The (monk?) parakeets that occasionally chatter by, usually moving quickly or hiding high in the trees, finally landed someplace more visible, and against a contrasting background. We think they are eating dates.

War Veterans’ Memorial Park:

The sundial is aligned for St Petersburg’s location, with adjustments by month in the foreground to get to watch time. The sun was already going behind the trees, so we weren’t able to verify any of this.

They have a Korean War era tank enclosed in a fence and behind signs that declare that the tank is for viewing only. Personally, it looks plenty sturdy, the ideal kind of monument to get up close to and touch and bring into your world, like passing your hand over Roosevelt’s dog’s ears.

I was looking for a little christmas tree, something that would fit on our coffee table, but I never found anything that I liked while doing my other shopping. Mike found this adorable fiber optic tree, but when plugging it in, there was no light. The motor that turns the color filter was running, so we hoped that the little bulb had just burned out. We were lucky.

Not satisfied with a still shot (although I put together an animated gif too!), I decided to try out the video capture on my little point and shoot, something that I’ve only accidentally used before when I bumped the mode dial on the camera. After several minutes pondering and googling avidemux, the first linux video editor I came across, I managed to rotate the picture and strip out the audio. I am hereby contributing to the mass of pointless video snippets on the internet by sharing with you these 8 seconds of happy, twinkly christmas tree. At least I didn’t add in my favorite 8 seconds of Carol of the Bells.

There is of course no snow. There are still mosquitoes even. But people do decorate. Here is the Florida Botanical Gardens. When we arrived, the vendors had not yet set up. Most of the handful of people there were photographers, who also wanted the evening light. By the time we left, the parking lot was full and children and oblivious adults were plowing through and standing in the way, respectively, with their little point and shoots flashing away at everything.

So, the nursery-bought Roma is pretty spindly, and would probably benefit from being repotted. It has a few fruit.

The red-robin, probably around 6″ tall now, is blooming, and has a tiny tomato.

While this is the most we’ve ever gotten a red robin to do, it’s far too small and its leaves are not the right color, dull on top and yellow below, like everything else. The squash are once again trying to bloom with these anemic, mildew covered and brown edged leaves.

Happy squash looks like this, with dark green leaves as big as your outstretched hand, overflowing the pot, with the blossoms peaking out from the shade below. The new basils are still doing ok. We are going to get rid of our remaining dirt and plants when we move and sterilize the pots before we start over in our next place.

It was too yucky on Saturday to go to the beach after Friday’s storm, but on Sunday it was pleasant enough, and the most deserted that we’ve seen Fort De Soto.

I take pictures of sea oats whenever I can.

They all look nearly identical to me, especially in winter plumage, but someone must be able to tell what kind of plover this is, since it has bands on its legs. Or maybe because of the bands on its legs.

A ruddy turnstone, munching on a decaying urchin.

Sandpipers (again, maybe Western, maybe Semipalmated, maybe even Sanderlings, though these seem darker than the winter Sanderling pictures I’ve found) hopping one footed away from us.

Cockle shell halves.

Pen shell in the surf, the largest of the common shells that get carried onto the beach, easily 6 inches long. They are iridescent inside, but not so pretty on the outside.

We’ve gone to several parks this month. Here are some of the better pictures I got:

Hillsborough River State Park

This is probably a Racer, like the smaller version we saw recently in our front yard.

With the recent rain, the resurrection ferns were still green. These and other epiphytes cover the oak boughs at this park.

Upper Tampa Bay County Park, Nov 26

Downy woodpecker, the smallest woodpecker in North America, and very energetic. It was hopping around one of the pine trees affected by the controlled burns.

White peacock butterfly. We also saw a few common buckeyes, and a pink rattlebox moth.

Weedon Island, Nov 22

Improved yellow crowned night heron pictures. The crouched one with the red eye was very close to where I took the first yellow crowned night heron pictures as few months ago, so it may be the same individual. It’s amazing how much neck they untuck with they spy a snack.

Sawgrass Lake Park, Nov 14

Baby alligator. We saw three adults in the park as well, sunning themselves. Perhaps it was a bit too cold for hunting.

Three turtles and green heron. These were pretty far away and I didn’t notice the middle turtles at the time. Now I wish I’d spent a few more pictures trying to get the exposure better.

Caledesi State Park, Nov 8:

Gopher tortoise. This little guy (or girl? Aren’t you supposed to be able to tell by length of tail? I see no tail in any of my pictures, though I wasn’t trying to shoot for that at the time) was on the side of the road near the ferry dock. The grass it’s in is what passes for lawn here. We saw another, much larger gopher tortoise on the island, but I didn’t get any good pictures of it.

Oyster catchers. While not terribly shy, the last time we saw these was in December of last year.