


There are at least six American hawks that can be very difficult to distinguish in the field to the inexperienced observer. I am not absolutely certain of the identity of some that I photographed so I have chosen the most likely candidates, and in this case I am fairly confident that it is a Red-Shouldered variety.
No doubting the identity of the Loggerhead Shrike, a subspecies of the Great Grey and very similar to our Southern Grey, but the loggerhead is the only one that occurs in Florida.

Sometimes called Butcher Bird from its habit of impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire, to return and devour later.




I was surprised by the general scarcity of dragonflies in the Glades. This is possibly because we were there in mid-winter, but by European standards the temperature would be perfect for odonates. I did manage to capture this stunning green specimen however. It was a large insect with transparent wings, beautiful green pterostigma, frons and thorax, brown eyes and green & brown ringed abdomen. I believe it is a Great Pondhawk, so named because it is a fierce predator which will catch and devour larger prey than itself.