Turtles Sunning: Red-Eared Sliders
Confirmed these are Red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans. They seem to be doing very well at the park, and worldwide according to this link. Images from Christmas Eve, 2007. My daughter, Madeline, and exchange student "sister" Misaki tagged along with me as we did a major walking tour looking for Alligators. (Misaki may have seen one as we were driving, but it was pretty dark)
Great Blue Herons are very common where I live, but when I saw this guy I knew he was different. He didn't like me taking his picture and kept his distance from me. That's the best I could do with the Nikon 80-200 f2.8 zoom on the D200, which is the lens I used on just about all my shots this day. Gil advises: "It is a Little blue heron, Egretta caerulea, in nonbreeding adult plumage." I have some great blue heron pictures here.
The guy jumped up on a tree right in font of me and put on a good preening show. He looks like he's smiling for the camera...
At the very end of our walk, I saw this guy who had just caught his fish, which I believe is a small catfish from looking at other pictures.
Check out the green legs on this reflecting pair of common moorhens, above.
I'm awaiting confirmation from my birder friends, but I'm pretty sure this is a male showing off to a female. Update: Gil says we can't tell if it's a male, and that its probably just be drying its feathers. American coot picture, Fulica americana.
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