ORMOND BEACH, FL - - The cold (for Florida) weather outside is a good excuse to look through the photos taken (and not posted) over our Christmas holiday camping visit to Fort De Soto. Sometimes simple is best as this greenery with sea shells decorating a stair railing in Pass-A-Grille shows. The feathered friends below include an elusive American Kestrel; a swooping sea gull and a cormorant (with freen eyes) drying his wings.
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - Sure, having fancy pink feathers is pretty neat, but try scratching or feeding with a bill like mine. And it's not the most aerodynamic piece of equipment when you are flying. I think the other wading birds make fun of me. How would you like to be called 'spoonbill'??
"There won't b any holiday spirit if I don't get some shrimp real soon"....quoth the yellow-crowned night heron.
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - This house in Pass-A-Grille apparently has plenty of Santa lovers....but they probably want him to work a bit to get into the chimney. The pelican wind vane got plenty of use during our time on the Gulf Coast as the wind never really stopped blowing.
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - OK, I did these posts backwards. Please read the previous post first and then things will make sense. 
TIERRA VERDE, FL - - Our (almost) annual trip to Fort De Soto (Pinellas County park) for Christmas came with better weather. Last year the conditions on Tampa Bay weren't good enough for the ferry to Egmont Key to run. But yesterday (Thursday) we were in line to head out and bounce around on the way out and back in the green boat in the bottom photo. Since Tampa is a big shipping port there is heavy ship traffic and the 'pilot' boats are busy as they ferry individuals to plot the course into the harbor docks.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Lydia thought I was a bit crazy getting up at 2:30a.m. to attempt to take photos of the total lunar eclipse. It didn't help when I didn't hear the alarm go off and received an elbow in the ribs as a reminder to turn it off. But, faithful partner did get up; walk outside and look up and then walk back inside without a word. In all, I was up until 4:00a.m. 'playing' because without a tripod to make stable rather than shake-y time exposures you don't really have a chance of getting a good shot of the colors (reddish hue) when the eclipse was total. In the above shot - - with a bit of imagination - - you can make out the image of the moon just before it goes totally into shadow. The shot below (a hand held 24 second time exposure) gives an idea of the color....and also the impossibility of holding still for very long. In all, I had fun. The eclipse was impressive and worth getting up for. I knew my chances of a good photo were between slim and none before starting but trying different things to see how they work is what it's all about.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - There were too many good shots from our Thursday trip to Merritt Island NWR to just post two on the previous blog. So here are some more egrets in action.
MERRITT ISLAND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE - - For the 500th post of this blog I figured I'd do a bit of reflecting. For those of you keeping track, my first blog on this meandering journey of retirement was posted April 16. 2006
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - No snow here, but plenty of floats in our annual Christmas parade to get everyone in the holiday mood.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Our usual Wednesday morning breakfast walk takes us through Central Park on our return trip. Lately, we've had good luck spotting hawks and, last Sunday, a bald eagle. Today was no exception. Two red shouldered hawks were resting in different locations. So we hurried home, got the cameras and returned. While one hawk posed for Lydia, I spotted an eagle in the same dead tree as Sunday. But this one (above) looked different. Sure enough, it was an immature (young, before their head and tail feathers turn completely white) bald eagle was on alert.
ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Today was a day to look for construction projects. First, it was a hungry Pileated Woodpecker munching on leaves/bugs/moisture in a tall tree in a nearby park. Normally, we hear and then see these builders pounding away at the outside of a palm tree. Later in the day on a trip up the coast on A1A to St. Augustine I stopped to check out the little 'toy' at a heavy-duty marine repair and boat builder in Palm Coast. Today, they had the usual canvas draw in front of the construction area open. Anyone got an extra few million for a yacht? This is not your average pleasure craft....and, I doubt, they build vessels this size on spec.
