Crested Caracara

This is a Crested Caracara. I don't see these too often on my property. This guy came in with a group of vultures.

 This is a very cool looking bird!

I love the colors on his beak.

And this is an American Swallow-tailed Kite. For some reason he and his buddies have been flying low over the house lately.

 

I am here to tell you that it is very hard to get a good picture of one of these. I have never seen one land.

And just to round the post out, I offer you a few pictures of my flowering cactus.

That's about all I have today.

Dirty Dribbles

"If you spend the time to clean up all the little dribbles that happen in every day life, you will soon be spending your life cleaning up little dribbles."

Who said that? (looks behind self... looks around room...) Oh yeah, I did!

And so, I'll clean up my little dribbles today, all at once, and make it one big clean dribble.

I found a nest of brownish spotted eggs. I believe this is the mother, a Great Crested FlyCatcher. I went back to the nest a few times and saw one of the eggs had hatched, but the little one wasn't moving. I went back again and everything was gone. (sniff)

Meanwhile a couple of cute little birdies lined up on a branch for me to  take their picture.

And it turns out that one of our neighbors has a peacock. Why? I don't know. This guy is huge, about 7 foot long! And he makes one hell of a noise. He roams around freely so when he showed up next door I grabbed the camera and jumped the fence to get a picture. I would love to get a picture of him with his plumes fully spread out but he is very shy and I can't get close.

As we were already there, we dropped in to say hello next door.

 Meet the neighbors birds. He has told me several times what kind they are, but for the life of me I can't remember. They make quite a racket, too. 

And Dusty met Boots. I think it's a stand-off.

 Back at the pond, it looks as if Red Ear had a wild night out and got a tattoo!

Rattle-Headed-Copper-Monster!!!!

Dead Rattle-Headed-Copper-Monster! Shovels are our friends.

Ah, a nice relaxing day at the beach.

Okay, not really, it's just the pond....

 Dusty and I go for a walk around the property several times a day and several times a day she hits on something in the bushes. She'll jump at it, like a fox, but there's nothing there. This time she did find something and I went to check it out. There was a softshell turtle sitting on the edge of the bank and it was absolutely covered in ants. I thought, oh no, he's dead. But, after I got Dus to calm down, I nudged him and he backed away. SHE was busy laying her eggs!

I left her alone and after awhile I went back out to check on her. She had abandoned the nest and one of the eggs had fallen out. So I scooped up some extra dirt, covered the nest, and brought that one egg into the house.

Which brings me to my next project. I am going to hatch this baby turtle! See you in about 70 days!

And so we come to the end of my little clean up session. All clear.

Also, if you have read with me this far, don't forget to donate a few bucks to a very good cause.

 I did!

Click the kitty, NOW!