Wildlife on the Island

I've been spending a few minutes every few days to see if I can capture some of the wildlife on Jekyll with my camera. This has been marginally successful. Squirrels abound here in the campground, and you'd think that they would be an easy mark. But they seem to be somewhat camera shy, and my longest lens (450 mm) is just barely long enough. Plus, then tend to hang around int eh shadows and move a lot, making exposure difficult. I got a lot of pictures of squirrel tails leaving the scene. And they absolutely refuse to smile. But I managed to get this one.

Seagulls abound on the island, too, but not in the campground. I caught these two sea rats waiting in a parking lot for a handout. I'm not sure why a seagull would prefer soaking his webbed feet in a puddle, rather than dry grounds, and he's not talking. Unfortunately, for me, seagulls have their pictures taken way too often, so unless I capture one with a fishing pole, or using a laptop, it will be a fairly ordinary picture. Still, it's practice.



Raccoons are also plentiful here, not as plentiful as squirrels or seagulls, but they are regular daily visitors. This one didn't realize that Thumper was lurking under our motorhome and got a little too close. When he was alarmed by the barking and snarling teeth chasing him into the road (cut short by Thumper's leash reaching it's full extension) he scrambled up a tree. Six feet up a tree seemed pretty safe, until I showed up with my camera and blinding light to further confound a quiet night of carousing in the campground. Funny, the more pictures I took, the farther up the tree he scrambled.

There's a lot of cardinals in the campground. There's a "bird sanctuary", a portion of the campground where feeders have been hung for the birds. They tend to be skittish, and the mirror flop on my camera tends to keep them alert. But if I stay far enough away, I can get a few images of them hopping on the ground.

There's other wildlife here besides us. I'll keep trying to sneak up on them and get a few snapshots.