Falling water

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Digging deep into the archives, I came up with this pic from a trip to Canada in 2004.  Takaka Falls is located in Yoho National Park near Field, British Columbi, Canada.  Here, in OB, it's sunny; nearly 80-degrees and Speedweeks is over.

600th post

 ORMOND BEACH, FL - - For the 600th post of my blog, we have the Viera Wetlands Presidents Day edition of:  A Hooded merganser  staring; A Caracara eating breakfast road kill and a Great Blue Heron trying to manage the windy conditions.

An old favorite

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - The Royal Household:  The Queen (top) and The Princess share a sunny spot on the carpet.   This photo, from 2010, caught my eye as I was browsing my photo library.  What makes the photo special to me is that "The Girls" never get this close...unless there's a sunbeam involved. 

Weekend Update #2

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - On Sunday morning, with the temperature a bit below 40-degrees and a wind blowing off the Halifax River, the locals were trying to stay warm.  For this snowy egret that meant one-foot-at-a-time in the water.  (Actually, they stand on one foot a lot of the time).  This pigeon was also 'footing it.'  And there is always someone who doesn't mind the wind or cold water...like this  merganser (duck).

Weekend update

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Lake Woodruff NWR didn't have much activity this weekend.  There were lots of Glossy Ibis...with a few regular ibis and a snowy egret thrown in to make the flight pattern look nice. Note the hawk (bottom right) playing flight controller.
     Then there was 'papa' sand crane out looking for food. (See mom, pop and two soon-to--be little cranes on Lydia's More Pics link).  To add a bit of color we had a cardinal stop moving for a moment.

Black & White

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Things look different in black and white...one of the 'toys' which my Apple MacBook Pro has in the Aperture photo application.  So we have a heron and its shadow; a snowy egret posing with breeding plumage flowing and a great blue heron keeping an eye on things from a roof top. 

Going, Going, Going...

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - When we moved in to our house 16 years ago, we had plenty of shade trees.  The trees were old and big,  with wide canopies...nature's version of air conditioning.  Now, we don't have so many.  They've been lost mainly to old age and/or a beating with nature's help.
     When we arrived home this Fall from our Summer job in Glacier NP, our big bay tree in the side yard look fine.  Recently, it became apparent that the tree was dying right before our eyes.  Laurel-wilt disease, a fungal disease carried by beetles from Asia invaded Florida in 2005 (and many other areas) decimating the bay trees.  There is no cure, but injecting a fungicide into (what appears to be) our other healthy bay tree may save it.
     The four pictures above show the Tree Guy way up near the top of the highest limb cutting and then easing down a big limb section via rope.  All we have now is a six-inch high base where the tree once stood.