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Money Shot

Jan. 28, 2026

We visited the Great Horned Owl nest this morning. We got there early of course. It was brrrr cold but we stayed until the baby became visible. There might be two babies but we’ve only seen one so far.

Money shot, right?

Stay safe XO

Three Lakes 15

Jan. 27, 2026

We thought it would be fun to show you some of the different campers and rigs people are staying in here.

Short bus painted white, solar on roof. This guy has two pit bulls. (🤯). He’s parked on the handicapped pad but he’s not handicapped.

Camouflage tent. Word is he has a wood stove for cooking and heat.

Solar panels on the other side, 2 little dogs, one older guy.

Curtis and his wife, they also have a house.

Dorothy’s house, she has 2 yorkies and a cat.

Ed’s homestead, his cat is Ringo. He’s been coming here for 15 years.

Sylvie (and Jim) with Zoe. Zoe is very fond of Sylvie

Sylvie’s campsite is where all the socializing happens. She organized a pot luck last Saturday and lots of campers came. It was great fun. Naturally there was a camp fire too.

Most people have solar, there are very few generators. We are all in here helter skelter, just park wherever you want to but don’t crowd your neighbor.

Stay Safe! XO

Three Lakes 16

Jan. 28, 2026

We saw barred owls yesterday afternoon. There are several pairs in an area of the wildlife refuge. We’ve never found any nests and we sure would like to see one. Vic and I were standing next to each other looking up . Whether this one was protecting a nest or being aggressive it did not like us being there. It swooped down at us, Vic waved his camera at it and I ducked. The owl flew off and we were unharmed.

After our encounter with the owls we walked over to the boat launch and found purple gallinules. There were five in one area.

Going back to yesterday morning we saw this Fox Squirrel playing around.

We haven’t seen these guys in a couple of years so we were happy to find them.

Stay safe with all this cold! XO

Three Lakes 14

Jan. 27, 2026

Yesterday we were out doing our thing when Vic noticed this bird and couldn’t identify it right away so we knew it was something special. It’s a Merlin, a kind of hawk.

We’ve only ever seen one before at Lake Apopka (Fl).

The lighting wasn’t very good for this pair but I wanted to show you the size differential. Also notice the female’s beak is much more pronounced.

This one is much prettier. It’s all about the lighting.

Such a funny pose.

Stay safe everyone! XO

Three Lakes 13

Jan. 24, 2026

Get ready to be stunned!!!

Yesterday afternoon we were watching the Great Horned Owl nest. I noticed the male on the ground sitting in a fire ring of all places. He became aware of us and flew up to a dead palm tree. The sun was thinking about going down and look at the lighting!

What an afternoon! We giggled like little kids all the way home reveling in our good fortune.

A friend in the campground here shared a drone photo of the Three Lakes hunt camp. I figure some of you are curious so I’m including the photo- taken well before we got here. Imagine 3X as many campers and then you’ll have a visual of where we are.

Stay safe, especially all of you in the path of this monster storm.

Three Lakes 12

Jan. 22, 2026

Yesterday afternoon we were watching the Great Horned Owl nest, observing the female on the nest. The nest is in a live oak tree on property owned by the Overstreet family with no trespassing signs. We can see the nest from the roadside but only because of our long lens. We could hear the male owl hooting so I walked around a little and saw it!! It was backlit so Vic walked around the other way where the light was much better. He had a better angle than I did so these are his (amazing) shots.

His expression says what do you think you are doing, out!

She came off the nest to meet him for the food handoff. We didn’t see the hand off like we could a few days earlier.

This bird is also called butcher bird because he impales his prey in order to eat it.

That’s all for today!

Stay safe XO

Three Lakes 11

Jan. 20, 2026

I really really hope you aren’t getting sick of eagle pictures. Is that even possible lol? We have some beauties to share today.

These were all taken on Joe Overstreet where there is a nest but hidden behind foliage and Spanish moss. They do a lot of flying around gathering food so we get our pictures then.