Central Florida - Page 5 of 5

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Views along Mosquito Lagoon and in residential yards - Oak Hill, Florida
December 2018 and January 2019

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Mosquito Lagoon scenes at or near Goodrich's Seafood and Oyster House (restaurant)

Ring-billed gull
[The bird is perched atop a pier log with its body facing away from the camera, but its head turned back showing the left side of its head. The body is mostly light grey. The neck and head are more white than grey. Its tail is black with white spots. The legs and bill are yellow and the bill has a black vertical stripe near the tip.]

A laughing gull with its winter (non-breeding) plumage (During breeding, its head will be black.)
[The bird is perched atop a pier log with its head to the left. The body is mostly light grey. The head, neck, and belly are white. There is a patch at the back topside of the head which is a grey stripe going from ear to ear. Its tail is black with small white spots. The legs and bill are dark brown.]

The dark legs on this gull lead me to believe it is a laughing gull.
[The bird is flying over the water away from the camera at an angle to the camera. The grey wings with black tips and white edging at the rear are completely outstretched. The body of the bird is white and the feet appear black. The head is not visible. ]

Three sandhill cranes flying away from the setting sun.
[The birds are flying away from the camera at an angle which makes their left sides visible. The birds are mostly light colored except for the outer undersides of their wings which is dark. Their long skinny legs are straight out behind them and the bump of their head leads to their long bills. The bird in the middle has its wings upward while the other two have wings level to their bodies. The grey sky has a pinkish tinge. ]

Ibises tend to travel in large groups.
[Approximately 15 ibises have their wings pulled in partially to land in the shallow water. The water has a pink tinge from the setting sun. These birds have skinny feet and legs which hang below their black-tipped white wings and body. In the background there is a wooden dock with posts going into the water and horizontal board fencing above the dock. The posts also reflect on the wter making them appear longer than they are.]

Birds in formation fly eastward as the sun sets while one great egret stops for dinner in the foreground.
[A landscape view of the lagoon with the barrier islands in the distance and the shore in the foreground. The sky and the water have pinkish stripes in them from the setting sun. Birds in formation are black specks in the sky. The egret stands in the very shallow water facing left. On the far right is a wooden dock extending into the water.]

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Oak Hill residential area scenes

Nearly all of a Norfolk Island Pine tree (This subtropical tree is not native to the area but grows well here in residential yards.)
[A very tall tree with one center trunk extends up through the top of the image with the top of the tree missing (oops!). Branches extend horizontally at mostly right angles to the trunk. Extending upward from the branches are green leaves which appear to be more needles than leaves.]

A close view of the leaves of a Norfolk Island Pine
[Although this tree is a conifer, it does not have needles. The leaves curve away from the branches like thick green short pipecleaners. There are multitudes of leaves similar to needles on a pine tree, but these are thicker and only extend upward from the branch (rather than all the way around a branch like needled trees do).]

The Florida strangler fig tree grows up at an angle to the right side of the slash pine tree trunk before it begins wrapping itself around the pine midway up the photograph.
[This photo show the tree trunk and the stranger fig in the foreground with other trees and scads of leaves filling the rest of the image. The strangler fig is a light grey brown color with smooth bark in comparison to the pine it is strangling which has more scaley bark.]

Tangerine tree
[This less than 20 foot tall tree has a short main trunk before branching off in several directions. Higher in the tree are many leaves and loads of growing tangerines. Some tangerines are bright orange while less mature ones are a dark yellow. The tree is beside and in front of a white building with metal roofing. Some rotting tangerines are on the grass below the tree.]

Balsam apple is one of the many names of this invasive fruit-laden vine. The three images from left to right represent its timeline. Once the fruit turns orange and ripens, it splits open into three sections exposing its poisoness seeds.
[Three photos spliced together. The left-most image is the yellow-green fruit hanging from a vine. The middle image is a dark orange fruit which has partially split open exposing red seeds filling the interior. The right photo is the orange fruit completely open. It is shaped like a tee with large red seeds attached to the edges of the tee. There are approximately five seeds per tee section.]

Crinum lily: The flower bunch in the left photo is a close view of the lower left of the large plant (follow the black arrow).
[Two photos spliced together. The left photo is close view of the blooms. Each flower has many very long petals and each petal is pale pink with a magenta center stripe. The petals of each bloom curl into each other. The right photo is the entire plant. The leaves are extremely long and the plant is upwards of four to five feet tall and approximately six feet wide.]

This yellow allamanda is approximately four inches across and was blooming at the roofline of a house.
[Bright yellow flower with five petals and a center which is a hole (tube). The bright green leaves are plentiful and long and relatively narrow. Behind the vine is the edge of the roof and some tubing on the underside of the roof.]

Nothing says Florida like roses blooming in January.
[A rosebud hanging downward. What will be the green underside of the bloom is just starting to peel away from the red bud which is still closed enough to create a point at the tip of the bud. Green serated-edged leaves are visible beside the bloom from a different section of the plant.]

The southern green-striped grasshopper has a sand-colored version which helps it blend in with the ground in Florida.
[A great deal of this grasshopper blends in with the ground around it due to its coloring. One has to look closely to see the thick antenna which stick upward from its head. Its backline is also a slightly darker brown which provides a contrast to the ground. There are light and dark markings along the legs which give the grasshopper its 'striped' name. The eye and the head are shades of sandy-brown which make it hard to differntiate it from the small broken shells and sand on the ground.]

Somehow I managed to make a 60 pound dog look small. Say hi to Mercedes.
[A black gray and white dog sits at my feet looking up at the camera with her mouth open. She has dark legs with white tips on her paws. She has a white patch on her belly. The rest of her body is mostly black with some dark gray patches.]

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All photos © S. M. Garver