Got up this morning to go for a scheduled 4 mile run, but I was having some gastro issues and lets just say that I was nervous to be 2 miles from the house this morning after having run to get there and move on.
Instead, because I was up and had a rare free morning when the sun was coming up, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the big pond / little lake out here by the house that I see so much wildlife in as I drive by on the way to and from work. This is the same lake where I took the picture of the big alligator a few weeks back, and I thought maybe I’d find something interesting.
And I did. Lots of things.
One thing I have to say about Florida – when the sun isn’t directly overhead the landscape is absolutely beautiful.
So I walked up and spent a couple of minutes looking around, just to see if there was anything obvious to see. There wasn’t, so I started walking down the edge of the water. Within two minutes, I made a new friend.
This was not the big guy, but I was able to get up very close to him and get some pictures I really like. This was a rush.
Then I went and found the birds. A great blue heron:
A red-winged blackbird (actually a bunch of these, but they didn’t sit still for pictures):
And a little blue heron (which is a distinct species, not just a small specimen):
The light was challenging, but I want to practice my photography and try and get better – there is so much here to take pictures of, and it is frustrating to know what you want the shot to look like and not be able to execute. So I’ll keep practicing – and seeing all of this wildlife is really a rush.
Tomorrow, though, I’ll be running. I’ve got a 4-miler to make up.
A Constant State of Hunger 