Ride this train

The train between Durango and Silverton, CO

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - It's May 4, 2010 and we're on the (tourist) train running between Durango and Silverton, CO.  This is another entry in the "How we get photos" primer.  We're slowly chugging along from 6,512' (Durango) toward Silverton at 9,318'.  You might think there ought to be snow in Silverton.  You're right.  The ride went a bit over half way; stopped (for a lunch break) and we rolled back downhill.

Viera 1/25

Sandhill cranes

Black ibis on a breakfast stroll

VIERA, FL - - Two more less frequent visitors popped up on our Thursday morning visit to Viera Wetlands.  See previous post for the rest of the story...and more feathered friends.

Viera Wetlands 1/24

Shhh, I'm hiding.  Stealth Limpkin

Female anhinga shows off

Can turtles get a suntan?  They try

VIERA, FL - - It's the weekend of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival.  So we headed south on Wednesday mainly to beat the bird photography tours which run to our most favorite areas.  We've noticed over the past few years there have been fewer and fewer birds making an annual stopover on their way to their summer homes.  So far this year has proved no different.

River rest area

American white pelicans hanging out

This hooded merganser also shower up

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Sometimes the birds you've been looking for show up literally in your backyard.  OK so maybe a block away.  We live one block from the Halifax river and while we have flocks of seagulls and lots of brown pelicans plus egrets and herons we don't see much more variety.  So imagine my surprise on a late morning (Tuesday) walk when I spotted a huge (for white pelicans) group of about 30 on a mid-river gravel bar.  And then a merganser popped up.
     The pelicans were spread out in groups and the merganser was alone.  They were still there after I hustled back to the house for my camera and a long lens. In bird photography we've found you can be good, but being lucky helps out a whole lot.

Cold storage

Braving the chill to get the news

The roseate spoonbills played 'hide the bill'

The lights (a heat lamp) were on in the lemur home

The black-crowned night heron had nowhere to go

The ibis seek food in any whether

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - It was sunny and breezy on Saturday in OB when we set out for the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine  And it was overcast and breezier when we arrived.  50-degrees with a 10mph wind cuts right through.  Consequently, nearly all the attraction's residents were trying to keep warm.
     The big and very slow moving Galapagos tortoise were hustled into sheltered quarters.  The information sign began with "Brrrrr...
     Other residents scrunched up and looked like one-legged feather lumps or had the keepers place heat lamps in their exhibit shelters.  Some, who call Florida, etc. 'home' just waited for warmer weather.

The breakfast watch

Just hanging out

I'm leaving

Checking out a new location

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Although the cold and windy conditions of the past few days hasn't been conducive to finding many of our local feathered friends, Sunday morning was got lucky. 
     The eagles are back.  Recent hurricanes had trashed their home of the past few years but today we spotted and adult white head at the edge of a newly fabricated nest on the old location. 
     Sunrise Park has also been way, way down on birds which we normally see at this time of year.  However, a great blue heron and a little blue heron decided to hang out near each other with each looking in a different direction - - probably not to acknowledge each other.  After a while great blue winged off for a destination up river.  The little guy decided he would also try his luck elsewhere, but didn't go far.