It's A Jungle Out There

As much as I complain about Florida, it is amazing to see the variety of wildlife that is literally outside our front door every day. Since moving here, I have seen owls, eagles, ibis (ibi?), racoons, foxes, skunks, a rat snake (could have lived without that one), alligators (though just one), and turtles. All except the alligator were spotted just by looking out the window.

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk working when Dave and Paul began to shout that a very large river turtle had come to our yard to lay her eggs. The whole process took only a few minutes. With all the predators around here, I doubt many of the baby turtles will survive, but I'm sure nature knows what it is doing. It's hard to tell from this photo, but this turtle was probably two feet from head to tail and probably weighed about twenty pounds.