Author Archives: Susan

April Encounters

By Susan | Published May 10, 2012

Jim put together a few video clips taken during the month of April.  It includes territorial displays between two Dragonets and two Eyed Flounder, a small Blue Spotted Sea Robin showing off its beautiful “wings”, and our favorite Dusky Jawfish. At the end of the video is a clip of a sea spider munching on [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater, VIDEO | 5 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 04/29/12

By Susan | Published May 2, 2012

The photos in this gallery are a combination of  two days of diving last week – Friday the 27th and Sunday the 29th.  I was lucky to be able to photograph a beautiful orange seahorse, thanks Deb!  The Striated (hairy) Frogfish are returning and Linda found a fantastic, very hairy, pair.  I didn’t even see [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 3 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 04/24/12

By Susan | Published April 24, 2012

Well the dive today was short.  About 5′ of visibility.  If you weren’t touching your buddy, you couldn’t see him.  And it was a cold 71 degrees.  As I was trying to stay with Linda and Mena on the way out to the log to look for dwarf frogfish, I swam over this Atlantic Sundial [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 1 Comment

St. Augustine Rookery

By Susan | Published April 22, 2012

Visited the famous St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery April 15, 16, and 17. It is a great place to view and photograph Florida’s herons, egrets, and other nesting birds at close range.  It is also challenging to find good compositions among the sticks and foliage. Nesting spoonbills were new to me this year but their [...]

Posted in St.Augustine Rookery | 3 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 04/19/12

By Susan | Published April 20, 2012

The night dive last night was a little strange. It amazes me how often I can get “lost” in such a simple place. I only have a few subjects as my regulator mouthpiece tore off during the dive.  I did manage to find a large Blackfin Cardinalfish with a beautiful gold fin (instead of the [...]

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Blue Heron Bridge – 04/13/12

By Susan | Published April 20, 2012

This post contains photos from April 11th and April 13th. Here are the highlights:  Found a small clump of hydroids with several Doto nudibranchs, including several laying eggs.  The Flabellina marcusorum in “nudi world”  are still busy laying strings of pink eggs.  Came across  an odd colored baby scropionfish, about 1.5 inches.  It looked black [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 1 Comment

Blue Heron Bridge – 04/05/12

By Susan | Published April 7, 2012

Great night dive! Didn’t go very far but found a lot of subjects. Correction, was shown a lot of subjects. Thanks Linda and Judy. First is a yellowish male Dwarf Frogfish about the size of a nickel. It caught my eye as it drifted by.  As I was trying to find it again to show [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 3 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 04/03/12

By Susan | Published April 7, 2012

Today I found my first orange Amphipod, a shrimp-like little bug about half a grain of rice in size and bright orange. Sorry, no babies on this one.  Next, as I was turning over urchins looking for the elusive spotted bumblebee shrimp, I found this green and pink urchin with 5 or 6 very large [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 2 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 03/30/12

By Susan | Published April 1, 2012

Went to the West side today in hopes of seeing the purple flabellina, a really gorgeous little nudibranch that showed up at the same time last year for a few weeks.  Subjects for this slide show are:  an unusually colored (maroon and white) Rough Box Crab, more regular Bumblebee shrimp, Squat Urchin shrimp (this urchin [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 4 Comments

Toadfish at the BHB

By Susan | Published March 29, 2012

On Monday, March 26th, Laz found a Osyter Toadfish at the Blue Heron Bridge and was kind enough to show our group.  This is the first time we have seen such an animal there. Here are a few of Jim’s recent video clips.  The toadfish is at the end.  Remember to turn up your speakers [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater, VIDEO | 4 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 03/26/12

By Susan | Published March 28, 2012

It was Bumblebee day at the Blue Heron Bridge.  Turned over a lot of urchins and found three that had families of  tiny (approximately 1/4″ long) Bumblebee shrimp on them.  The tiny orange scallop with the blue eyes was about the size of a pinky fingernail.  ID. by Anne as a baby Rough Scallop (Lindapecten [...]

Posted in Blue Heron Bridge, Underwater | 2 Comments

Blue Heron Bridge – 03/23/12

By Susan | Published March 23, 2012

Here are my photos from today’s dive on the East side.  A striped Burrfish.  A pipefish with fuzz on its nose.  My first encounter with a couple of squat lobsters.  A male Banded Jawfish incubating new eggs. A tiny spotted bumblebee shrimp.  And lastly, the same jawfish I photographed last week.  His eggs are well [...]

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Blue Heron Bridge – 03/16/12

By Susan | Published March 22, 2012

Dove  the East side  for the first time since the bridge construction was completed.  Water was a cool 78 degrees.  Found several nudibranchs and a flatworm thanks to Judy and Anne.  Found very large live sand dollars burried just under the rubble and discovered their beautiful patterns after brushing off the sand.  One was beige [...]

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Moorhen for Breakfast

By Susan | Published March 21, 2012

Last month we visited a Great Horned Owl nest and were fortunate to witness the adult Owl bringing a Common Moorhen back to the nest to feed the young owlets.  Here is Jim’s video of this special moment.

Posted in Florida Wildlife, VIDEO | 3 Comments

Great Horned Owls – 02/27/12

By Susan | Published February 28, 2012

The day was perfect for shooting – light overcast mixed with clouds and a few moments of sunshine, no rain. For the first hour nothing much was happening, tried to get shots of the babies but they were mostly sleeping. Then Dad arrived and perched up high. Even though he looks like he is asleep, [...]

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