Video Gallery
YouTube video of this bunny munching … set to relaxing music. Tap the photo to get there.
Eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) munching on some greens and going about her day. She especially likes the Puerto Rican sweet potato greens on that side of my property. Don’t use pesticides in your green space because it will harm (kill) the wildlife … and you.
YouTube video of white ibises feeding and preening … set to relaxing music. Tap the photo to get there.
White ibises feeding & preening around a pond margin in Central Florida.
If you’d like to learn more about white ibises go to – http://sharonsflorida.com/wildlife/white-ibis/.
YouTube video of blue porterweed and long-tailed skipper butterflies … set to relaxing music. Tap the photo to get there.
Blue porterweed flowers being visited by long-tailed skippers, a zebra longwing, and a bumblebee or two. The blue porterweed in this video is not the Florida native one, but is Stachytarpheta cayennensis (nettleleaf velvetberry). The native, blue porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis), looks very similar, but grows low and spreads out along the ground.
YouTube video of skyblue clustervine flowers being nectared upon by honeybees set to relaxing music – tap the photo to get there.
Honeybees visiting the bright blue flowers of a skyblue clustervine in Central Florida. Several slow motion clips as well. Skyblue clustervine (Jacquemontia pentanthos). Buy seeds here!
YouTube video of a gray squirrel eating sunflower seeds … set to relaxing music … tap the photo to go there.
The really awesome Stoke’s feeders are at Amazon – https://amzn.to/2oWnf4r. This is an affiliate link … I get a tiny commission if you purchase them through this link.
Gray squirrels live in hollowed tree trunks, commonly using recycled woodpecker cavities, as well as leaf nests made from fresh leaves. It is important to leave tree snags as well as yard waste available for their use. To learn more about Recycling Your Yard Waste check out my article at – https://sharonsflorida.com/landscaping-with-natives/recycle-your-yard-waste/.
YouTube video of Sharon’s Florida’s bird mister … tap the photo to go there.
Watch some cardinals bathing, and preening, in the mist created by my bird mister.
YouTube video of a mother sandhill crane and her baby eating cracked corn at a bird feeder … tap on the photo to go there.
A YouTube video of a river otter (Lontra canadensis) that stopped at my pond for an overnight visit and I was lucky enough to watch him swim, play, hunt, and eat a fish … tap on the photo to go there.
The last several years, in mid-January, I get a one day visit from what I believe is the same otter. Last year I didn’t have the chance to video him, but this year I was lucky enough to watch him catch a fish and then swim to the other side of the pond, near the brush pile, and eat it.
I’m not sure where he came from or where he’s headed, but he stops for an overnight and then he’s gone. I do live in a large watershed, which is a chain of lakes and streams that are all interconnected and drain into an area, known as Peck Sink Watershed. Peck Sink is a sinkhole that drains directly into the Florida aquifer. The watershed includes about 11,000 acres so he has a very large habitat to explore and I just hope he stays out of harm’s way.
He’s cute, but ferocious if you’re a fish.
My YouTube video showing the pollinators that visit goldenrod flowers. When goldenrod is in bloom it is a hive of activity because there are so many pollinators that use its flowers for nectar and pollen.
These are the pollinators that visited during this video.
European honey bee (Apis mellifera)
Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops)
Potter Wasp yellow on tail (Eumenes fraternus)
Solitary Potter Wasp (Monobia quadridens)
Tiphiid Wasp (Myzinum dubiosum)
Delta Flower Scarab Beetle (Trigonpeltastes delta)
My YouTube video Evening Thunderstorm with Rain on Tin Roof. Listen to the sounds of light rain on a tin roof during this evening thunderstorm in Central Florida.
Purple martins enjoying their lives at the lake. Check out these lovely little birds chattering, singing, and feeding their babies at the lake. Thanks to my neighbors Chris & Ralph for providing such a lovely purple martin house.
My YouTube video showing a marsh rabbit munching on Spanish moss.
Another marsh rabbit video. This time he’s munching on dried corn.
A beautiful opossum munching on sunflower seeds. I caught this nocturnal beauty on my CamPark trail camera.
If you purchase the trail cam through the above link I will receive a small commission as an Amazon Associate.
This is a very mellow video of a sunrise on the coldest day for Central Florida in 2020. It has a very quiet, native, soundtrack with some birds and ducks vocalizing and a squirrel barking at something. Enjoy the sounds of the waking lake inhabitants as the warming sun rises over the tree line.
A time-lapse video of a lake sunrise on December 27, 2020 which happened to be an extremely cold morning for Florida.
Shot with a GoPro Hero 8 set for timelapse.
If you purchase one through this link I will receive a very small commission as an Amazon Associate AND I sincerely appreciate the support.
There was a wide array of visitors at my trail cam today including goldfinches, Carolina wrens,
catbirds, mourning doves, cardinals, rats, squirrels, and tufted titmice.
See who stopped by!
I caught these bird feeder visitors on my CamPark trail camera.
Video clips of several small baby gators sunning on my dock, swimming in the lake, and hanging out underwater.
If you purchase one through this link I will receive a very small commission as an Amazon Associate AND I sincerely appreciate the support.
Very odd, gray and gloomy, storm at sunrise with wind, thunder, and sheets of rain.
By the end of the clip, we are welcomed with the morning songbird chorus.
A mother Muscovy duck came onto the property this morning with a large flock of babies.
Boat-tailed grackles are busy, loud, birds, and can be very entertaining to have visiting your green space.
There is an unusual leucistic (white patches caused by pigment loss) bird courting a female in the last two segments. He has some brilliant white wing feathers that can be seen when he is posturing to the female.
A pair of Carolina wrens chose to nest in my ceramic bird house. Once I realized they were raising a brood I supplemented their food by placing a saucer of mealworms on my patio which the adult birds took full advantage of. One of the most popular foods for the babies ended up being Cuban anole lizards. Many times a parent would just show up with a wriggling lizard tail. No wonder they grew so big and strong.
Shot with a GoPro Hero 8. If you purchase through my Amazon Associate link I’ll receive a small commission which I deeply appreciate.
A video of bumblebees visiting flowers in Central Florida.
A Northern flicker made a nest in a dead palm tree. Here’s a video of the mom and baby.
A video of our experience with Hurricane Ian 2022.
The groundsel tree is also known as a sea myrtle and saltbush (Baccharis halimifolia). It’s a native shrub that grows to about fifteen feet and produces copious amounts of blooms that the pollinators love.
We set up the trail cam to solve the mystery of the missing duck carcass.
A few weeks previously we found a dead duck on the path, presumably of natural causes, and decided we’d wait until the next day to put it in the garbage bin. My husband and I forgot about it and a few days later we realized that the duck has disappeared and neither of us had dispatched it. So a few days ago a delivery driver ran over a duck on the street and we brought it to the back path to see what animal, or animals, would come and eat it.
We were surprised to see our beloved opossums going primal on it.
The previous duck carcass disappeared without the trace of a single feather yet after the opossums took a turn at a carcass there were feathers everywhere so the first one is still a mystery.
Here’s our experience with Hurricane Nicole 2022. Thankfully we were blessed and didn’t sustain and damage. To those that did you are in our thoughts and prayers.
This video shows how female zebra longwing butterflies emerge from their chrysalises already paired with a male. Sometimes it’s referred to as pupal rape, but I think pupal mating sounds much nicer.
The groundsel tree is also known as the sea myrtle and saltbush. The latin name is Baccharis halimifolia. It is an evergreen, native, shrub that grows to around fifteen feet in height. Its seeds are dispersed by the wind.
I was blessed to be able to record a monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. It’s a beautiful, and strange, thing to see.
A group of three juvenile raccoons started coming into the yard this past week. I’ve tried to video them, but they are too skittish. The one in this video is the thinnest of the three and I suppose hungry enough to let me get close enough to record it. He is attracted to the corn I give the birds, so I prepared him a special treat of dried cat food and leftovers. Making wild animals reliant on humans for food is not a good idea because they lose their fear of us, often tear into stored foods, and waste bins, and if they become a nuisance are often trapped or killed. It’s best, but as you can see not always possible, to let them find their natural food sources.
Please remember that raccoons are wild animals and shouldn’t be handled. If you do get bitten, or scratched, only the killing and testing of the animal will potentially prevent you from undergoing a painful course of injections to ward off the infection. Therefore, keeping a safe distance and admiring from afar is safer for everyone.
The boat-tailed grackles forage in and under the lily pads for food. This particular time they were feeding their fledglings so I threw a handful of dried cat food on the pads and the parents fed all of their babies.
Check out the many visitors that come to my bird bath. This bird bath is set up with a dripper, and a lower water dish, and gets lots of action.
I’ve had a pair of juvenile opossums visiting for the last few weeks so I’ve been putting out cat food for them. I recorded their activities one night on my trail cam.
We have a new addition to our sandhill crane families. There are about three couples in our neighborhood and we are lucky enough to have one on our street. They bring him through the yard often with his dad doting on him and feeding him constantly. They sometimes eat the duck corn. I was lucky enough to have the GoPro set up and caught him taking a bath the other day.
My husband, who is into naming the animals, has called him Frasier Crane.
It’s the end of March here in Central Florida and the tree swallows are starting to create huge flocks in preparation for heading back up north. In Central Florida tree swallows are winter residents only. They are feeding at dusk to take advantage of the midges and mosquitoes that are all around us at the lake.
Our lake provides a nice feeding area for them because of the swarms of non-biting midges. A midge’s life cycle occurs exclusively in the water and when they get to the adult stage they emerge from the water’s surface in huge numbers. It’s a nuisance for homeowner’s, but great for insect eating wildlife, and tree swallows are one of the many species that take advantage of the swarms.
The flocks of tree swallows usually include a few purple martins and other birds searching for a quick meal. The vocalizations in the background are mostly purple martins and boat-tailed grackles calling, but some of the tree swallows can be heard clicking their beaks as they are catching insects.
Mock Bishopsweed (Ptilimnium capillaceaum) is a wispy little wildflower that is native to Florida and is a host plant for the Eastern black swallowtail butterfly.
This video shows the plant and some of the caterpillars.
My friend, Jen in Knoxville, let me know that Wawa had a promotional thing for Bok Tower Gardens to get in free so Mike and I took advantage of it and visited the gardens.
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