Roseate Spoonbills in Florida - November 2013

Roseate Spoonbills are easy to spot because of their color and size - and then fascinate with their unusual bill and the way they feed. In November at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge they gathered with other birds to feed in the pools where there lower water level concentrated the small animals and the spoonbill sifts through the mud to find them. The pools are so rich that the spoonbills were with egrets and ibis.

Alligators in Florida - November 2013

Alligators were easy to spot when we were in Florida in November. The biggest ones were at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They loll on the banks of the waterways. It’s easy to image that they are smiling to lull their prey into a fall sense of security. In reality they have eaten recently and are not likely to move much from their comfortable spot.

In a small ditch next to the parking lot of the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex, there was a small alligator. At first his eyes were closed but as more people walked by his place, his eyes slowly opened. These animals have an ancient look about them…and the eyes fit with the rest of their appearance. There is an emptiness about the eyes; how is alligator consciousness different (or similar) to our own?

Sometimes an alligator looks particularly well feed. Doesn’t the middle of the large one above look particularly rounded? I wonder what he ate.

Brown Pelicans in Florida

The Manatee Observation Deck at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was a great place to see pelicans; there were a lot of them all three times we were there in mid-November. The birds have large wingspans and, with photography, it is easy to capture the way the long feathers at the end curl in flight.

Their heads are up above the plane of their wings when they fly - like herons and egrets. The head looks very large with the length of the bill and the pouch. They look ancient.

At the observation deck there were adults with distinctive coloring

And more ‘brown’ mono-colored juveniles.

Unfortunately - we only saw a manatee once during our week in Florida and it was at Bair Cove boat ramp on the other side of the Haulover Canal from the Manatee Observation Deck. It was a ‘blob’ just under the water….so I didn’t get a picture good enough to share.