Weekend Walkabout: Lantana, A Bunny, and Some Ibises

An autumn cold front finally blew through this week, lowering our temps from the mid-90sF to the low 80s. Time for walkies! What's to be seen this weekend?

The Lantana camara is still blooming like crazy....

Lantana camara, MR 2013

The Eastern cottontails are busily munching tasty riverbank salad....

Eastern cottontail, MR, 2013

The white ibises are flocking. Eudocimus albus is a friendly neighborhood bird around here. It's not uncommon to see a flock of 10-12 rooting around the yard at breakfast time, using their narrow beaks to precisely target tasty insects and worms. Apparently, only about 10-20% of the huge flocks that graced our shores are currently still with us. The demise of the Everglades, and general wetland encroachment by humans, has thinned their numbers considerably across the South. Fortunately, we have many here on the dunes, and they appear well-fed and healthy.

White Ibis Pair, MR, 2013

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend Walkabout (With Bunny Love)

The jet stream's been messing with our weather again, throwing out some amazingly weird loops and creating some very peculiar storms across the country. Fortunately, we got rain, not snow. Our own storm system from the Gulf of Mexico tried so hard to go tropical cyclone on us, and it almost made it. It was banding and spinning before it spun out.  Here's a lovely cumulonimbus that formed off the beach as the system spun out to sea:

All the rain really brought out the wildflowers, birds, and the wild bunnies. We have two species here, the Florida Marsh Rabbit (smaller, with a chubby body, short legs, small ears, and reddish fur), and the Eastern Cottontail (larger and leggier, brown agouti fur, white tail).  Here's the Marsh Rabbit:

And here's the Eastern Cottontail, also enjoying the flowers:

I'll be back with plenty of Lithops and Tillie news soon, as soon as I can stop photographing bunnies, that is!