'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, nature, perseverance, photography, sunset, technology, Uncategorized

Sunset drive…

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Our Tuesday camera club meeting always takes place at 6 PM on Tuesday night. The lovely park that we pass by on our way to the meeting is always pretty, but it’s the sunset that changes. Not too long ago the sky was on fire as we approached the park and I worried that I’d miss the sunset completely. This week’s meeting at 6 PM had us early for the sunset, but not too early for the sky to be amazing. So I held my phone out the car window and kept the burst button down. If you are a photographer, whether a pro or just for fun, you are used to going through a LOT of pictures to find the few that you like a lot. In this case there was an unusual amount of photos taken, but as long as I find a couple to use I’m happy. Life is good.

A possible proposal?
Love the clouds.
I was inside for the sunset itself, I’ll bet it was gorgeous.
I would imagine that someone enjoyed the sunset on one of these benches.
birds, nature, photography, friends, bucket list, fun, perseverance, Nature's beautiful creatures, a second look, road trip, making memories, following the rules, nothing's easy

A trip to Cape Coral…

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Cape Coral is a 3 hour trip from home, which explains why we have talked about driving there before, but we were trying to ensure the best timing to see the burrowing owls with their chicks. April through June is what we have seen in print, but seeing chicks turning up on photographers Facebook feeds sent us off on our journey. Ordinarily I’d have been perfectly happy to see one of the owls at all, but setting your heart on seeing a chick is asking for disappointment. Maybe it was bad luck, or maybe it’s just that we don’t have any ‘inside’ information on places to look.

We stopped at a park to eat our lunch and talked with a resident who was shooting hoops on the playground. I asked if he knew any good spots to see the owls and he said they are ‘everywhere’. And yes, the marked off nests for the burrows were easy to spot as we drove around, but we didn’t see any owls there. He said that Hurricane Ian had hit the area hard, and the burrows were abandoned because they were wet. But now, he said, they are starting to see the owls returning. He noticed two owls that had returned, one on each side of the road, on his dog walks. He said that after a while they had joined forces and were now at the same burrow. Maybe that is good news. And I have to hope that his observations hold true, that the owls are returning. And soon all the nesting sites will be occupied by these cute little birds.

This one was standing near a perch that marked his burrow.
Up on a perch and striking a pose.
turned his face to the sun and the wind ruffled his feathers.
We saw a total of three owls, all seemed to be on their own near a burrow.
This one posed in some greenery.
a second look, birds, egrets, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

4th times a charm…

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Finally. Little bobbleheads popping up in the nests. We struck out the first few times we headed to one rookery or the other. Now both are blooming with babies, with more to come. Lots of fun for the photographers in the area.

It took a while to spot the chicks in this tucked-away nest.
A photographer recently pointed out their slightly prehistoric look. I have to agree. Egret chick.
Mom and Dad’s pride and joy. Wood storks.
This seemed to be the biggest baby we saw.
I find these little wood stork babies to be so cute. Or maybe it’s in comparison to their adult selves.
There are two of them.
Cormorants on their favorite stump.
Snowy egrets are there. We hear their funny calls. But their nests are tucked into the low branches too far to hope for a photo.
Stay tuned for more babies. Possibly on easier to see nests.
'scene' along the way, a second look, attention to detail, dragonflies, egrets, fun, in the neighborhood, nature, perseverance, photography

In search of dragonflies…

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It didn’t occur to me to head to the little pond around the corner to look for dragonflies until I saw a friend post pictures of one. So when I headed there this morning I had no trouble spotting them, but they seemed to be landing on the mucky looking stuff at the edge of the pond. You see that in the feature photo. The reeds at the shore had no leaves or flowers quite yet, so I didn’t get the sort of photos I might have preferred. I’ll have all summer to try, try, again.

What was frustrating was the fact that the air was full of the big, orange dragonflies that will fly by at eye level, but never land anywhere for you to get a picture. So you might give in to the urge to try to photograph one in the air, with very limited success.
And an egret drops in and hunts along the shore for a bit while you take pictures. And when you look at the pictures in the computer you see that three of those big, fat dragonflies photo bombed the picture..
It just dawned on me that that’s pollen in the water, just like it is decorating my car.
Nice of this tiny little butterfly to stay still for a minute. That made me happy.
One last dragonfly, or maybe it’s the same one.
'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, Florida landmarks, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, Owls, Pedaling Along, perseverance, photography

In search of…

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I think we just wanted to get out and ride the trike and scooter, and take whatever pictures came our way, so it was off to John Chestnut Park. Now that I’ve seen gators in the park I apparently can’t go there without seeing them. It was a little one, but not so little that I didn’t cut off the end of his tail in my feature photo.

Dragonflies were landing on the leaves in the water near the alligator. Not a great picture but I’m glad they are back and zipping around.
This grackle flew from branch to branch keeping the walkers, and riders, company. And yapping at us to give him a treat.
This red bellied woodpecker was just doing it’s thing, ignoring the people who were gathering and taking pictures of the nearby barred owl.
Two people had to point us in the right direction to find this guy. I’m told his name is North. Yes, I probably could have tried to take that stick out of the picture, but but I surrendered before I drove myself nuts trying.
So he was playing a little joke on us? Hiding in plain sight.
There you go. Where’s Waldo?

We talked to a fun gentleman on the fishing pier and I told him that we had been seeing pictures of owls taken in the park. He immediately took out his phone and showed us some of his photos. He said they are everywhere, just keep your eyes open.But he said I had asked the right person because he was the president of the SOS, Secret Owl Society. Says he has a tee shirt with that title emblazoned across his chest, only the ‘O’ is an Owl face. Then he told us where to head, only when you are talking about riding on the trails it’s easy to get confused. But when you see people gathering and taking pictures that’s a good sign.

a second look, adventure, birds, butterflies, Chinsegut Conservation Center, exploring new places, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, gardens, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, Nature's beautiful creatures, nesting, perseverance, photography

Beautiful day, part 2…

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Only it was really part 1, because I have a few images from my second trip to Chinsegut Conservation Center in just a week or so. That was our first stop, since it was the farthest north we intended to go. When we got there the feeders were being loaded up, again. The gal said that they’d been filled up the night before and were empty already. It didn’t take long for the birds to get to work on emptying them again. That’s a red bellied woodpecker in the feature photo.

Another Mrs. Cardinal enjoying the suet that was also refilled that morning.
She posed while waiting her turn.
Birds of a feather eat together. Pine Warblers.
They love the suet.
Yes, I think the pine warblers outnumbered everyone else.

Heading south we stopped at the Nature Coast Botanical Garden next, and wandered to the music by a band that was playing in a little gazebo next to the train garden. We saw the train make its last trip around the track before being put away for another week. But I found the waterfalls at the garden to be especially pretty that day.

Plus a butterfly, which made me happy to see.

Stop number 3 was to see what was happening at the eagle nest. The two ‘babies’ were on their own while we were there. But a couple who were just leaving said that one of the adults had just been up in the tree keeping an eye on them.

There seemed to be some tidbits in the nest for them to be snacking on.
This was all the action we saw from them, and we didn’t wait for a parent to return,

Our last stop of the day was at the rookery, and those were the pictures I posted yesterday. This morning we watched a live streamed photography class given for our photography club. And I’ve got a book I need to get back to…

'scene' along the way, a second look, birds, nature, nesting, perseverance, photography

A beautiful day…

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We made a stop at the rookery today. As usual I was a bit ahead of myself, or ahead of Mother Nature. I found myself a bit disappointed because there were no fuzzy little heads bobbing up and down and demanding to be fed. Truth be told I should have known by the decibel level that we were still in the nest building stage. And the funny business stage.

Here you have the funny business.
This is some serious nest building by these black crowned night herons.
We are having a disagreement over this bird’s identity. Is it a tricolor heron, or a little blue? I say tricolor.
This Woodstork was tiptoeing through the tree tops.

Yes, it was a beautiful day, especially if you were in the shade, and the breeze was blowing. A little hot in the sun, but how can we possibly complain?