You can tell this White Ibis is a “teenager” by the coloration of its feathers. When fully mature, it will have all white plumage. The brown mottled plumage on its neck shows it is immature. The pink color of the legs and beak will also turn bright red when full grown. We didn’t see Mom or Dad, so who knows what teenaged mischief this one was up to. We captured this shot on a trip to Naples, Florida.
This is the time of year when the Sandhill Cranes head back north. Usually you hear them first, then have to search the skies for the typical “V” shaped formations. While the normal flying altitude is around 5,000 feet, they have been known to fly as high as 12,000 feet.
Took this picture this afternoon in our backyard. You have to look closely!
Click below for the sounds of one Sandhill Crane. Imagine how loud it is with all of the cranes squawking as they fly.
Does a kettle of vultures circling in the sky give you pause?
Took this picture a few years back one early morning
Turkey vultures often get a bad rap. Yes, they are pretty ugly. They do perform a vital role in the ecosystem by cleaning up the carrion. It is for some kind of scary seeing a lot of them circling overhead. Here’s some other information:
Want more information? Here is the Wikipedia link for turkey vultures.
Occasionally it is fun to just post a picture.
This duck has a unique coloration. This picture was taken either in the San Antonio Canal or in Lake Travis in the Hill Country, can’t really remember which. That is all.
At an RV Park in central Florida we met the local resident Sandhill crane.
This crane obviously owned the park, as we saw him walking down the center of roads and blatantly ignoring the accepted RV park protocol of not walking through another camper’s site. I was only about 3 feet from him for the close up head shot.
A few days ago we had a decent 1 to 2 inch accumulation of snow. When we looked out early in the morning we saw a set of tracks in the snow on the sidewalk leading to our front door. Do you recognize what kind of animal made these tracks?
Bonus question: Which direction was the critter going? Towards the camera or away?
Well, we’ve got another 3 inches of snow on the ground when we woke up today. Snow pictures are sometimes boring, so here’s a picture from last summer.
The squirrel is enjoying a little snack of some kind. The young tree in the tomato cage is a Black Cherry seedling that we got free from the local Extension Service. We also got Tulip tree seedlings as well.
We hope we can get our vaccines soon so we can get away from the Indiana winter and head south somewhere where it’s warm.
Strange as it sounds, we’ve been waiting for a decent snow since we’re still stuck in Indiana. Snowfall is so pretty, and this evening it started at dark. Up to 5 – 6 inches is forecast before morning, which is the most accumulation yet from any event this winter.
We noticed this little bunny just sitting in the yard seemingly really enjoying the snowfall. He was there long enough to begin to get a covering of snowflakes on his back. He sat there for quite a few minutes.
Snow is starting to stick!
This time last year we were enjoying an RV Resort in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin. With any luck we can get our covid vaccines sooner than later and be able to get on the road again.
Enjoying a treat
The TV weather forecast on Saturday called for some freezing rain Sunday morning followed by rain. Imagine the surprise when we woke up Sunday to a fairly heavy snowfall with about an inch already on the ground!
Our herb and flower garden was a summer project that we worked on while staying “in isolation” avoiding the COVID-19 pandemic. With today’s snowfall it sure looks rather, ah, wintery. One thing about snow: your yard looks just as good as the always perfect yard down the street.
Snow covered garden
We’re still waiting for our chance to get the coronavirus vaccine. Here in Indiana you have to be 70 or above to sign up for the vaccine. Neither of us are 70 yet, but we will be in the next group, be it 60+ or 65+, assuming they won’t change which group is next to be allowed to get the vaccine. We are anxiously awaiting our chance to receive the vaccine. We, like everyone, are anxious to get back to being able to safely travel and to visit family.
Roadtirement 