Fighting Birds on a Very Hot Day

This American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) is chasing a much larger Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) away from some food thrown out under the trees. The crow had some help from some friends (below). They eventually chased the eagle away.



Nearby a couple of American Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus brasiliensis) watch and wait. Its interesting that the small birds in groups are able to fight off the much larger and tougher birds of prey.





The official NOAA weather forecast said we were enmeshed in a "sultry airmass." I'd call it just plain muggy. You can see the humidity at times in the sunlight through the trees. While it rained around us . . . we still only had a few drops of rain. Not enough to even dampen the rain gauges.






The neighbor that likes to burn had another fire as the storm clouds approached. It looked on radar like the storms stopped just 10 miles short of reaching us today.

If you look closely (click on image below to enlarge) you can see that the neighbor has upgraded to a much larger tractor (yellow). . . with which to guard the fire. His big tractor (orange) is to the left in this image.



Below: This thermometer is in the shade about 6' off the ground on the front porch. I've been trying to dig up the gardens to plant sunflower seed for Halloween blooms. . . but I don't get much done everyday. I need to get the seeds in the ground by August 30 to have flowers for the holiday. . . but in this heat and humidity I have to pace myself.



Below: If the images of the dry lakebeds weren't enough . . . we have these nice graphics from NOAA'S Climate Prediction Center that show us that we're 9-12 inches (228-304 mm) below normal rainfall this season. This doesn't include the past 4 years of lower than normal rainfall. I estimate it would take 48 inches (121 cm) of rain to bring the lakes back to normal.

It could be worse, however. We could be in Texas or Oklahoma.



The Climate Prediction Center is predicting that the next 14 days will be well above average rainfall for Central Florida. We're hopeful that they are correct.