pool and do exercise's.  Bob is in the pool, I am doing my kicks , (think Chuck Norris, heh heh heh..) and the mother cardinal starts to chitter and falls on the ground, the daddy cardinal is on the fence screaming, I start screaming at Bob, the baby is on the ground, there a SNAKE after him, the black snake is about 4 foot long, the mother is flopping around trying to get him away, I run over while screaming to Bob get out and help me.... I have a broom to frighten the snake which I do (we never harm our black snakes)... he hides in the bush, the Cardinals are going wild and shrieking at me, the baby is fluttering on the ground. The parents land by the baby.... I continue to poke at the snake, Bob finally gets out of the pool and is trying to pick up the snake to move it... I am yelling he will bite you, the parents are yelling kill that snake.... the story ended well... the snake left for the neighbors yard under the fence, the parents and baby disappeared, who knows how they got it back in the nest. The thing is they built the nest in our bush and that is why she landed in front of me, protecting the nest. they are really quite stupid to build a nest in a bush and not a tree... Did you know snakes climb bushes and trees? we have watched the black snake climb in a hibiscus in the past. And climb the fence...

The Cardinal is safe...

photo from kitchen window 2010

This little beauty lives with his wife in our trees... .

He and his lady were really busy for a week or two, sitting on the window sill of the kitchen, then the bedroom, flying in and out of the bush and I thought nothing of it... just watched with pleasure from bedroom or kitchen window.

The flowers make it perfect for camouflage... BUT they built there new home right where you see the arrow.
NOTE: this is Jake Territory... as in he could stand on his hind legs and grab baby birds with no trouble at all.

for a couple of days she sat in the nest and I was fretting big time, afraid she would hatch noisy babies that would become dinner for Jake.....one day after I stared at her many times, she flew away, and I checked the nest.
IT"S EMPTY  I shouted to Bob.... and I removed it from harms way....

Check out the DETAIL... so much work, so delicate and I felt horrible moving it. But I would have felt worse if the unthinkable happened.

They thought they were hidden, but had no idea they were to close to the ground. anything could get to them, and we do have black snakes.

Each piece places carefully, just where it needed to be and the thinnest of pine needles to make the center.

Hiking Emerson Point Preserve

Today dawned bright and glorious, a perfect day for hiking in the woods. winds were 10 to 20 knots, which prevented my husband from flying his Radio Control plains. We headed out early.

The first thing we saw as we pulled in at the preserve was this marvelous piece of work the osprey's had built to raise their families in. Click the picture to see how hard the work to build there nest.

It stands tall above every tree in the forest. They must have been out hunting for breakfast, because no one was home.

Where the Manatee River meets the Gulf of Mexico, Emerson Point Preserve protects a significant archaeological site: the Portavent Mound that is in a 365 acre, state-owned preserve. The mound is more than 1,000 years old

There are improved and unimproved trails and boardwalks are maintained for activities such as bird watching, hiking, biking, with a birding trail that allows us to see birds in their natural habitat. We did not see birds today, it was to windy, but we did smell a Skunk. So glad we did not SEE him/her.

As we wandered the trails, we saw dead trees rising from the green undergrowth.

And the trail wound around, over and under gumbo limbo trees and ancient oaks.

this little guy is a Horseshoe Crab, the trails run through mangrove swamps, along bay waters, and through wooded areas.

We found this little pretty green weed shining in the light

Saw the sun shine through the palmetto bushes.

Waterviews seen through live trees and dead limbs.

Shiny green swamp water, flowed under the boardwalk.

At one point on the trail, we had to duck under these trees to continue, I asked my husband, Bob to stand next to it to show how low we had to limbo.

Last but not least the woods were full of moss on the trees, Bob said it looked like his beard when it needs trimming. I asked him to pose with it and he did.
tomorrow I will post a few of the wild flowers that abound in fields of yellow and red and green.


Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.Rachel Carlson

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Robert Louis Stevenson