It had to be Bandito

Well, after my years of ongoing wars with the raccoon's on Tallyho in NJ, I had to go with this today. It only seems fair. Plus, she is so darned cute, sharp fangs and all.

Hubs and I went out to Circle Bar B Preserve in Lakeland FL today and spent a really fun morning hiking and seeing many cool things. We were surprised when a family of 5 'coons popped out on the trail in front of us - mom and 4 nearly grown kids. They didn't seem to be threatened by us, although we made sure they had plenty of room. Mama caught a fish which she is eating in this photo. The image is lightened and tweaked because Mama was back in the brush where it was very dark --- and my camera settings were, of course, wrong. Oh well. It's still a fun pic and I like it.

I saw my first ever Limpkin today which was very exciting. We also saw lots of 'gators, three sandhill cranes, lots of vultures and osprey and a bald eagle. Along with a snake and a spider. A very fun couple of hours and I can't wait to go back. Gonna have to meet Sefferdog up there very soon! If you'd like to see my nine favorite shots from today, click HERE on FLickr....

Thanks for all the lovely comments on yesterday's osprey. I know that I will be posting many more osprey photos in the months ahead - they are just too plentiful and too beautiful to pass up. My dream shot is to get one catching a fish...stay tuned.

Have a Marvelous Monday, people.

Debbi

PS: I happened to look back and notice that two years ago I posted on of my personal favorite blips - guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.