Wildlife Around the Garden

This Anhinga hangs his wings out to dry in the sun. He's perched atop a tree that was blown into the lake during a hurricane back in 2005. We had three storms that summer, and I can't recall which one toppled this tree. Turtles also love to sunbathe on the trunk of this tree.

And the Great Blue Heron also uses this same branch for a perch. Now the branch is just barely out of the water due to so much rain this summer.

Our resident red-shouldered hawk sits on the peak of our house scouting out his next meal. This past spring he hunted continuously, and we suspected that he had a brood of young'uns to feed. Now he is less visible. He's great at keeping the snake population down, but we've also seen him carrying baby birds (ugh), squirrels, rodents and frogs. A gorgeous bird!


The Osprey circle over the water in search of their next meal.


And, here's a lazy gator sunbathing on the same fallen tree that the bird in the first photo sat on. Click on this photo to enlarge it, and you'll see that his mouth is open. Perhaps he's waiting for some unsuspecting creature to swim right in. Either that or I caught him in the middle of a yawn.

I couldn't leave this cute little "wild" animal photo out. She's our plant-crushing cat who just happens to fit perfectly inside this clay pot. Never mind the fern that's being flattened and squeezed to the side. Luckily, the plant survived this 7 lb. light-weight kitty.