We arrived here in Hollywood Florida, eventually last night. This was after a hold up at Philadelphia when, in spite of making our way between terminals as quickly as possible we missed the connection.  Not too much damage done as we jumped on the next plane to Ft Lauderdale 3 hours later and enjoyed a beer at the  Airport bar.

in spiteToday arrived with alovely glorious sunrise over the ocean and then settled in to a totally cloudless day with temperatures reaching lovely 76 F. We called in to a few of my favourite places.  At West Lake Park the first thing I saw on the lake was a struggling coot, I immediately waded in up to my knees and pulled the bird from the jaws of the biggest wild turtle that I have ever seen.  The poor bird was being eaten alive and not only was one leg hanging by a thread, intestines were  exposed and chewed. Nature could arguably have been left to run it's course and perhaps I shouldn't have got involved. To cut the story short, Broward County Wildlife rescue came along to take the bird which would have needed to be euthanised.

I saw an attractive female Racoon, she was foraging at the edge of the park and disappeared in to the mangroves when I took too much interest in her.

Then at the beach and specifically Oleta State Park I photographd a Laughing Gull and a pair of Red Breasted Merganser brown heads and an adult White Ibis.