Dead Fish Walking

It's been a strange dry season, cold, rainy, and terribly gloomy.

When the sun sticks his head out even for a little while I try to get out there and get some new pictures. Here's Red Ear on the pond.

And the Viper! He looks mean but he's not. In fact, he's not even a viper.

I noticed 15 to 20 birds hanging around the back pond. It is (was) almost dried out and there were some sort of little fish in there, popping the top of the water, by the dozens. And the birds came to catch them. I tried to get a good picture but they were too shy. Here's one though flying away. 

Most of them were wood storks, which is odd to see that many at once. I caught these in flight, too. Now I want to know what they were eating back there in the pond. I tried to scoop them out with a net but I had no luck.

Lo and behold, Mike found this one for me. It's a walking armored catfish. They dig into the mud and will stay in a shallow pond for as long as possible. This one apparently tried to get up and walk away. He didn't make it.

A flower an an ant...

Every March we have a couple of screech owls meet up in this bole, way up high in a pine tree, to nest. This is an older picture of one of them with a baby. As I was walking to the mailbox last week I noticed one little head looking out of the hole. No, I thought, it's way too early for them so I ran to get my camera.

It was a squirrel... 

The hawks were calling back and forth, making quite a racket.

I don't know what he is but he's cute.

And another butterfly...