We were not affected much by Hurricane Hermine when it hit Florida.  We had some rain and a little wind, but since we are around 150 miles south of Tampa, it pretty much missed us.  It was great to see the sun come out on Saturday after several days of clouds and rain.  

It seems that I continue to catch sight of hawks around my house.  I've given up trying to identify them, though!  This first hawk almost collided with me as he swooped down to catch a dove from the tree I was standing in front of.  He looked at me like it was my fault he missed the dove!  I don't know which one of us was more startled! 

Wouldn't it be handy to be able to look directly behind you without turning your body?  Handy and maybe a little creepy!

I saw the hawk below land on the ground and then fly up into the tree.  It appears he thought he had a lizard, but couldn't believe that it wasn't there, no matter how long he stared at his feet!

On to the next one!  Better luck next time!

The Great Egret below was in the marsh grass in the lake behind our house.  He had stayed in one place without moving for probably 30 minutes, and I was able to capture him catching a small fish and tossing it down!

When we went to the beach on Sunday, there were literally hundreds of live Florida Fighting Conch everywhere on the beach (by the way, it is pronounced konk).  It was hard to get a good photo, but all those orange things in the pic below are live.

Almost every shell we picked up was alive, even this tiny Lightning Whelk below.

I don't know if those are eyes on the end of the tentacle things, but that's what it looks like!