It was the last day of my visit to Longboat Key, and the weather was overcast and quite chilly. We walked on the beach but had no desire to sit in the sun. What we wanted to do was eat, so my friend suggested the Mar Vista, and what a good choice it turned out to be.
Of course there was a sunrise that morning, and I took advantage of the opportunity to get a photo while still in pajamas.My chowder was delicious, and I dug in before I even thought of taking a picture. But when the people at the table just in front of us got up and left I knew I wanted to remember how nice it was to sit in the open air, though we didn’t choose to be totally under the trees.Once we ordered our lunch we walked up onto the dock to enjoy the view. It amazes me to think that you might arrive at a restaurant on your boat and have a nice lunch.We got a kick out of this gentleman who was busy at the fish-cleaning table. He attracted a fair share of birds who wanted to help.The dolphins arrived just as we finished our lunch.By that time our gentleman was taking a break, still surrounded by his feathered friends.
They say that the best camera is the one you have with you, but sometimes I feel like I’m cheating when I use the iPhone instead of the Canon camera. But on a day that gave me no clue that I might want to be taking pictures it was a great camera to use, and it fits in my pocket. Then it was time for the drive home. I think this place will be calling me to return.
This is my second year in a row of meeting an old friend in Longboat Key. Such a beautiful spit of land along the Gulf of Mexico, and the view to the other side is Sarasota Bay. The day was predicted to be cloudy all day, but the sun came in and out, and I had moments of wishing that the sun would disappear behind a cloud for a minute as we sat on the beach. Followed by welcoming the sun back as the breeze chilled us. It is a lovely place to spend a winter day in Florida.
We nearly had the beach to ourselves.Not everyone was as bundled up as we were.As we headed to Anna Maria Island for some more shopping, and ice cream for supper as it turned out, the sky kept taking our attention. Would the clouds take over the sunset completely?The wind was picking up…This might be my favorite picture of the day. Statues in a yard I passed as I walked down to the beach. I took the ‘private property’ sign out of the photo. Such an adorable vignette, I trespassed, but only a little. My friend wanted me to see this spot because if you use your imagination, and/or put on your cheaters, you can see the Sunshine Skyway Bridge just to the right of the building out on the pier. Honest, its there!We walked out onto the pier for a better view of the bridge and found this intrepid fellow who was unperturbed by all the people on the pier. Or by me as I took his picture. Some young men saw me and told their friend that I took a picture of ‘his’ bird. “Your bird,” we asked, and discovered that he has been feeding this snowy egret since the colder water has driven the smaller fish too deep for him to catch them. We were assured that once it warms up this little guy will go back to fending for himself. Hope so.My friend pulled over several times so that I could dash out of the car and get a picture on the way home.The sunset wasn’t to be denied on this day…Oh that sky!
I had driven though this area before. A road trip, complete with bulldog. So as tempting as this area had looked we chose to get to our hotel and settled in, with a take out pizza, rather than shop. Somewhere there are pictures of the lovely sunset we watched from the beach right outside our room that night. But this night was another story. On this night we had prepared for a chilly evening, after a day without sunshine at all. But the temperature was about 60 degrees and the air was soft, balmy even. I was surprised to see that the restaurants were all open air, but it was comfortable. We ate at Cha Cha Coconuts, which I have to mention because the name so perfectly fits into the whole, colorful, evening. A fine evening with an old friend indeed.
Our view while we enjoyed our dinner. Bubbles floated past compliments of a nearby business.I haven’t been out for night photography for a while. Thank goodness for the iPhone.Apparently someone was tempted to have dessert.Window shopping is always fun. Except at the real estate windows with current local listings in the millions of $$$. Like $20M! I was out of my comfort zone.Of course we continued to wander the circle.Forgive the reflections in this picture, especially because the worst of the reflections are on the Fenway Park picture, which was the picture I wanted to highlight. I imagine that this shop would be a sports enthusiast’s dream.I wouldn’t argue with this sentiment.More colorful windows to lure you inside.So tempting to go in.There is something for everyone on the circle.I failed to notice the statuary until my friend pointed it out. All donated by John Ringling.
What a treat it is to find yourself in the company of an old friend from your high school days. I know I never imagined that I would ever be the age I am now, and I know I wouldn’t have imagined living in Florida, or any other of the details of my life as it stands right now. But here I am, and it’s all good. “God is good”, to quote my friend.
For a day that started out at 32 degrees this morning it certainly turned out to be a great day. The sun felt so wonderful, and with no breeze we were comfortable even walking the in the shade on the paths at John Chestnut Park. If you are walking a path along a body of water you will surely see an anhinga drying its feathers in the sun. That’s my feature photo. And in this park especially you will see squirrels, who will approach you in hopes of getting a handout. This particular squirrel was balancing on the tip top of a snag, and I guess we will never know why.
Maybe someone told him that this was his best side?The paths are endless, and you could get a little lost. On one fateful excursion to this park I asked Siri to show me where I parked my car, but instead she was taking me to the main entrance of the park itself. I figured it out eventually since the picnic areas are numbered, but not until I walked a lot farther than I had to.I liked the texture of the bark of these trees. I see a face, knobby nose on the left and an eye up toward the right. And leafy hair?Fellow walkers pointed out this hawk off in the distance. We never did see the woodpeckers that we heard drilling away.Another photographer once showed me where to walk to the edge of the lake to try to see eagles perched on a branch waiting to steal a fish from an unfortunate osprey. As I looked for that perch an osprey swooped down and dove into the water, coming up with a small fish. There was no eagle around to steal it from him so he had a nice lunch in the sun.
More cold and rain is expected tomorrow, but today at least we got out for some R&R.
Armed with ‘better’ lenses we headed back to the owls the other day, and found pretty much the exact same scene as we did a few days before. One owlet peeking out of the nest with Mom behind him. As we arrived, however, Mom flew out of the nest and onto a nearby branch, and there she posed for a few minutes before flying back to the nest. I was able to get the feature photo before she flew back to her babies. So all in all not such a bad little while in Philippe Park.
Here he is in black and white, which this photo nearly was anyhow.There are three owlets in the nest, we will have to keep returning in hopes of a little more ‘action’.I did manage to see Dad in the tip top of the nest tree. I’d been told he was there but usually can’t ‘find’ him.
Then we were off to nearby Moccasin Lake to the raptor rehab there. Again our timing was good since the volunteers were getting the owls out of their enclosures for a few minutes.
Here we have a Barred Owl. I’ve seen these at Circle B Bar Reserve, but not lately.What a beautiful face on this Barn Owl. I have only seen these at various rehab facilities.His handler said that if you saw only a skeleton of this owl you would never imagine such a beautiful bird. It is really a small bird with very long legs. He says it makes him wonder about dinosaurs which have been recreated based on their skeletons.A peregrin falcon.He definitely had something to say.It’s amazing that the camera will focus on the birds and ignore the fence for the most part. Red-tailed hawks.
We made a last stop at the Safety Harbor marina. People were gathered on the pier looking down into the water, so we hurried to see what they were seeing. Not wildlife, but a person who said he was licensed to explore the water’s edge to see what was there. It was the only thing to see on a cloudy day, but we went home happy.
A mud crab, said the expert.A gloomy mid-day scene…
I used to head out earlier in the day for my photos than I seem to do now. Sunrise, and then whatever other stop I wanted to make. The beauty of that was that when I came home I had something to do. Namely, work on my pictures and turn them into a blog post. If I had multiple pictures from more than one stop then so much the better, I had fodder for multiple blog posts. Having those pictures in the camera felt like having money in the bank. Silly I know, but that’s how I think.
Yesterday started out a lot later than I’m used to. First stop was the eagles, but not much was happening there so we moved on to the owls at Philippe Park.
I’ve seen pictures of the two eaglets on this nest, but nothing much was doing in the afternoon. Siesta time maybe?People were exclaiming that Mama owl had turned her head. They could see her ‘horn’, they said. I tried and tried but for the life of me I couldn’t see Mama, but I took pictures of where I thought they were telling me to look. And later on I discovered that I had been looking at her all along.Before Jr. ever popped his head up I had gotten Mama after all.And there he was! So cute. And there is another one also. We are heading back to try again today, with lenses with longer zooms. This is ridiculously cropped, but I still like the picture. I took lots of pictures once he popped his head up, but this is the only one that you can really see his Mama.
And then it was time to head to Clearwater to meet with our photo group and have dinner. But the timing conveniently allowed for a stop in Dunedin for the sunset. It was a more successful day of shooting than I thought it was while I was pressing the shutter button all afternoon.
I like this angle because of the rocks.I wish a sailboat had been out there, but it was too cold and windy for that to happen.The clouds were amazing, even if they were a bit dark.I love when the sunset lights up the buildings on the shore.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 