A sea monster or mermaid?

Can you guess what I saw today?  I so, so wish that I had a decent photo, but this is all I got. A dark blob in the water with a big mermaid tail.

A nestful of osprey

Yesterday was a very ospreyey (is that a word?) day. When the osprey woke me up with it’s loud screeching in the morning it must have been a sign that I would get my closest view of ospreys just a few hours later.

Woken by an Osprey

“What a wonderful way to wake up” you might think “woken by the soft mewing of an osprey” How cruel reality is sometimes…

Osprey, originally uploaded by Nature Watch Corfe Mullen.

I met a monster today

OK, not quite a monster. This iguana was actually about 2ft long. He’s one of the growing population of unwanted pet iguanas released into the Florida Keys by their owners. They love the weather, the habitat and the food and their numbers have risen dramatically in the last few years as these one-time pets mate and reproduce.

Iguana, originally uploaded by Nature Watch Corfe Mullen.

Unfortunately the native wildlife is finding it hard to live with them as the iguanas munch their way through the local fruits, flowers, buds, leaves and young stems plus the occasional birds egg, insects and small vertebrates. On some Keys they are being rounded up and shipped out.

Don’t worry this photo has been “messed” with. They don’t actually have a ghostly glow around them but believe me that “don’t mess with me” look is oh so very real!

The long, long walk…

On Tuesday I made a bad mistake. It wasn’t one of my better ideas in fact it was a pretty awful one. I know, I thought, while Andrew goes fishing I will WALK to Long Key State Park. It only takes about 10 mins in the car so it won’t take me long. How wrong can one person be????

Ruddy Turnstone – Wait for me!, originally uploaded by Nature Watch Corfe Mullen.

A walk round the lagoons

Down on Grassy Key (the next Key down) there are some weird shallow fresh water lagoons edged by mangrove. I think they were dug out for aggregate when they were building the railway or road way back. They make a great habitat for birds and insects.

Looking for Bugs & Birds

It’s my third day on Conch Key. Thankfully nothing much has changed since our last visit in November. It’s warmer but just as breezy! I decided it was time I checked out Long Key State Park (my local wildlife reserve on the next island across 3-mile bridge).

Long Key State Park is a little gem. Only a couple of quid to get in for the whole day, hardly any people but a beautifully kept nature trail through the tropical hammock (Florida woodland) and along the mangrove shoreline. Most of the time I have it to myself and yesterday was no exception.

You laughing at me?

Back in the Florida Keys on Conch Key . This laughing gull welcomed us with his policeman’s laugh all afternoon…

Laughing Gull, originally uploaded by Nature Watch Corfe Mullen.

A Pod of Pelican & Congregation of Egret

I love collective nouns they can be so deliciously descriptive, and when I visited the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centre (see their blog) at Tavernier (about a 35 min drive away from Conch Key) I needed several “nouns” to describe the humongous number of “wild” birds that collect there at 3.30pm every day.

Hoppity twit returns!

Good news! The little “twit” (otherwise known as a Ruddy Turnstone) that we rescued the other day has been totally “untied” and “unknoted” by Susie from the pink string that was twined around his legs and feet, and is now back on our pier, as you can see below.