A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens
Life on my own, on the Nature Coast of of Florida, and beyond…
So yes, I am alone most of the time as I’ve said. And yes, I don’t mind it, most of the time at least. But today my mind was on how much more fun it was when life was two by two. Like this…
Maybe not so much like this though…
There’s nothing to do but get through each day the best we can. As for me, I’ll think about where I want to go when we are all turned loose again….
The decibel level was up at the rookery the other day. Thanks in no small part by these guys.
I stopped by because I knew the babies would all be that much bigger and therefore easier to see. Which was true. I think some of them are into calisthenics.
I don’t get as worried as I once did when I see on osprey flying overhead while I’m there. I thought he was after baby birds the first time I saw one there, but when it dived it came up with a fish, which was a relief.
Life at the rookery appears to be proceeding as usual, no worries, no inkling of life having been turned upside down. I’m sure we’ll get there too, back to normal, but hopefully wise enough to appreciate it when it does.
I think Dad forgot that Mom was in the birdhouse, because I wasn’t the only one surprised when she suddenly launched herself out the door and off to who knows where. My view through the lens was this one, and the feature photo is the next one. Startled him right off his feet, and I didn’t see it until I looked at the pictures in the computer.
They got me excited yesterday. I happened to look out the window and Dad was on the drain spout with a nice little worm in his mouth. I immediately got excited that they were feeding babies, or at least he was feeding Mom while she was on some pretty blue eggs. But off she flew, and he gulped down his catch, and I was left scratching my head.
Mom was back and forth the rest of the day, but still bringing nesting materials. She did stop to pose for me though.
Dad’s contribution to all this was to sit on my TV antenna and serenade all of us while Mom was busy. All day. All day busy for her, all day as the singing supervisor for him. I guess it works for them…
And this is my new normal. Considering social isolation and the impending possibility of a new little bluebird family right on my doorstep, so to speak. Big heavy lens and big heavy tripod, in the living room, at the ready…
It was a long travel day for my old friend, which is why it was that her plane wasn’t scheduled to arrive in Tampa until nearly 9 PM. But as soon as I saw that timing I hoped that the weather would cooperate so that I could stop at Cypress Point Park on the way to the airport. I had been there before with my photo group, where we were trying to get photos of the planes landing with the sunset colors behind them. And, of course, that didn’t exactly happen, not then and not this time. There was a lovely sunset going on, nice clouds picking up the colors, plus reflections of the sunset in the water and sand at low tide. But the panes were landing 90 degrees to the left where there were heavy gray clouds which simply refused to light up.
But it was quite a pretty sunset, and since her plane was 45 minutes early it was lucky that this park is only 7 minutes from the airport. Of course with that timing once we got home there was barely time for a cup of Sleepy Time tea while we talked about all the things we might like to do while she is here….
It was owls first on Tuesday, and then we headed over to see the eagles. As you can see, the ‘babies’ aren’t hard to spot these days. That cute fuzzy stage doesn’t last long, I think this is their awkward adolescence. And that shy second chick seems to have gotten over it too. We didn’t stay long, didn’t wait for parents to put in an appearance, It was almost a drive-by.
And if that was almost a drive-by then our next stop at really was a drive-by. Just down the street is Anclote River Park, and it’s a given there that if there is a post then a pelican will be sitting on it. So we shot out the car window in true. drive-by style.
We parted company after that, and my trip home took me right past the rookery, so a stop there seemed like a no-brainer. I was the only one there, but lots of people stop their cars to see what is going when they see you on a ladder with your camera. They are always amazed and usually have no clue what birds they are seeing, and say that they never noticed the birds before. And I don’t mind the distraction since things are on hold there at the moment. Egg-sitting and standing guard seem to be the order of the day while we wait for the hatching to begin.
Except for the egrets. They fluff out those feathers and ‘display’, I think it’s called. In one fluid motion they stretch their neck up, and up some more, and then bow down, to no one in particular. Hmm, I should probably look that up…
After being out taking pictures for most of the day my relaxation always takes the form of sitting at the computer and looking over the photos, hoping for some really nice sharp ones. Which is what I was doing yesterday when something got me to look out at the sky over top of my curtains in the Florida room. I saw the bluebird on my neighbor’s antenna, and the sky.
You can picture what happened next. I was out the door with the camera, and came to lament that I didn’t have my iPhone with me for the extra wide angle view. I was up and down the street looking for views of the sky with palm trees in them, and frantically taking pictures. I may have been talking to myself too. So when I realized that a neighbor was sitting on his front patio enjoying the sunset and witnessing my wanderings I was a little embarrassed. “You caught me”, I said. But he said to come to his patio and see his view. I think the last photo is from that vantage spot. He said he’s a photographer too, so he totally ‘got’ my obsession. Whew, the men in white coats won’t be coming for me quite yet.
