Recent sightings

For the past couple of years, this blog has followed a pictoral format where I post a couple of my pictures and talk a bit about them. Sometimes they're recent pics but often they're from my archive or from my last trip. As a result wildlife encounters with no photo results tend to slip through the net and the blog also lacks a little immediacy when it comes to what's happening here right now. So I'm planning on doing a brief sightings/encounters post each week/fortnight (depending how exciting a week/fortnight it has been) to sum up what's happening here right now. January was a pretty good month providing us with:

• Large numbers of tarpon on both the flats and some dive sites;
• A brief visit from the flamingos;
• Good views of a couple of Carcharhinus sp. sharks;
• a pod of 15 or so feeding bottlenose dolphins;
• 3 red tail hawks interacting;
• a mother and baby clapper rails;
• a hundred or so white-cheeked pintails; and
• an island tick (green-winged teal).

All of which was pretty cool. February has also started well. This week's highlights for me included:

• An Osprey fishing over the mangroves as I was fishing in the mangroves;
• Eagle rays (one breaching on the flats and one interesting rosetted form gliding by on a dive);
• good views of a red-tailed hawk thermalling;
• my first local seahorse;
• a nice green turtle.

Reports from friends suggest the island's male tarantulas are on the move for love before Valentine's day so thats one of this week's targets - there's a few other interesting things out there right now too......