Well hello there Bald Eagle

The safari is struggling for pics today, and not for want of trying!

This little Jumping Spider was fun - he waves his two white 'boxing gloves' at you in a very intimidating manner.

Went out on the boat trip as promised, all they way out to the Gulf of Mexico - fortunately no sign of any of BP's missing oil here...yet...although the Rangers and everyone else aree really worried that the leak isn't being sealed quickly enough and the slick will reach the coastal wetands of Florida all to soon. Beyond these low keys is the open Gulf. We had a tern species here which looked more like Common Tern than Forster's Tern due to its dark wingtips but with the boat moving quickly we couldn't pin down an ID
Also seen here was a Yellow Crowned Night Heron which was miss ID'd by our guide...oops as Black Crowned Night Heron, but I guess we'll let him off as he didn't have bins and was steering the boat as well. A fine male Red winged Blackbird hit the notebook as the next new species for the trip.
All the while the skipper was telling us to check the tops of the snags (dead trees) for the Bald Eagle, especially as we approached its somewhat huge and impressive nest - as one of our fellow sailors put it - "you could have a party up there!" But sadly we didn't see the parents and the youngster(s?) were well hunkered down out of view.
Wereb we despondent at not seeing America's iconic national bird, well yes a little (wonder if they get persecuted like poor old Scotland's iconic 'National' bird the Golden Eagle?). But what was to come was unexpected and more than made up for it - a mother Bottle Nosed Dolphin and here calf feeding in the shallows - brilliant sighting to round off an excellent trip on the river with more Ospreys than you can shake a stick at and even nore Turkey and Black Vultures circling in the pure blue ether on the rising thermals - epic stuff.
On the raod back to Temporary Camp we did a bit of road-kill spotting and managed to identify a couple of Armadillos, a Racoon (which apparently visit our garden at night - must be very quiet when the do as we haven't heard anything 'suspicious' yet) and a chunky black snake about a yard long, which stinks to holy hell and back, is probably a Brown Water Snake .
Where to next? More boaty riding perhaps along with a patch walk early morning.
In the meantime let us know who wasn't home in your outback today.