Our own private Sea World

[smokeyoshi]

The only way to fish for bass, starring Wolfie II. He's about 15-16"

[dookcitygang]

Very cool.

[huronna]

I jumped HA HA

[dee517]

Wow! You can have pet everything wild! I love it!
This is the best I have.  This is our baby bird we watched grow from an egg.  

[smokeyoshi]

Snatched up a muscovey ducklin while feedin turtles.

[huronna]

something that small would make a juicy morsel for some predator
Actually reminds me of when we lived in PR and the birds would make nests in the palm fronds. But many time the babies would not have hatches yet or were very small and the fronds would be ready to fall. My husband would get out the tall ladders and move the nest up to the next frond. The mothers would watch intently , but one time my husband got bird lice from handling the nest. That was the last time LOL

[smokeyoshi]

there were 10 ducklings originally. now 7. we seriously don't need any more.

[smokeyoshi]

Dee. the mother duck, was a foot away talking at me while I held the baby but she didn't really freak. I held one of her last brood. Can't say she was happy, but she didn't attack.

Amber (red ear slider) was gracious enough to pose with me this evening

[huronna]

that is one BIG turtle

[smokeyoshi]

Actually, it's a bit of an optical illusion. Amber is about 6 inches long. In this pic I took today, she's the SMALLEST, off to the right. From top to bottom, the others are Maggie (Magenta), Ruby, Momma and Red (Scarlet).
Amber, Maggie and Scarlet are red ear sliders, a non-native species.



Momma is the largest, about 12-14 inches

[huronna]

Would you look at that.....they are all coming to greet you or perhaps looking for a morsel?

[smokeyoshi]

A little of both. On cooler days they may just float around without coming to us to eat. And they will hang around for a while after they get full. Some of them will stand on our shoes and Maggie and Amber will sometimes rub their faces on Dar's leg. That pic doesn't do their colors justice. Scarlet has bright red ears and Maggie has beautiful parquet markings on her carapace.

[smokeyoshi]

Last we saw Snowy, she was down to one ducklin. Lost 2 in one day. Haven't seen her today. She's a bad mom. Dee still has 7.
Today we were feeding 3 terps. I looked up from the action, and here comes Tinky. Soft shell turtle. Ignore the ducks.



If they see someone getting fed they're on it.

[huronna]

My husband want to know what you were feeding them

[dee517]

I love seeing all the pictures of your critters. You are so lucky you have such a good verity! We were feeling lucky because we got to see these two at the park.

[smokeyoshi]

@dee Those look like yellow belly sliders. Momma is one. If you take a canoe trip on any local river you'll see them stacked up on logs on river banks.
We feed them chicken hot dogs, wet cat food and bread. Sometimes they get leftover chicken. Amber is the picky one. She only likes weenies, but occasionally takes bread with cat food on it. She won't touch plain bread.

And, Snowy lost her last baby. It was looking poorly and refusing bread. Never seen a duck do that ever.

[dee517]

I'm sorry to hear that all the baby ducks were lost.
Thanks for the turtle information.

[smokeyoshi]

Snowy's daughter, Dee, still has 7 that are about half grown.

[dee517]

I have a couple of question. How do you know which duck is which and how do you know that Dee is Snowy's daughter? Do these ducks stay at your pond year around?

[smokeyoshi]

most of the ducks we named are gone/dead. If the 4 that were there when we moved in, plus the 10 we rescued, only 3 are left. There are another 6 white pekings that the manager got and someone in the park raised from eggs. there were 8. not sure if cats, turtles or what is taking them.

Snowy and Dee have distinctive markings on their heads, and their heads are mostly white. Dee has 4 kids form last year still around. Hard to tell them from the other moscoveys that just fly in, other than 3 are female and smaller than the males. We only feed a few ducks, and only if they are alone, otherwise we'd be back to having 20 if them at our feet every time we go outside.

[smokeyoshi]

From Sea World to Desert world
These guys aren't native, but there are a bunch in Florida. Apparently a few escaped from the circus back in the day. (Ringling Bros and Cole Bros are both headquartered in FL)
Also apparently, 4 babies and their mother have taken up residence under our mobile home. I was under there doing some plumbing work and found numerous duck egg shells. These pics were taken in Dar24's flower garden. Dar patted a couple of them on the back so she could feel their armor and they barely flinched. They have poor eyesight and are easily approachable, but since they carry certain forms of leprosy you have to wash thoroughly. It's not easy to catch. I wish I had got video of the one that was sniffing at Dar a couple feet from her nose while she was sitting and observing. We saw all 4 kids but no mom today.

[smokeyoshi]

Last week, Zilla, the Florida snapping turtle that we haven't seen much in a year, came out of the depths and had a few bites of bread.




Then, he went back to the depths. We haven't seen him in a few days.

Also last week, Jet, a male red ear slider, returned.
This week, we've been joined by another male, a yellow belly slider. Like Jet he's mostly black, except for his yellow plastron, so we've named him Vader. He observed the feeding ritual from 10 yards out for a couple days, then came closer for a couple session. We just named him last night. He's bigger than Jet, as he's a different species, but they look a lot alike. I'll try to get pics tonight. We wait until the get hand fed 3 times before we name them.

[smokeyoshi]

this female great horned owl was right outside my client's door. I got within maybe 8 feet

[dee517]

Wow! How do you know it was a female? You sure get some great pictures of the wild life in your area. We saw a small owl when we were walking the dog at the park. I have now idea what kind of owl or what sex.  It was maybe 6 inches tall.

[huronna]

I missed seeing those armadillo videos before, unreal!

I sur hope that alligator is ceramic