Spring Babies; Osprey, Lubber, Squirrel, Tussock Moth

I've been running into quite a collection of baby creatures trying to make their way in a most difficult environment. Florida is a place of extremes. Today the temperatures hovered near 100 F. (38 C.) in the shade with high humidity. Its difficult for those of us accustomed to the brutal heat and humidity. Imagine these little guys trying to survive. . .



This little squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) has been making quite the mess at my front door. . . he's eating what's left of the wild tangerines . . .the fruit that were too high on the tree for me to pick. He pitches the peels down onto the ground twenty-five feet below his perch. He's no more than a handful. Those are tiny tangerines.





We have a few thousand lubber nymphs (Romalea microptera) hanging around. They cover the bamboo. When grown these insects will feast on the neighborhood's domestic orange crop. They look completely different when grown (see the archives for more LUBBER photos). They become brightly colored and very large locust-like grasshoppers.



BELOW: These are baby Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). Click on the image for a closer look. There's a second bird sitting at the feet of the angry chick on the nest's edge.



The osprey were very hungry. Squealing like mad in the 96 F. (35.6 C.) heat around noon today. I sat for awhile trying to get a shot of the parents returning. Within a short while I was dripping sweat and covered with biting flies. Imagine the osprey's plight with all those feathers. It appears these guy's wings are not quite developed enough for flight.



BELOW: A Tussock Moth caterpillar (Orgyla leucostigma) is very unhappy with the flashes from my camera. These little guys generally go unnoticed preferring to live their entire life cycle in large shade trees.