I came across this duel to the death yesterday at one of our local parks. The bird is an American Bittern and the snake... unknown. Possibly a rat snake. They were only about 10 feet away from where I was standing.









As you can probably tell, the bird was victorious.

The day was marked by the most new bird species I've ever come across. I saw a sora



a prairie warbler, a common yellowthroat and a lesser yellowlegs.



The warbler and yellowthroat pictures didn't come out very good. Both are small birds that like to move around way too much to get a good shot.

I also saw my first robins of the year. Being from Massachusetts, I miss seeing robins. They are only in my area for a short period of time.

A couple of other shots. A killdeer.



Great blue heron



and at the lake near my house, a red-shouldered hawk.



It was such a good time, I'm going back tomorrow morning and do it all over again!

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Yikes Virgo glad you warned us, sorry that the snake had to die, but I do know all to well about the food chain. Now back to the other pictures they were beautiful and while we are on the subect since you live in Florida how has the weather been there. We are almost waist full of snow here and a huge storm in coming tuesday yikes I want Sanibel or Islemarada or the keys soooooooooo bad...Catherine

It's been a pretty typical winter. December was way colder than normal but January has been nice. Normal high temps in the upper 60's to low 70's. I'd like it a bit warmer than that but, when I see what's going on up in Massachusetts, I have no complaints.

This week is looking pretty good. The rain on Wednesday isn't suppose to roll in until late in the day. I'm hoping to get up to Disney World in the AM.

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Those are great pictures showing nature as it really is (I don't mind seeing a bird prey on a snake, but cannot bear to watch a snake prey on another animal). Great pictures!

Right now I can only dream of temperatures in the mid-70's. sounds perfect.
You must have a season pass to Disney, right?

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Virgo lucky gal, the weather sounds great, I agree for me at least need it warmer for me to get into the water, Last year we were in the keys in July , the water was amazing I could have stayed in that water forever. Right now there is so much snow it is truly getting dangerous. The piles of snow in all the corners and streets and shopping centers are outrageous and sadly a big storm is coming either tuesday or wednesday. And on top of that we still have till end of April at least until better weather will come.. But for now this is where we must stay, my husband has a wonderful family business and my parents are elderly and only 10 minutes away, finally we do not know where our children will end up, however they do love Florida , but they totally love New York so much more, but they are young yet and I assume the cold does not bother them yet lol.. Catherine

You have lots of option for Disney when you live in FL. We have a weekday annual pass. It allows us to go to the 4 main parks (not the water parks) any time Mon - Fri. We can also park hop but we don't do that very often.

There are blackout dates but it's the time of the year people who live in FL don't want to go anyway like the middle of the summer. The cost is around $170/yr.

I went to Disney 12 times last year which made the cost of each trip around $14. Good deal!

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