Favoritos de polarbearnaturalist

Digital scan from my color slide. Ordway Preserve (= Ordway-Swisher Biological Station), near Smith Lake, Putnam Co., Florida. 9 Mar 1985.

Amelanistic specimen. Reported in: Stuart, J.N. and C.K. Dodd, Jr. 1985. Life History Notes: Cemophora coccinea copei. Coloration. Herpetological Review 16:78.

Headed out for dinner and a raptor crossed my path flying low. It landed in a tree and I headed back into the house for a camera :D
It stayed put just long enough for a shot. Then, to my surprise, it dropped down and went behind some bushes!
I waited, hoping to see it come back out. Nothing... nothing... started to wonder if I'd missed it. Then it reappeared at the far end of the bushes. It moved in and out of the bushes a few times, peering intently up at the bushes. Then it took off.
Looked to see if it had prey - no. Then I realized it was chasing a smaller bird, which it must have flushed from the bush. It all happened so fast that I couldn't get shots of the chase. The last I saw before I lost them, the hawk was gaining on its prey.
I was surprised to see it hunting in this way and wondered whether it was an inexperienced hunter. The shots do show a juvenile.

Unfortunately, this snake quickly slithered into a rock crack further than was possible to photograph. The right half of my sketch represents the part of the snake visible for a brief time before it moved, the left is the part visible after retreating into the rock. I understand that field sketches as “evidence of organism” is a contentious subject, however I do think that this species is distinctive enough to warrant posting as a verifiable observation. Any additional thoughts/input on this observation or on sketches as observations in general would be appreciated, as I’m not really sure of my opinion on whether they should be designated as casual myself.

I carefully moved it back into the water, but had the feeling that it was already "on its way out" when I found it. :/

It's the same individual as this: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63183739 .

I think this bird is albino rather than leucistic due to its red eye. The light-colored bill suggests that this is a juvenile.

There is a nice discussion of the terminology for birds lacking some or all melanin on David Sibley's website.