Where the Foxes Roam

 The Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) may like the dry lake beds in Central Florida, but we humans are tired of looking at the vast, empty fields.  After 4 years of dry it would be nice to see some water back where the foxes and raccoons now roam.

Above:  This was the scene this afternoon.  My sad jon boat looking to the northeast at a puddle nearly a mile distant.  The water should be several feet deep where the boat rests.  The clouds were a nice change of pace, however.  The white post at the front left of the boat is the lake level gauge.  The normal water level is atop the gauge.

Above:  The sun came out periodically this afternoon, illuminating faces out in that huge, 700 acre field.  There is a family of foxes living just behind our property.  They have become rather tame and accustomed to me coming out periodically to snap some photos. 

 Above:  I walked out into the dry lake and took a panoramic shot facing south toward our properties (click on this or any image to enlarge).  In the center of the image are our woods.  The house is nestled in the woods to the right of the image.  You can see the boat and the lake level gauge toward the right of this image.

A sharp trough of low pressure over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico is producing a large area of cloudiness and showers that extends from the northwestern Caribbean Sea northeastward to the Bahamas.  Strong upper-level winds over the Gulf of Mexico are expected to gradually diminish in a couple of days and some slow tropical development of this disturbance is possible as it moves slowly northwestward toward the central Gulf of Mexico.  The National Hurricane Center is giving this system a medium chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours.

The system did send some misty rain our way this evening.   Above:  Palm trees as seen through a wet windshield.

Above and Below:  The National Weather Service's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center is forecasting torrential rains for the Florida peninsula.  We won't count our raindrops until they actually fall, but we are hopeful that the weather forecasters are correct.  In the graphic above they predict a large area of 5.00-inches (127 mm) or more this weekend as the tropical system develops and moves across the peninsula.

Below:  Should the water ever return to our dry lakes, there's plenty of room in our woods for the raccoons (Procyon lotor elucus) and foxes.  The raccoons have been coming out earlier and earlier making for easier pictures.  This one looks a little cross-eyed.

There are several scenarios on what the tropical weather might do over the weekend.  Read more and see more images at Phillip's Natural World 3.0