New deer pictures from Isle of Hope

On a recent walk we spotted this doe with two fawns. Paula spent the longest time taking pictures and getting closer and closer. Then when she went to turn and walk away the doe started following her. So she stopped and the doe stopped. Paula started walking again and the doe started following again. I wish I'd had the video camera.





Doe and two fawns in someone's front yard. We think it's cool but the residents here see them all the time eating their flowers, etc so they aren't really that excited about seeing them.

Isle of Hope, Savannah (by Jim)

Eastern Blue Bird

Sorry about not updating our blog for the last two months but the 3rd day after arriving in Savannah Jim was hit with a bad vertigo issue that has finally mostly worked its way out.

We are at Isle of Hope Marina. What a beautiful area! The island is 2.2 square miles with a population of 2,600. The only commercial enterprise on the island is this marina. The island is full of beautiful houses and wildlife. Here are a few of the wild animals we have encountered!

Male Cardinal

Buck and doe eating grass in someones front yard

These guys are always hanging around in a 3 house area. We suspect they used to be someones Easter gifts.

Another buck and doe! Notice the bucks in both pictures are in full velvet!

Latest bird pictures

Wood Stork. These guys aren't very pretty when they are on the ground. But what a beautiful site when spotted in the air!!

Roseate Spoonbill. This guy is really "in the pink" his eyes are a bright pink. As you can see his legs are pink also! We see quite a few of these guys in the winter.

Crested Caracara. We haven't seen this guy in awhile so were tickled to get a picture of him. His head really does look flat. This is his favorite perch and he can be found on it fairly often.

Sandhill Crane. These guys are really pretty neat and we were also able to get a nice video. Paula stooped down to take a picture of one and he acted like he was going to take the camera away from her. This is at Fox Lake Park in Titusville.

Green Heron. This little guy has been hanging around the dock for the past couple of weeks. He gets upset pretty easily and yells at you as he flies off.

Wild Turkeys. We came upon this flock of wild turkeys during a trip recently. There were about 20 birds in the flock. We actually saw a larger flock earlier in the day.

The Otter Family (by Paula)

There is a family of river otters living here at Lang's Marina in St. Marys, GA.  We've been enjoying watching them fishing, diving for oysters, and endlessly playing.  Here's a short clip of three of them goofing around on the "playground"

What a week for animal encounters

This was a great week for animal encounters. A Florida White Tail Deer, a beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk and a Mute Swan. It doesn't get much better than this! Hope you enjoy!!

Sandhill Cranes

We took a trip today to Fox Lake Park, a really nice county park that we recently discovered. Paula, of course, had her peanuts along in case we found any hungry squirrels while on our walk. Paula spotted these three Sandhill Cranes and could not resist seeing if they would like something to eat. I managed to catch the result with the camera. This is a family group. The taller of the three is the male. The next taller with slightly more brown in the feathers is the female. The smallest is, of course, is this year's chick. The chick's head is just starting to get the red feathers of the older birds. What a great day. Paula is still walking around with a huge smile!! Turn your sound on and enjoy!!

Dolphin Orgy

We had about 10 Dolphin show up in front of the boat yesterday. After watching their antics for a few minutes we finally figured out what was going on. Several of them were mating. We have heard of this and have seen Manatees mating but this is the first time we have seen Dolphins mating. A little trivia: Dolphin and humans are the only two animals that have sex for fun! Enjoy the video!

Meet Bob

We meet a lot of people who travel with their pets on board. This weekend we met Bob, the Great Dane. I have no idea what his master's name is because as usual, I was only interested in the guy's dog. Bob is three years old, weighs in at 165 lbs and looks like a small horse. The guy on the boat has had eleven Great Danes. I just love the way he names them. This one is Bob, Bob's dad was named Mike, and Bob's grandfather's name was Arnie - what great dog names!

And if you think this guy's crazy to travel with one Great Dane, we met a couple last year that had three Great Danes cruising with them to the Bahamas. Hope none of them got seasick!

Fishing Dolphin (by Jim)

These two dolphin visit us almost every day between 5:15 and 5:30pm. They spend at least two hours chasing the mullet and getting dinner. These guys move so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up with them, this video is actually 4 video's edited and put together. Hope you like it!!

Wild Parrots

There are 358 species of parrots. These guys are Blue Crowned Conures. There are apparently tons of wild ones in the southern half of Florida, but this was the first time we've seen any. These two, along with several others just like them, are hanging out in the trees on the grounds of Vero Beach City Marina. They can make a racket, but what a treat!

A little side story - this particular species was featured in the 1998 film "Paulie", which was always my dad's nickname for me.

Blue Heron and Chicks (by Paula)

We took a dinghy ride down the St. Lucie River and happened to see this mama Great Blue Heron on her nest with two babies. We've probably seen hundreds of adults but this was the first time we've seen chicks. A real treat for a couple of bird lovers!

Striped Sea Horse (by Paula)

This adorable little seahorse was the biggest ham at the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center in Jensen Beach. In addition to this video we also took several still shots of him and I swear he kept "posing" for the camera. Wish we had room on the boat for an aquarium!

Aside from the fact that he's too cute for words, we had to post this video for our dear friend, Mary, who is an amazingly creative and talented artist living on a sailboat in Sanford, FL, and a bit of a seahorse lover. If someone were to ask me to describe Mary's art in five words or less, I would simple say that "She creates beauty and whimsy." You can see some of her work at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6592108 at http://www.allthingsseahorse.blogspot.com/

Feeding Time (by Jim)

We spent several hours at the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center on Hutchinson Island. This is a short video clip of a huge salt water pool that has many different species of fish. In this video you can see Nurse Sharks, Atlantic Stingrays, Tarpon, Sheepsheads, and Crevalle Jacks and many others.

Cow Nose Stingray (by Jim)

This is a short video of Cow Nose Stingrays. This is in a small pool where visitors are allowed to feed them. They have had the barbs from their tails removed. You take a small bait fish, hold it in your hand and put your hand in the water. The Stingrays swim by and take the food out of your hand. Of course Paula was all over that!!

Jumping Dolphin (by Jim)

This dolphin started following us yesterday on the trip from Ft. Pierce to Stuart. He kept jumping and jumping like this. We were so enthralled watching him that we forgot all about the camera and taking a video until he was ready to move on, so this is really short. We'll try to do better next time!!!

Buffy the Super Squirrel (by Paula)

During our fourteen months in Titusville, we must have walked a couple of hundred miles or more through Sand Point Park, right by the marina. It became habit to carry a fanny pack full of peanuts to feed the squirrels all thoughout the park. We would always stop at one particular spot to sit for a bit, and had several squirrels in the area that we came to recognize and name. One in particular became our favorite. We named him Buffy because of his ear color. He became so comfortable with us that he would climb right up on us looking for peanuts. It got to the point where he recognized us and would chase us down the roadway! Buffy moves fast, but Jim was able to get a short clip on video one day, with narration, so turn on your sound and enjoy!