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….
She arrived in the dark. “No, not just dark,” she thought, “The fog is rolling in.” “At least I’m alone,” another thought, and then she laughed at herself because there were plenty of no-see-ums arriving to keep her company. Or drive her crazy. She opened the back of the van and rummaged for the can of OFF that she kept there, and doused herself. There was a slight glow in the sky as she took a couple of pictures at the first bridge, her first stop, and then, anxious to get to the second bridge, her favorite, she moved on, .
It was darker there, foggier, even though she had driven only a minute up the road. She got out of the van and set up her camera. As she glanced around she looked to her left and caught a hint of a shape in the murk. Was it him, she wondered, hoped? She always looked for him when she came to this place. She used to see him every time she was here, but then he was gone, just gone. If she saw a fisherman she always asked if they had seen him, but they didn’t seem to know what happened to him either. She didn’t come as often as she used to, but still she always looked, and she was always disappointed. She aimed her camera in that direction, hurrying in case he disappeared into the gloom. “Of all days to come out without the zoom lens,” she lamented, mad at herself for choosing to grab the little camera only in her haste to get out the door. “Wait,” she thought, she could zoom with her phone, even if it didn’t take a sharp photo she’d be able to know for sure if it was him. She clicked a picture, but still wasn’t sure, she needed to put the photo into her computer when she got home. She crossed the road for a better angle, afraid she’d spook him, but he didn’t move as she took a few more pictures.
Then there was a voice, calling, “Hey Fred,” it said. He turned his head instantly, and then quickly moved toward the sound. “Hi Fred,” a man’s voice. She saw him in a pool of light from the street lamp, smiling as he tossed something to Fred. And now she was sure it was him. One-foot Fred was alive and well, she now knew for sure. The sunrise hadn’t been much, but she drove home smiling, happy that she had come out that morning after all. 
The iPhone shot…
When the subject of the Venice rookery came up I got excited. I had been there once before and was tickled to see Great Blue Herons nesting and raising chicks. I know I claim to love the Woodstork chicks best, they being so ugly they’re cute, but there is something about those GBH babies that tickles me. Of all of the chicks I’ve seen I think they most look like miniature versions of their parents. So off we went on our adventure, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Upon arrival I was a little disappointed to see far fewer nests than I had expected. I was a little worried until I spotted a nicely placed nest with good camera angles to use. I think I took almost 100 pictures before I kicked myself in the butt and decided to go back to the car for the bigger lens and tripod. 
I was even there when Dad brought home the bacon, so to speak. I don’t know how much of it was fed to the ‘kids’, but a minute later it was down the hatch.
The 18-400 lens is no slouch, but I did take quite a few photos with the 150-600…
As you can see from the feature photo there were more than Great Blue Herons at the rookery, but we’ll get to them…
Do you know how long I’ve wanted to find this bridge that I would see in photos from my camera group which is based in St. Pete? Driving ‘down there’ was out of my comfort zone, and even when Charley was alive we didn’t head down there often, and if we did then he was the driver. I think of it as ‘down there’ kind of like I refer to wanting to return to New England as ‘up north’. I have no clue what exactly I’m referring to, it’s a direction not a specific place. And when I said that sure, I’d join the group for a shoot at the Causeway bridge I didn’t have a clue that this bridge was what they meant. There are, after all, a lot of bridges in the area and they are all ‘down there’. I didn’t plan ahead, I was too busy worrying over my iPhone, knowing that starting a function called ‘restore from backup’ an hour before I was due to leave the house was probably not a great idea. But of course I did it anyway, and left without a photo to save me if I got lost. All of this to explain how it was that I left with the 10-18mm lens on the camera, and with it probably set all wrong for the circumstances. So all my pictures are ridiculously noisy. That’s a term I see used in photography but can’t always see what they are talking about. There was no problem seeing it in these pictures though, and I was heart broken when I saw them in the computer. This is a lesson to me, or would be if only I knew the specifics of what I did wrong. So forgive me, but I love the idea of these photos, and I hope to get down there again soon for a do-over, but for now this is all I’ve got…
It was supposed to be a quick stop, after all I was on my way to the airport to pick up my closest, dearest friend for a visit. But I was early. Early enough to stop at Cypress Point Park and hope to see airplanes landing against a sunset-colored sky. That was as much of a plan as I had when I stopped at the rookery, fully prepared to see no new birdies there. Only there he or she was! This is the nest with the eggs that I’ve posted about before, and look as I might I haven’t spotted any other eggs in any other nest, despite all the apparent egg-sitting that I think I’m seeing. And there will be even more I’m sure, because I saw this…
Somebody driving by yelled at me as I stood there on my ladder, something about giving them privacy. I’d feel guilty but really, how much privacy to they have anyhow? And I was looking to see the chick and this egret landed just on the other side of the fence and begged me to take her picture.
I had to go back to the car and get my 600mm lens. It makes me happy to use it since I own it, but if I didn’t have the fence to lean it on I wouldn’t have been able to hold it steady. And that fence is quite rickety now, I hope I’m not responsible for that. At any rate I’m so happy to have my friend visiting, and so happy that our feathered friends have timed their appearance so perfectly for her to see them. It really was a red-letter day, with a week of them ahead of us.
You would think that with all the time I’ve spent at the rookery I might once have looked up and noticed the osprey nest off in the distance. One day there was an osprey hunting right at the rookery which scared me to think it might be ready to zoom down and snag a baby bird. He did zoom but came up with a fish, and I may have had the camera ready but I didn’t get the shot. I also didn’t ask myself where that osprey came from. But the last time I checked on the rookery I saw it, the nest in the tower in the distance. I saw them in the air also, but too far away to see them well, and I started wondering if I could get a shot of them with a fish.
The good news was that I only had to drive a couple of blocks up and over to get a better view of that tower. But the bad news was that I could see that there was never going to be a good shot of that nest, the structure was in the way. And then he took off and I thought I might be in luck after all.
I saw the dive, and saw that he had something in his talons. I hoped it was a snake, but no, it was just a stick. 
Another bird who is busy feathering it’s nest, so to speak? Will there be little ospreys before too long? I will be keeping track now that I have discovered yet another nest in my neighborhood. I wonder what else I might be overlooking. I’ll try to keep my eyes open from now on.
