The Continuing Adventures of Jud

Of course, the "park" is Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Florida, and I was driving a boat today up and down Pepper Creek. Got all my runs done before the skies opened up and soaked the place.

Had to grab a shot of this one passenger's T-shirt. If you aren't driving this, you are driving at best second best.


And after my runs when I was piloting the boat back to the boat house, I paused to grab a shot and a video of this beautiful Soft Shell Turtle on Waldo's raft just outside the dock.

Over at the boat dock of the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, lives Waldo, a wild gator who rules the raft. Here are a few clips of the old boy:


In my neighborhood, there have been a pair of Sandhill Cranes for several years. On April 28 I caught them with their new offspring...


And today, May 21, I saw them again, now in their "teen" years:

Labels: Alligator, Cranes, homosassa, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Jud, Sandhill Crane

Made a swivel platform for my camera tripod last night to make doing panning shots smoother.

A 6" Lazy Susan base screwed to 3/4 ply with a threaded insert to match camera mounting bolts... and the top piece of 1/4 ply is simply glued to the other side of the hardware. This allows a bit smoother rotating of the camera when panning in video, but it is still dependent on a smooth operator.

Shown here on my tripod while I await the moment for my video shoot. The camera simply rests atop the platform on some rubber-like pads to clear the sun screen and to both minimize vibration and give a bit more grip to the mating.


While I waited for my video op, I grabbed a shot of the fountain with my other camera.


Oh ya! New yard bunny too! Saw him first thing this morning (My first thing, not anyone else's. Very unusual.) And striking appearance. Didn't go for the shot then cause I was sure he would just take off as he was right outside the door. Then this afternoon, he was back and far enough off that I dared to try for it. He spooked a little, but didn't bolt. Though he wouldn't look at me... Nice coloring.

Labels: Camera, Fountain, Jud, Rainbow, Swivel base, Tripod, Yard Bunny

It was off and on rain here today in Homosassa. We ran the boats, but the riders on my first run out and first run back were but two.

My first trip out, I carried two ladies from Marseilles, France. One spoke a bit of English, the other, none, and alas, by knowledge of the language is limited to "How are you?" Still, I managed to share a few points of interest along the creek, including this, my favorite view, with the Red Cypress standing alone against the green in the center of the creek.


On the return trip, I passed slowly by the Weeping Bottle Brush tree and grabbed a shot.


The rain picked up a bit on the way back, and these two ladies took cover intermittently under a Pepsi-cola umbrella.


Back at the Visitors' Center dock, I grabbed a shot of the cast of an Alligator Snapping Turtle. There is a live one in the creek that is half again as large as this one. I have seen it once, beneath the surface as I neared the Fishbowl Dock. It is quite a thing! Look for the cast on the wall over the door as you enter the dock.


On my third run, as I stopped for the view of the Osprey nest, currently home to two off-spring, we were lucky enough in our timing to catch one of the adults sitting atop the nest, and if you look closely at the extreme crop, you can see another head, though whether it is the other adult or one of the chicks, I can't say. It has been long enough since I first saw the babies that it could be one of them.



Hope you enjoyed this little review of today's outing.

Labels: Bottle Brush Tree, Florida, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, HSWLSP, Jud, Osprey, Pepper Creek, Rain, Umbrella

Sat down on the trail and watched the forest grow...

Labels: Florida, Florida Birding Trail, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, HSWLSP, Jud, Pepper Creek Trail

...and all that...