A Thursday Field Trip

You may recall  that we cut our December camping trip short as I was feeling a wee bit pressured to get my Christmas cards out, especially to our international loved ones. Well that was a misguided move as I've just heard from Matthew that the card I mailed on probably December 10th arrived today!!! At least it got there, right? 

 I heard from some of you who were happy with the new format and some who were not. It is very hard for me to judge because I always forget that others are not reading it on a computer screen. Here's what it looks like on mine, so no issues whatsoever with font size! 

As it turns out, Michelle tells me that you can adjust text size on your phone, so maybe that will help those who had trouble? I sure hope so! Nonetheless, I've enlarged it some, so let me know how that works.

In lieu of our canceled camping trip this week, we took a Thursday field trip over to Blackpoint Wildlife Drive near Titusville, about an hour away. I was hoping to see a lot of birds and my hopes were most definitely fulfilled! Oh my, there were a lot of birds to see. At first things were a bit slow as the water level is very low due to our almost completely dry January. Early on though, I did spot a Belted Kingfisher, a bird I'd seen out behind the house but could never get a shot of, as they move so quickly. Not this time as this female, according to this from the Cornell, was quite cooperative. Perching, diving, and up she comes with a fish!

As you can well imagine this was an excellent beginning!

It was a cold and windy day, so much so that as I walked to this bird blind while "you know who" took a little nap in the warm car,

I wondered if I could even keep the camera steady enough to take photographs! Let's just say there was a huge flock of birds, more so than I've ever seen at any one time. That is, of course, if you don't take into account the time we saw the Snow Geese in Canada. (link to post) It was a good thing that I had my super zoom lens as they were way out in the water although that camera is one that is really hard to hold steady in the best of conditions.

Even with the long zoom it was hard to make out what they were, but once they took off en masse, I realized that they were mostly shorebirds, including loads of sea gulls and terns.

One funny thing about this particular time is that a "birder" was leaving the blind and I asked in a friendly way, "what are they?", to which she grudgingly replied, "they are many things." Well, thank you very much!! Sometimes folks are just plain grumpy, aren't they? 

White Pelicans flew overhead as I scrambled back to the car.

These little guys were scurrying in the shallow water as I passed by.

As we drove along, the sheer number of birds out in the water was striking, most of them out too far for close ups though. It is so thrilling to watch them take off at once and you have to wonder why? Or at least that is what comes to my mind.

Finally I was able to get a photograph of the female Hooded Merganser. The mate to the handsome black/white/brown duck in our lake. She never comes close enough here, but because she was out in the full sun on this trip, I was able to get this shot showing you the differences.

I'm still hoping to get a shot of "ours", but for now this will suffice. Around another corner we saw some young Roseate Spoonbills feeding.

Around yet another corner, Mr. Eagle Eye spotted a huge gator sunning. Unlike the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive, here, alligator sightings are apparently few and far between. It had been far too long since last we visited, maybe even as long ago as my 66th birthday when we followed the drive with a stop over at Playalinda. We did the same and take a look at how crazy my hair looks in the strong winds.

Wearing the same shawl Matt made for me last Christmas, I had Bruce take my picture, followed by us hustling to the car to get out of the wind and blowing sand. 

Along the side of the road, what should we see but an Armadillo, digging in the sand. Now, I've photographed loads of creatures, but I do believe this is a first for me. Ugly and fascinating at the same time, we marveled at the symmetry of the tail. How do you feel about them? Do they creep you out. One thing is that they have crazy small eyes, hardly even visible they are so small. I wonder why that is? I always have so many questions and so little time to address them. Oh wait, I don't work...

That is if you don't count what Tom and Matt like to call our work....getting better at pickleball. 😀Actually, this morning neither of us played, with Bruce doing a project at  church, while I worked on some bathroom stuff. 

On our trip back across the bridge to Titusville, we pulled off at the riverside park where I was thrilled to find the darling sandpipers again. The strong wind caused white caps on the river with a few hardy windsurfers taking advantage of the conditions. These little guys are so fun to watch scurry back and forth as they search for food.

With my hair whipping in my face, it was back to the comfort of the car for me, followed by a  McDonalds search, a place I've not visited for at least a year. No one beats their french fries! If not for being the time of Covid, we might have visited this place with the very fun name.

Thinking about the coast, our friend Pam has moved over to Cape Canaveral, joining another couple who have moved away from Orlando in the last few years. According to her account, they are very much enjoying their beachfront condo, walking along the beach while observing the birds AND loads of dolphins playing in the surf.  Count me jealous on that front!

Making our way home on HWY 50, lo and behold I spotted some buffalo, or what I thought were buffalo as we traveled by at 60MPH. Bruce turned around so we could confirm my passing glance. Sure enough.

All in all, who could complain about this field trip? Not I, that's for sure.

Completely off topic, what made me think of Pam was the text I received early Friday morning, saying she'd seen this in the newspaper.

So few people I know read the Sentinel anymore, so I was surprised to hear from her. Our booster vaccine is this Friday and while I'm happy for that, I can't say that I'm not a little nervous after hearing the accounts from two people we are close to. It is a small price to pay though. One funny thing about the letter is that I rose from the kitchen table, went to my computer and just typed out that letter, hitting send immediately. Much later in the day, in addition to the usual stock thank you for writing email, I had one from a specific person asking where I was from in case they wanted to publish it. Well duh, I wrote back, I'm from Orlando and have been in the business of writing letters to the editor for a long time now and most definitely should know that they want to know your city. His reply was, I thought it was you after looking me up. I got a chuckle over that. Many years ago, when the paper was more widely circulated, I would receive a phone call saying they were going to publish my letter. As well, one year they had a big dinner for all those who had written what was then called a "My Word" piece. Now that was great fun. Oh how times have changed.

We've just gotten the quote for the new counter top which is the good news. The bad news is that Herbert will not be starting next Monday as planned, however, he will come this Friday to remove the wall of mirrors and the old countertop so it is not all bad.

It's starting to get real!

As always, I remain, your friend,

Gail