Hey Paul, my father-in-law lives off Brickell by the Rickenbacher causeway, so we take a few trips a year down to Miami to visit. A couple of my favorite places to eat are an Italian place called Cafe Vialetto (Italian with a Latin flair), another Italian place called Casa Tua (a bit pricey), and Michael's Genuine Food & Drink is probably one of my absolute favorite places to go. There are a lot of good Cuban restaurants, and I love Cuban food, but I have yet to find anyone doing anything adventurous with it down there. For reference: Michael's: http://www.michaelsgenuine.com/ Vialetto: http://hosting.mandica.com/vialetto/Caffe_Vialetto/Caffe_Vialetto.html Casa Tua: http://www.casatualifestyle.com/ My wife grew up in Miami, I'll email over some other suggestions after talking to her. We are both huge foodies that love to cook at home and dine out.

Again, wonderful pics. What is it about the eyes of a bird of prey that just stun you for a moment? I have always liked looking into the eyes of barred owls because of their all-dark appearance, but the contrast of that deep golden yellow against the white plumage....it's so striking. For the record, Vonyon, I have seldom been able to walk up on an owl in the woods. I usually don't even know they are around until they are already swooping away to put some distance between us. THe times I have been close to them are the ones where I sat very very still and called them in. The first time this happened to me it was a big shock.I was bent over at the waist walking through knee deep water and shuffling my feet slowly to see what was living in the leaf litter. I had on a camo jacket and my face was not turned up and I guess the owl did not recognize me as a human. I was still bent over, staring at the water when I saw its reflection swoop in low and glide to a branch about 15 feet over my head. It was all I could do not to snap erect in surprise. Sometimes when I am alone in the woods, I mumble to myself, other times I might whistle or hum a song. Sometimes I am totally silent, but my favorite thing is to try and mimic animal noises and that day I had been hooting like a barred owl off and on for a few minutes. Kinda like singing in your car or talking to yourself in the bread aisle--things you do when no one else is around. Only I wasn't alone there in the creek and it was a shock when the owl showed up. And there I was stuck like a bent hairpin. I knew I had to eventually stand up but I knew the owl would see and probably hear any twitch. Luckily, by watching its reflection I noticed that every once it a while it would swivel its head around to the east to look at other things, and I would wait for that one moment and then raise my upper body bit by bit back to an upright position. I think now they call this Pilates.....it took a while of start and stop but I finally made it, but I was still looking down at the water. I have heard that even if you are well hidden from an animal, if they see your eyes it's all over. I waited again for the right moment, and then finally lifted my head to look directly at the bird while it was again turned east. When it spun back around and down to check on this strange lumpy hooting thing in the creek we were finally looking directly at each other. I could not believe those huge dark eyes, not at all like GHO eyes. Look right through you. Its head shifted a bit, and I don't know if it was my eyes or maybe a subtle twitch on my part but it had had enough of me. It flapped maybe three times and then dropped to a low glide off through the birches. I have only been this close to owls in a normal setting maybe three other times, and all three were responding to calls. But ahead of my experience in the creek I never knew it could work like that.

I am seeing a family of 8 visit often and they are getting bigger. One is definitely lighter with orange beak and feet. All too little to fly now. I am wondering if it'll fly? I am thinking one of my domestic geese laid an egg on the island and the Canada goose sat on it and laid her eggs? My domestic white geese don't fly, so if this one does, it'll be a real treat if we continue to see him/her :) The above photos may be domestic, but domestic geese don't fly and Tracey above said she watched the flock fly in. My three families have been back each year for the past 3 years. Would love some feed back. Thank you :)

Love'm all! Ron, love your fawn....I had a couple of Whitetail's. RC...Lovely Turkey's...it does look dry....must be Texas,....Texas Longhorn? The Armadillo looks cool...kind of prehistoric. Carol, these Elephant seals look enormous...lot's of blubber, great shot! Alisande, great shots of many species!...Yea..I don't doubt on that bear. Crunchpa...great shot of that Raccoon! Cheekymonkey..great, have never seen one with this color. Solstice....Great Egret & snowy Egret, not sure if I'm right....great crock. Cherbo, love that moose!...we have them around here wild, always on the move and hard to get a shot at! Gor-gor...love that wood Stork...now I know why they call it like this, the head looks like carved out of wood...LOL White Tail Fawn the other day in my orchard. Cedar Waxwing Family.. Konrad