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. ;-)

Spring has Arrived!

After a very busy month of March, where I hosted two sets of company and April, where I was off trekking the Pennine Way in the most horrible conditions, I finally arrived back home this week to no obligations...at least for a month. I was so worn out from the Pennine Way that the last few days here at home I've done nothing but piddle around the house, sipping iced tea on the patio and watching/listening to all the birds in their mating season glory. I've not really been motivated to do much else than relax and enjoy the warm weather, which was missing in action in Northern England and Scotland. I did however, make it out to my garden to snap pics of all the Springtime loveliness that is happening. I even saw two new species in my garden: a Blackpoll Warbler (#255 on my life list!) and a pair of Brown Thrashers. That makes 42 species of birds in my yard this year. That's a pretty good local patch if I do say so myself! So, enjoy these images from yesterday and I hope you are watching your own local patch for all the Springy goodness that is around you!

 I shot this through the window. It's a Brown Thrasher. A pair of them were calling back and forth to each other for an hour the night before. Found this one when I went to close the blinds of the bedroom window, perched in a rose bush. She could see me and after I took her pic, she promptly flew away. I did hear her calling once again this morning so I am hopeful she is making my garden her permanent home. ;-)

 Some birdy deposited a whole bunch of downy feathers and left them in a pile in the yard. I've moved them to one of the birds favorite potted plants so they can take what they need for nesting material.

 This male squirrel was none to happy with me. The cascading water fountain he drinks from was empty and one of the bowls knocked over. I still haven't gone out to clean and fill it up...on my way to do that shortly! Hang in there buddy!

 Four Mottled Ducks have been hanging out on the lake the last few days. The one below spent over two hours standing on the fake wooden goose that marks our sprinkler system and calling for her chicks (she did have three very tiny babies) who have either been taken by predators or who she misplaced. (this happens a lot with ducks, who aren't the best at parenting skills). She eventually joined in with the other three and they all went on their way to the other side of the lake.

 Apparently it must have rained quite a bit during the month I was gone because the Coreopsis wildflowers have run amok and have taken over the stony pathway. There are three colors this year, yellow, orange and pink and there are a few sunflowers sprouting up as well in the mix!

 This dragonfly paid me no mind. He just sat on this stem for a really long time, staring out over the lake. I wonder what he was thinking about? They look like tiny little fighter pilots. Perhaps he was contemplating his last or future flight mission?

 I love in the spider's world that the female is always the bigger, more bad-ass of the sexes. Here are a pair of Shiny Orbweavers. The male is waiting to mate and then I'm pretty sure she'll eat him.

 When I left, the only critters in the garden were birds, lizards and toads. Now there are tons of caterpillars, butterflies, dragon and damselflies! And of course the birds, lizards and toads are all still around. No more Painting Buntings though. They seem to have moved on and I'll have to wait until next winter to see them again.

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” 
― Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg

Off to do just that!

Kickin' Around South Florida

I had a great time jaunting around South Florida this week with Phoebe. We packed a ton of stuff into a week that left us both exhausted and ready for some non-travel time. I love when friends come to visit as I get to take them to all my favorite places and experience new ones along the way. This time, Phoebe and I went to Key West, my first time there since moving to Florida nearly 15 years ago. It was bigger than I expected and really crowded. Still, there was tons to see and do and of course, a few Key Lime Pies to try!
I wish I had time to process all my pictures and share them but there are just too many and the Superbowl is today! So, here are just a few of my favorite images from my week with Phoebe, all taken with the iPhone (my DSLR images will have to wait until I have time to process them) and starting with our weekend jaunt to Sanibel:

 Golden Path

 Keep Off

 Little Shell Collector

 Pippi Longstocking goes Fishing

Sand Dollar

Beach Tree

I logged 5 new birds on our visit to Sanibel and I wasn't even birding! We were staying at Seaside Inn and there on the beach were a flock of seabirds. In this one flock I got a Sanderling, Sandwich Tern, Forester Tern and Black Skimmer. The next morning, I went out to capture the sunrise and got a Great Black-backed Gull. I took Phoebe to all my favorite places, The Island Cow, the Bubble Room, Captiva, Ding Darling, my favorite antique store and even the lighthouse. We even did some shelling and found some awesome treasures which included pieces of coral, unique shells and even a sand dollar! My favorite moments were watching the flock of seabirds take off and a little interaction I had with a crab. Sanibel is always magical and I can't wait to be back there in March with both Lita (for more birding) and Luke who will be down for a visit.

Birds of Sanibel

Crabby Encounter

After a weekend in Sanibel, we had a nature-filled day at Butterfly World and Green Cay Wetlands:

 Black with a Hint of Yellow

 Rope Bridge

 Stop and Smell the Roses

The Wetlands

Now, it was time to take a road trip to Key West, stopping on various Keys along the way. We ate lunch in Key Largo, walked the small strip of beach on Marathon and spotted a Key Deer on No Name Key. We spent the first afternoon in Key West on Mallory Square and I watched the Cat Man perform with his amazing kitties while waiting for the sunset which was accompanied by ships, birds, biplanes and an F-16 flyby.  The next day we enjoyed breakfast at the famous Blue Heaven before walking all over old town until our legs and feet were screaming at us to end the day. The best part for me were all the cats we met at Hemingway's house and all the chickens running around town. Before heading out our last morning, we visited the Audubon House and did a little shopping. It was a wonderful getaway to a colorful and fun area of Florida. On the way back we stopped and walked the old seven mile bridge on Pigeon Key and had lunch on Islamorada.

Sunset on Key West

 Rooster & Cat

 Discards

Strong Jaw

 Starfish Cottage

 Colors of Key West

A Little Country

Sailin' Away

Where the Stories Happen

Our last day together was spent enjoying a yummy lunch on Marco Island before exploring a bit of the Everglades near Fakahatchee Stand where we saw the smallest post office in the USA, a huge gator sunbathing on a rock, a nesting bald eagle and a snake skeleton which greeted us before we started on a trail that made us a bit uneasy, what with gators, Burmese pythons and skunk apes on the loose. ;-)

 Ochopee Post Office, the smallest in the USA

 Boardwalk at Fakahatchee

Snake Skeleton

I managed to keep on shooting sunrises for a fifth week, adding in two from Key West, as well as two sunsets. The sunrises are getting earlier so as long as I naturally wake up before the sun is up, I'll continue to capture them. ;-)

Sunrises & Sunsets, Week 5

This week will be devoted to getting my "pay-it-forward" packages out as well as working on my next assignment for Carla Sonheim's Year of the Giraffe class. This month is all about mixed media. I'm so excited with this assignment. I will share my pieces here on my blog when they are finished!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! See you soon!

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!