Chillin' Out

It's Sunday! Time to chill out and watch football after two days of birding and spending time out in Nature. It's still pretty warm here in South Florida, but the Fall Migration is in full swing. Warblers are being spotted all around South Florida. This weekend I managed to add four birds to my life list: Swainson's Thrush, Yellow-throated Vireo, Black-throated Blue Warbler and the Red-eyed Vireo. Although I didn't get too many pics of the birds (think high in trees, shaded and fast moving!) I did manage to get some half-way decent shots a Great-horned Owl and of this cute, adorable raccoon chillin' out in a tree. Reminding us all that it is important to have some down time and relax. ;-)

Chillin' Out

Great-Horned Owl

Looking forward to birding every weekend possible until Summer, but today, right now...think I'll have another cup of coffee and watch Game Day Morning on the NFL Network. ;-)

It's Mixed Media Month!

Hello again my friends!
The month of February is Mixed Media month for my online course with Carla Sonheim, The Year of the Giraffe. The goal is to use at least two different mediums together and hopefully incorporate some of those supplies that we all have sitting around. And maybe even throw some different things at it all together!
I've done two pieces so far:

 Wading Giraffe with Kitty Paw Print

Mixed Media on Canvas

Supplies used: acrylic paint, airbrush ink, watercolor, gesso and paper. Sookie helped me add to it by walking all over the freshly painted canvas and then tracking blue prints all over the art room. 

Giraffe Portrait

Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper

This one is more simple, just using watercolor, ink and colored pencil. I was very proud of myself on this one because for once my colors weren't a muddled mess! More mixed media to come this month! Stay tuned!

For the sixth week in a row, I took sunrise shots, although I missed both weekend days as I was out with Lita birding. It was totally worth it though as I added 7 new birds to my life list and Lita added 8. The La Sagra's Flycatcher that everyone has been spotting up at the Green Cay Wetlands, well, that one is still eluding us. I'm going to try again this weekend to spot and snap the little shyling.

Black-hooded Parakeet

Sunrises 2013, Week 6

May the sun continue to rise for you all!

Birding Weekend in Sanibel

Hello my friends!
Finally had my first birding outing of 2013 with Lita. We spent the weekend on Sanibel, a place we both love not only because we met there but because it's so full of nature and wildlife. It's a dream locale for photographers, nature lovers and of course, birders. And we are all three! ;-) We had a great weekend which included a couple of really magical moments gifted to us by the universe as well as lots of great birdy sightings. We ended up seeing about 33 different species of birds and Lita added 7 or so to her life list and I added 4. We also ended up with dozens of bites that welted up on our face, hands, chest and legs thanks to a constant attack by no-see-ums, little biting bugs that, you guessed it, you can't see. However, they were so thick we could see them plain as day! They even attacked our scalps. I have itchy hair now. ;-(
And, I have tons of pictures to process. I promised myself I would keep up with the processing this year. Um, yea, right...I can already see how that is going to be a challenge!

Alrighty then! On with the highlights from the weekend in Sanibel:

On Saturday, we arrived in time for a quick drive through Ding Darling before having lunch at The Greenhouse Grill. I was able to add two birds to my life list while at Ding Darling, a Dunlin and a Red Knot. Later in the afternoon we hit Bowman Beach for a bit of shelling and then headed to Captiva to capture the sunset. There was no sunrise that morning at my lake due to rain so I was very happy to at least have a decent sunset.

A sweet Dunlin. They are so cute!

 Beachy Blues

 Sunset 1.19.2013

One of our magical moments was watching a Bald Eagle snatch a fish from the ocean and fly right over us! It was the highlight of day one but unfortunately both Lita and I had no time to adjust our manual settings and we just pointed and shot and none of our pictures turned out (I think we were shooting seashells or waves or some such thing). I managed to salvage one enough that I could add in some clouds I shot earlier along with some texture so that I could at least have a shot to remember the moment by. Not that I would forget...it was a one in a million chance sighting there!

Bald Eagle with Catch

On Sunday we got up before sunrise and headed to Ding Darling, unaware that what lay ahead would be misery in the form of no-see-ums. It was completely overcast so once again, no sunrise. That makes three days this month that I didn't see a sunrise. Hopefully the rest of the month will shine on! At Ding Darling we met other birders who were kind enough to let us use a roll-on eucalyptus bug deterrent which didn't work at all. We also met a nice photographer named Tom Brennan who gave us some no-see-um spray which didn't help either. Lita immediately welted up...it took my body about 12 hours before the allergic reaction set in. Even as I'm typing this I'm in a state of itchy misery. But, the real question is, was it worth it? And the answer is a resounding YES! The highlight of our day included interacting with a Yellow-throated Warbler and this amazing private performance we received from a Stand of Tree Swallows:

Wrong Way

We actually had to sneak into Ding Darling because it was 30 minutes late in opening. There was a line of cars waiting to get in but we were walking so we squeezed around the gate. We later went back and paid our $1.00 to the attendant who said the back of her alarm clock fell open and the battery came out. She felt terribly bad about it and we in turn, felt bad for her! 

Me and Tom with his serious birding lens!

Yellow-throated Warbler

After the morning at Ding Darling, we head to our favorite breakfast cafe, Over Easy for a delicious and filling meal. Of course I had eggs benedict with a side of not only bacon but also sausage! Piggy plate alert!

And, the Over Easy cafe has the best coffee. It was just what we needed to push through the rest of the day which included a hike along Baily Tract which is where we saw the Stand of Tree Swallows (I just love using collective nouns!) and a teenage gator. After a couple of hours there we headed back to Island Cow for a delicious dessert before heading off the island and back to the west coast.

Best.Coffee.Ever

Eggs Benedict, my favorite breakfast 

A Stand of Tree Swallows

Shadowed Selfies

Decadent Dessert

Greetings from Florida!

And, also from last week my sunrise collage:

Week 3

I continued drawing my giraffes for The Year of the Giraffe class with Carla Sonheim. I also did one in pastel. This is our last week for the drawing portion. I hope to add a few more pages to my giraffe sketchbook before the end of the month. 

Next up...a week with Phoebe! I can hardly wait for our adventure! See you all soon!

Woodpecker Humor

Just to make you smile today:

 "I heard he is such a player". "No! Really?"

"Are you girls talking about me?"

Gila Woodpeckers, taken in Glendale, Arizona. 

Catching up on Life

Life has been moving at a rapid pace for me lately. The short version, as to not bore you all, is after the trip to Arkansas, I went to London & Paris with my husband, entertained my family for a week and then flew to NYC for a long weekend, which then turned into a week thanks to being stuck in Chelsea during Hurricane Sandy. I arrived home just in time to make a portrait photo shoot I had to do for my neighbor and her family before turning around again and flying to Arizona for a week of visiting with my friends, family and of course, doing a little birding in Sedona. I've been home for a little over a week and I can't believe how far behind I am on everything. Plus, I had two outings with Lita (one to Key Biscayne, another to Loxahatchee) that yielded even more birds and nature pics! The year is ending and a new one is beginning. This means old goals to try to catch up on, new ones to set for the year.

Birding has been taking up free time. I do so enjoy it. I have plans to begin art projects inspired by all my new feathered friends. I am looking to make 2013 another year of living the best life I can and fitting creativity into my everyday life. I've got some amazing trips scheduled for 2013...both Phoebe and Luke will be coming down to enjoy Florida and Phoebe and I will be hitting Costa Rica together in the early part of summer on a yoga retreat. And finally, my big trek of the Pennine Way is happening in April. I still have in the works, a trip to both NYC and Sedona again next fall for the Fall Migration. We shall see if it pans out, but it's all going on the Dream Board. Also going on there: Peru, Ecuador, New Zealand, Africa and Japan. If you are going to dream, why not dream BIG?  Have you all started your Dream/Vision boards for 2013 yet? Get crackin'! Time is running out! I'll share mine when it's done. ;-)

Until then, It's time to start processing and posting hundreds of photos from all these adventures! Here are just a few from each trip:

 Old World

Visions of Moulin Rouge

Flood Fascination on the Hudson

The day of Sandy's arrival

Naked Cowboy

 Great-tailed Grackle, Thunderbird Mountain, Glendale, Arizona

Lifer #141

 Arizona Sunset

Anna's Hummingbird

Lifer #150

Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with my blog a bit better in 2013. If you don't hear from me for a while, don't worry, I'm just off exploring somewhere. ;-)

Lake Catherine State Park

Lake Catherine State Park was our favorite out of the three locations we hiked. It was beautiful, with lots of waterfalls. There were three trails to choose from and we ended up doing the Falls trail twice and the Dam Mountain trail once for a total of 8 miles. We had plenty of tree canopy to keep us from overheating and plenty of water this time around. I was pretty lazy with the big camera so mostly used the iPhone 4s:

We chose the Falls Branch Trail first because we wanted to make sure we got to see the waterfall. The following images are from our first round on this trail:

The Trailhead

Footbridge Photo Op

The first wildlife we spotted was a male Summer Tanager:

The Trail continued along the river, over footbridges and to the falls:

Forest Reflecting

Lighted Water

Our final day together

Take Me to the River

Riverside

Trapped

Falls Photo Op

After enjoying the falls for a bit, we headed up on the Dam Mountain Trail which as we were climbing the switchbacks, we spotted a few birds twittering about including lots of Pine and Prairie Warblers:

 Sweet Pine Warbler

 Posing Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler. It's difficult to tell the two apart. The Prairie Warbler has yellow extending all the way down his underside and a black eye line through the eye and below. Both are quick little flyers!

We saw a few other interesting things on our way up and the view at the top was quite lovely:

 Stone Giant. Or perhaps one of Bilbo's trolls?

Orange Lichen

 Cactus!

View from the Top

After coming down off the Dam Mountain Trail, we still had a couple of hours left of our afternoon so we returned to the Falls trail once more and took a few more photos as well as soaked our feet. We had the whole falls to ourselves and it was a lovely way to end the day. 

 Falling Water

Flares over Falls

And finally, on our way back to the car we logged some Canadian Geese and Mallards:

Basking Bankside

Next up, our final day in Arkansas...