Tarpon Blue Ag Babcock Ranch

02/22/2026

Devastating numbers for Agriculture.

11/06/2025

02/16/2025

02/16/2025

These male Boat-tailed Grackles are so much fun to photograph with their silly antics!

This one was comfortably perched on a boardwalk railing until he saw my camera point at him ... and he immediately puffed out his chest and struck a pose!

02/16/2025

The male Boat-tailed Grackle is one of my favorite birds to photograph because of its beautiful, jewel-colored feathers. Check out the reflection in this bird's eye -- it was an airplane flying by when I took the photograph.

Boat-tailed Grackles are one of the nosiest birds around. They'll come right up to me and act like I should explain what I'm photographing and why -- and then they'll follow me around while I take pictures of things!

I've seen them aggressively try to steal fish from a flying osprey's talons (and ospreys can be fierce), but around somebody like me with a camera instead of fish in her hands, they're not a problem!

02/16/2025

GREAT BLUE HERON CHRONICLES:
Love is in the Air!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Great Blue Herons (and me)!

While Great Blue Herons do not mate for life, they usually are monogamous during breeding season. I've found some pairs to be more affectionate toward each other than others -- and this couple is a perfect example with their sweet nuzzling that started before their babies were born.

Stay tuned for my "GREAT BLUE HERON CHRONICLES" posts for photos and more information (including about courtship rituals). ❤

-------
About "GREAT BLUE HERON CHRONICLES:"

On October 4, 2024, I began documenting the lives of Great Blue Herons in a local park I visit most days of the week. Photographing the birds over these past four months (and still counting) has been the greatest personal highlight for me since starting to learn bird photography a year prior in October 2023.

There literally are thousands of photographs from my estimated 175 hours spent observing and photographing just Great Blue Herons. And there are pages of scribbled notes of things I’ve learned while online researching their activities and behaviors. Yes, I photograph and post other species of birds but it’s the Great Blue Heron that’s captured my heart and my mind. Some nights I think I dream about them!

As I’ve amassed all this material, I’ve struggled with how best to use and share it. I want to tell the stories of this magnificent bird living southwest Florida style, and early this morning during a spectacular Golden Hour as I watched Great Blue Herons performing over the lake, it came to me – just break it down and tell little stories as standalone posts with photographs and brief narratives. And this is what I intend to do in the coming weeks.

There will be posts with other types of birds and other non-bird things I photograph, but they’ll be interspersed with random stories of this amazing bird (headlined as “GREAT BLUE HERON CHRONICLES” followed by a subject line – and not at all in chronological order).

I’ve watched the Great Blue Herons find partners; build nests; love; argue and fight; protect each other; have babies; take care of babies who’ve flourished (so far) into juveniles and others who didn’t make it as young chicks; feed babies; pout (watch for an upcoming tale of a pair I’ve named “The Scoundrel and The Lady!”); and soar across skies and up four-story pine trees in ways that take your breath away.

Sometimes they make me laugh and other times cry – and there’s nothing I enjoy more at the park than updating my wonderful friends there on the Great Blue Heron new babies and new pairs and new nests – just like I look forward to sharing with you in these posts! Stay tuned.

❤ Susan/The Daily Artisan (Feb. 11, 2025)

01/30/2025

FWC collared and weighed this cat today at the ranch. 165 lb. Largest panther ever weighed in Fl.

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas.

12/24/2024

Forget the Elf on the Shelf....in Florida we have the Gator on the Tater !!!!!

12/04/2024

Burning at the ranch today.

12/01/2024

Great month for Florida produce. Get out to a farmers market and support local growers.