Hatchling and Fledgling!

We checked on the Tri-Colored Heron's nest that had 3 blue eggs last week.  It appeared one of the eggs had just hatched and the other two had pips in them.  You can see the pips in the photo below.  We may try to go back tomorrow and check on them.  I hope to see 3 pretty little chicks when we do!  Look at this little face!

This is one of the proud parents fishing nearby.

Nearby, in the LIttle Green Heron nest, the chick is almost a fledgling!  He was flapping his wings, jumping from branch to branch, and even went down near the water and leaned over to peer into the water to watch for fish, just like his parents had taught him to do. He still has a bit of fuzz on his head and body, but he also has the pretty wings.

The watchful and proud parent Little Green Heron

As we walked down the Indigo Trail to the nests, we could see the tracks of a large gator that led a long way down the trail.  He was dragging his tail as you can see in the photo below.  His foot prints were a good 3 feet apart, at least.  We stopped and talked to the volunteer at the pay booth for the refuge.  He said the gator walks down that trail every couple of days or so and that he is about 10 ft. long, and old and irritable.  Everyone stays out of his way!  Uh, yep, we will, too!

Yep!  Got it!

The tide was high in Ding when we drove through.  We only saw 2 birds to photograph which were a couple of Yellow-Crowned Night Herons.  But, they posed very nicely for me!  

We did see this Tri-Colored Heron fly overhead, though.

Back at home, I've gotten a photo of the female and also the male Anhinga sitting on the new little nest.  I have a much better view of this Anhinga nest.  I haven't seen how many eggs are in the nest yet, though.  The female has the light colored throat.

I believe this is a fledgling Cardinal.  He's a bit ragged looking and wasn't as scared of me as the adult Cardinals usually are.

We were recently told by the person delivering some plants from the landscape nursery that the plant we have thought was a night-blooming cactus is actually a Dragon Fruit plant!  Who knew?!!  Pollination is difficult for them, since they need a certain bat or a large moth to pollinate them!  We didn't have as many blooms this year, but we had probably 20 blooms on this plant last summer.  It would be great if we had some Dragon Fruit we could just pick from our plant and eat.  I saw the fruit for $5 each in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago! 

This bee was doing his best for us!  Look at all the yellow pollen he's lugging along!

This spider built a huge web in our pool cage.  They are the strangest spiders.  It's called a Spinybacked Orb Weaver (aka crab spider).  It reminds me of a clown face with a spiky wig, which is probably just as scary as a spider!