THE INDRIO SAVANNAHS--

You have to know how deathly afraid of snakes Sue is to appreciate her courage in the above photo.

This day we slithered between the strands of barbed wire beside a gate on an access road that appeared to be a dike-like pathway between the little stream in the left of the above photo and an expansive area to the right most folks would regard as a swamp.

We joked about the unseen population of surrounding snakes while Sue mostly ignored us.  Warning signs about poisonous snakes we encountered later confirmed our suspicions.

We were in search of the new nesting site for eagles who apparently were disturbed from their previous home just to the south--one of whom was featured in the story of January 30th. 

We did find the new nest quite a bit east of that current trail and apparently close to where we saw the earlier bird.  That took us back to the trail of our January 30th outing where we subsequently found the nest well hidden in the high pine foilage and barely visible from the trail that offered the closest access.

It's not likely to be a good photography candidate.

Regardless, our 2 mile, round-trip hike was a refreshing outing in an eco-system very strange to we northern visitors.

Anywhere you hike in Florida, informed folks will maintain a high degree of awareness.  American alligators, feral hogs, poisonous snakes and an occasional jaguar all are possible encounters. 

As we enjoyed our walking expedition it was fun to joke about only needing to be able to run faster than the slowest person in our group in order to insure one's personal survival.

Can you imagine that discussion in our geriatric group?

and, our neighborhood
eagle...

On the day of the Indrio Savannah hike we later drove into a neighborhood that borders our RV park on the south and enjoyed the above peek of an eagle feeding its young in this nest between our park and that neighborhood of fine homes.

We can see this nest from very near our camper but the view is less obstructed from the opposite side as shown above.

Note also, the smaller picture is the full frame done with a 200 mm lens on my digital SLR camera.  I do not like to ever get close enough to these nests that I might become worrisome to the birds.  And, the closer you get the more your shooting angle is elevated until you are seeing only the underside of the nest.

Better to stay back, enjoy this viewing angle, and, enjoy the degree of enlargement possible with a quality lens on these cameras with a large megapixel capability.

The larger image was cropped and enlarged out of the middle of the smaller one thus making it appear I was much closer to the nest than I actually was.