Southern Magnolia

Southern Magnolia

Southern Magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) are not only beautiful flowers that smell magnificent, but they are also very interesting. Their stamen are like little flowers in themselves. Unfortunately, Magnolias only bloom for one day, leaving brown, dry petals, which are not quite as pretty as the petals were the day before.

However, the stamen stay to become beautiful soft, red cones which last a very long time. I've never picked up one to see if they are fragrant which makes me wonder why I've never thought to do that before.

Black Skimmer Landing

In keeping with the bird theme that seems to be very popular this week on our blogs due to a couple meetups that included bird shooting, here's just one more.

Just before sunset every night, the Black Skimmers, Laughing Gulls and Terns gather on the beaches to roost. This one, a Black Skimmer is just coming in. It's a pretty amazing sight to see them all lined up--usually facing the same direction roosting on the beaches.

As a bonus, I'm attaching a second image showing more of the flock. There are probably 100 or more birds on this beach just like this.

I've seen them flying at night picking up food on my canal in my back yard. It's amazing to watch how they get their food. If you look closely, you'll notice that their lower beak is quite a bit longer than the upper beak. That's so they can fly (really fast) with their lower beak in the water scooping up food to eat. They have very long wings for their body size. I'll see if I can find a photo where I've caught them swimming for a post later on.

Settings used for these photos are as follows. The shooting mode is in continuous in case one of them or many of them take off, ISO is 200 because although it is nearing sunset, it's still quite bright. The exposure is 1/250 at 7.1, in aperture priority at 250mm with my 55-250mm lens. I used partial metering off the beach so as to not blow out the whites. The shadows were lightened slightly using Lightroom.

Banana Trees

When I moved into this house a year ago September, there was 1 small banana tree near the bank at the edge of the property. The tree kept sending little shoots and before I knew it, there were 5 trees.

The first one flowered about 6 months ago, and produced close to 40 lbs. of bananas. I ate so many, I threw my Potassium levels out of whack. It couldn't be helped, they were soooo good.

Bananas aren't really trees. They're herbaceous perennials that grow from corms (or pseudobulbs). Thick, fleshy stalks (pseudostems) emerge from the large corms and can increase in height anywhere from 1-30 ft. in a year, depending on the selection and location. Each stalk carries spectacular broad, 5-9 ft. long leaves. Each also produces a single flower cluster, which develops fruit; the stalk dies after fruiting, and new stalks then grow from the corm.

There are now 5 stalks. This photo is the latest harvest--it, too, is close to 40 lbs. There are two more bunches of bananas coming out. These bananas taste a bit more sweet than the ones found in the grocery stores, and they have a slight bite to them, but they're 100% organic. Once removed from the stalk, they take about a week to ripen, then they all ripen within a few days of one another.

If you've enjoyed my blog and photos, please visit my website at http://loycehoodphoto.com.

American Alligator

If you read my blog yesterday, you'd have seen a closeup of this 'gator. This spot, at the bottom of the bank in my back yard, seems to be his preferred spot for his afternoon nap. I can see him most every day around 3:00 pm.

This one is fairly young, probably only about 4 1/2 - 5 ft in length. I think he's getting used to me, because he doesn't bother to move when I snap his picture.

Poor thing is missing his front leg; but seems to do fine without it.

American Alligator

American Alligator

I found this guy snoozing on my lawn. He must've been pretty tired, because my camera or my movement didn't wake him up.

In Florida, we cohabitate with 'Gators. They're very afraid of people, so when they see us, they usually make a quick get-a-way. Once in a while, due to people feeding them, they loose they're fear of people. This is a terrible injustice to the 'Gators, since they are then considered a nuisance Alligator and they're usually shot. People need to understand that these creatures know how to get their own food, and they we shouldn't interfere with nature.

Alligators are normally quite docile; but can become aggressive when people come up quickly on them, or when people are near the nest.

American Alligator (Alligator mississippiens) Alligators hibernate to the muddy wallows in cooler months in Northern Florida. They can be found in ponds, swamps, rivers, freshwater and brackish marshes, mangroves, canals and occasionally in the ocean. They are resident in Florida.