The first was taken in the Turks and Caicos Islands and the second in Mexico. The first with a Panasonic Lumix ZS3 and the second with a Canon Powershot S50.

I came across these large, and very voracious fish in a nearby pond. Clearly they were used to being fed and indeed while we were there some people came with a huge plastic bag filled with bread. The contents looked like leftovers from a restaurant. The fish descended on the bread. We, too, were feeding the fish and noticed a smallish turtle. We threw some bread in his/her (I don’t know how to tell the difference) direction but the fish were a lot quicker and he never got any. We continued our walk around the pond and suddenly noticed the turtle swimming in our direction. He/she had figured out the while the fish were distracted he might be able to get some food elsewhere. And sure enough he got quite a bit from us before some of the fish noticed and swam over. From this I conclude that while fish might be faster than turtles, turtles are smarter.

We’ve been down working in the garden in our house in Briarcliff Manor and I took the dog for a walk through the village and into Law Park. We were down by the pond when I saw the rather nondescript bird above. I don’t know what it is – maybe a cormorant? It was certainly very comfortable in the water and at one point dove in and disappeared completely for a while.

While I was taking pictures of it I saw a flash of white and the rather impressive egret below flew in. I was far to slow to get a picture of it in flight but pursued it around the pond trying to get close enough for a decent picture. Whenever I got close it would fly to the other side of the pond so I eventually gave up.

Egret

Egret again.

The two birds together.

Came across this in our garden today. Luckily it stayed put long enough for me to get the picture.