A final blog from Florida with a last look at some of the rest and the best.
My favourite American bird, the Grackle, is the cheeky chappie of urban environments as well as the countryside. I cannot definitively distinguish between the two species, Common & Boat-Tailed, but this one, captured strutting across a shopping-mall car park like a drum major, looks like a Florida variant of the Boat-Tailed Grackle with its very long tail and beak, and muddy coloured rather than bright yellow eyes. The sun really brings out the purple and blue-green tones in those feathers.
My favourite American bird, the Grackle, is the cheeky chappie of urban environments as well as the countryside. I cannot definitively distinguish between the two species, Common & Boat-Tailed, but this one, captured strutting across a shopping-mall car park like a drum major, looks like a Florida variant of the Boat-Tailed Grackle with its very long tail and beak, and muddy coloured rather than bright yellow eyes. The sun really brings out the purple and blue-green tones in those feathers.
Boat-tailed Grackle - quiscalus major
Brown Anole - anolis sagrei
The Brown Anole Lizard, introduced from Cuba and the Bahamas is now common in every Florida garden. Very tame they are fun to watch, particularly when a male extends his bright orange/red throat flap. A similar lizard, the Green Anole is also common and it can change colour depending upon its background, so is often wrongly called a chameleon.
Great Egret
Lizards form a large part of the diet of herons and egrets and here´s another look at a Great Egret about to swallow an unfortunate lizard whole. It should probably digest the previous snack first which is still bulging in its snake-like throat, but greed looks to have overtaken common sense in this instance.
Below are a couple of shots of two similar dove species that frequent Florida gardens. The White-winged Dove is heavier than the slender Mourning Dove, so named because of its mournful sounding call, somewhat reminiscent of an owl.
 White-winged Dove - zenaida asiatica |  Mourning Dove - zenaida macroura |
and here´s another look at two great Everglades characters, the Anhinga and the Wood Stork. The stork was clattering its bill to make a sound like a castanet.
 Anhinga -  Blue Jay with Acorn - The Blue Jay is a very colorful garden visitor that competes with squirrels for acorns. One reason for its success as a species must be its varied diet as it is truly omnivorous, liking insects as well as seeds and nuts. |  Wood Stork -  Anhinga swimming - The Anhinga swims with body submerged and such a long neck snaking up from the water looks like some mythological sea serpent. |
