Hal Scott Preserve, 7/27/2013

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Crayfish
This morning I drove out to Hal Scott Preserve.  We saw all the usual suspects: Northern Bobwhite, Eastern Meadowlark, Eastern TowIhee, Bachman's Sparrows, Eastern Bluebirds, and Pine Warblers.  But wildlife other than birds captured my attention more.  I'm really thankful that the first one did, too.  I was looking for a way to cross some standing water in the path without getting wet, and I saw a flash of white--the threat display of a Florida Cottonmouth.  I've never seen one in the wild before, but one more step and I may have had a bad experience.  Cottonmouths are not aggressive snakes, but I don't want to tempt one either. I also found a large crayfish (compared to the ones I used to find in VA) on the path.  It was out of the water perhaps about 50 yards from the nearby pond. I've never seen a crayfish out of the water before, and this one was clearly alive and well.  I found out that they can live outside of water for a while if their gills are wet.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Crayfish
I also found a beautiful dragonfly.  I'm very new at identifying them, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guessing that it's a Band-winged Dragonlet.  I wish I could have walked a little closer, but there was a Cottonmouth in my way.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Band-winged Dragonlet
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Band-winged Dragonlet

Comments

  1. Great shots Scott - interesting crayfish can survive like that- great find

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice photos. I have never seen a Band-winged Dragonlet so that would be a lifer for me. The Common Whitetail has a similar patch pattern on its wings but is out of range for us in Central Florida and has a few other markings that separate it. Very cool crayfish picture; I don't know anything about them. Great photos. Do you use a macro or are these with your telephoto?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks! All the images were taken with my telephoto lens except the second crayfish photo, which I took with point and shoot, Canon S100HS. I love that camera.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No birds! How different..love the crayfish out for a stroll. Gotta look into that CanonHS!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Agree with your Band-winged Dragonlet - have a photo from Oct last year here in Brevard that matches your dragonfly to a T and which I had ID'd as Band-winged Dragonlet then.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love these images Scott, don't think I have seen crawdads out of the water that look this good!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, Mia! People have emailed me saying that they're good to eat too. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cool! I posted these photos on BugGuide.net, and they just confirmed it too. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I had a couple Common Ground-Dove photos I thought I might use, but I'd decided to be a little different this time. The Canon S100HS is really a great camera. I use it all the time now. Not the same as a DSLR, but it does really well.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Feel free to comment to leave feedback.