Raccoon

1/28/2014 Raccoon

Raccoon  Wild Everglade raccoons greeted our air boat.  These guys roamed around an old native American house site which is frequented regularly.  They seemed thinner than the fat raccoons seen around the farms in Illinois.  Again, the easy to carry Nikon 1 V1 and the 70-300mm lens allowed me to capture a nice image while still not overloading the air boat.  This image is very likely the nicest raccoon image I have ever captured.

Anhinga

1/25/2014 Anhinga

The Anhinga actually swims underwater using its wings with just its head and neck out of the water.  This image show it drying its wings.  They’ll stand in this position for quite some time.  It’s hard to see from this image, but the Anhinga has a wingspan of about 4 feet and ranges between 32 to 36 inches in length.  Their preferred diet is fish, but will also eat water snakes, tadpoles, frog eggs and young alligators.  Of course, in the Everglades, they too could be prey to alligators.