A Full-time Life

THIS IS SO NOT GOING TO HAPPEN

 

 

 

 We have to get something done about our dock next season  ...

 

 

 ... Whether our ship comes in or not.

 

(I think it already has actually -- as much as it is going to -- but the dock is still falling apart.  Darn it.)

 

 

 

FOR:   SIGNS SIGNS.  Thank you Lesley!

FRUSTRATIONS OF AN AMATEUR BIRDER

 

 Birds.  What great lengths they will go to to keep me from taking their picture.

 

 

Chesnut Park, Pinellas County

 

They camouflage themselves (on purpose, I'm sure) by insisting on blending into their surroundings.

A whole flock of them settle to the ground right in front of my eyes, but fly as soon as  I touch the camera (all but one indigo bunting, who was obviously a little slow).

They drum on the trees and sing in the forest, but never ever show their faces.

They hide in mossy trees (but this time, Mr Cardinal,  I caught a glimpse of you anyway).   

 

 

 

Honeymoon Beach State Park

 

Birds.  They hide their eyes.  They turn their backs on me.

They stay just out of camera range.

They blend into the  water where they're feeding   (did I say something like that already?).

 

 

But it is all worth it.  Because we are outdoors.  Birding.  Exploring.   Enjoying the wonderful weather.   And sometimes a professional birder (real or virtual) helps this amateur identify a bird that is new to me.    Life is good!

 

( A birder at Honeymoon Beach told me that this bird is a Marbled Godwit.  He was way more excited about this guy than he was the skimmers that I took a million pictures of (here).     Thanks also to all of you -- my virtual birding experts -- who told me the bird in the background of my skimmer picture was a ruddy turnstone!  

Birders, whether virtual or standing right beside me in real life, are the most helpful sharing people in the world!

 

 

FOR:   OUR WORD TUESDAY (very late ... we were away yesterday) and WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.

 

Thank you to the whole great host team at OW and to Stuart at WBW.

CACTUS FLOWERS

We had just driven through the gates into  Honeymoon Beach State Park when we spied these yellow blooms.   

 

 

A surprise, because we think of them as part of the landscape in the dry Southwest States not here in humid Florida.   But cactus plants apparently grow in pretty much every State in the union. 

 

 

I got lost down some internet rabbit holes trying to find the name of this one -- and whether they grow here naturally  or are "escaped" from someone's house plant garden.  And never did get a good answer.

In any case, the bees were happy to visit them -- and so was I.  Yellow flowers always make me smile.  No matter how prickly the "leaves" are.

 

 

 

 

SHARING WITH:  TODAY'S FLOWERS.   Thank you to Denise and her team.    And with  I HEART MACRO, hosted by Laura.  Thank you Laura for reminding me that your beautiful meme is still open.  

THE FENCES (AND SCENERY) OF PINELLAS COUNTY

 

 

We stumbled across this lovely park last week while exploring the area around Tarpon Springs.  It was a lucky find.  When you go on a roadtrip, it is fun to find what you went for (in this case the town and seacoast of Tarpon Springs) but somehow it is even more special to  come across a beautiful place you'd never even heard of before.  And to actually have the time to check it out.

 

    

This trail is dedicated to Peggy Park, a wildlife conservation officer for Pinellas County who was killed in the line of duty.   A sad story, but a fitting memorial.  

There's a long area of boardwalk winding through Florida greenery and then a hard-packed trail bordering Tarpon Lake. 

It was a little cool and overcast with some sunshine and a light breeze -- perfect weather for a nature walk.

 

   

 

 We saw turtles, ducks, cardinals, and other birds,  but even if we hadn't seen any wildlife at all,  the mossy trees and water alone were well worth the walk ... peaceful, quiet, and very Old South in atmosphere.  

There were families picnicking in the other (grassy) park areas, but the nature trail was very quiet.  We met only a couple of other people.

 

 

 Sharing the fences of Chestnut Park with everyone at GOOD FENCES (brought to us by Teresa, the TexWis Girl over at the Run-A-Round Ranch.)  And the lovely Pinellas County views with SCENIC WEEKENDS, hosted by Gemma who has too many beautiful blogs and memes  to list! 

 

BLACK and WHITE

 

The uniform of the day in the shallows at Honeymoon Beach State Park was black and white, although a touch of red or orange was acceptable. ... welcomed, even.   

 

  

 

We saw a few terns, some gulls, and so many black skimmers we couldn't  count them.

The little brown job in the background (a ruddy turnstone*) is obviously leaving because he isn't wearing the correct colors. 

 

 *Thanks to all who identified that bird for me!  Your help is appreciated!!

 

 

This is only the third time we've seen skimmers.  I love the colors -- but still think it's weird that they don't seem to have eyes.

 

 

 

A few cormorants even joined the party for a while.

 

 

 

 SHARED WITH WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thanks to Stewart.

 

 

PEACOCK

 

  

We've seen quite a few peacocks in zoos and nature parks over the years --  but never looked as closely  as we did at the one we saw last month.    For the first time, I realized that his tail feathers look more like an exotic plant than part of a bird!  Mysterious nature.

 

 

 

There were no  hens in sight, so this peacock felt no need to display his magnificant tail.  He  just dragged it behind him everywhere he went.   Not that he had much choice.   

 

 

And we didn't have much choice but to look at this guy because everywhere we went at Gatorama,  he was right there beside us. 

 

 

 

 So when we downloaded our pictures, there was this proud peacock  in between every set of alligator photos.    (Click here to link to the Gatorama post with all those not-so-pretty critters.)

 

 

 

 That tail looked heavy and uncomfortable in the Florida heat.

    But it didn't seem to bother him at all.   

 

 

Of course he doesn't know any different.  And he has such a tiny head for such a big bird -- I don't think there's room in it for many thoughts about anything. 

 

 

 

 

SHARING with:  SATURDAY CRITTERS and  I HEART MACRO .  Thank you to Eileen for Saturday Critters and to Laura for I Heart Macro.  

 

SILVER (?) TRUMPET TREE

NOTE: TYPEPAD has been down...victim of a cyber attack. Hope it is fixed now.

 

Fort Myers version of  yellow Spring flowers -- against a blue blue sky!

 

 

An article in our local newspaper last month said that this flowering tree is called a Silver Trumpet (tabebuia argentea).  I'm not sure why silver, because to me these  blossoms are way closer to yellow-gold.  

 

 

It blooms sometime around mid-March to early April and, whatever it is  called, the beautiful yellow blossoms are more than welcome.  

 

 

These last two pictures are from a couple of weeks ago (and the flowers were already past their prime) ... now the yellow petals are mostly just carpeting the ground under the trees.

       

 

These trees don't get super tall and are a graceful shape even when not flowering, so they're used a lot in home landscaping and also in parks and along the streets in Fort Myers. 

And they are definitely a feast for the eyes during their short blooming season. 

    

   SHARING WITH:  

SKYWATCH FRIDAY and   TODAY'S FLOWERS.   

Thank you  to Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy for SWF and to Denise,  Pupo, and Sandy for Flowers.

KENTUCKY CARDINAL in FLORIDA

 

 

When I was growing up in Eastern Washington State, the only Cardinals we ever saw were those on Christmas cards.  But whenever we opened one of those cards, my mother (who was born and raised in Kentucky)  would always mention that it was her favorite bird when she was a child.

 

 

That made quite an impression on me because really my parents weren't what you would call nature lovers.   In fact, our family  didn't do much outside at all, but my mother had grown up in the country and ridden horses and (apparently) enjoyed nature before she migrated out west.   I liked hearing about what seemed to me her different and exotic past life.  

 

 

 

So I didn't see a real cardinal until years and years later when Bill and I traveled South for the first time.   And when we saw our first one as we were driving, I yelled for him to stop the truck ... I was so excited.     I did soon realize that these were fairly common birds in other parts of the country ... they just don't hang out in the Pacific Northwest.    Although we see them more often nowadays, I still get excited... they'll never be a commonplace bird to me.

This cardinal is  one we  spotted  on a day trip here in Florida just last month.  He kept posing so beautifully that I thought the least I could do was to post him to   WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you Stewart.

(not exactly a) MEMORY of FOXES*

 

* (Our memories, but not my pictures.)    These are guest photos by our son Geoff, who said it was OK to  blog them.    

 

Whenever we visit Geoff and Lisa we always look forward to watching the fox den in the vacant lot next-door to their home. 

From the  picture window or the side yard,  we have watched the fox family  -- two adults and (in different years) different numbers of kits.    But I have never been able to get good pictures.

 

 

So we were delighted to get these pictures (taken early last month) by e-mail.   Geoff says that they are now seeing a litter of six emerging from the den.   

 

 

 

Bittersweet memories, because the lot (which has been vacant for as long as  G&L have lived there) is now slated for development.  There's a nearby greenbelt where we've also seen foxes,  so this den will probably relocate somewhere there.   I hope.

 

Sharing with Eileen's SATURDAY CRITTERS.  Thank you Eileen.

    

YOUR COST MAY VARY

 

 Here are a couple more signs from GATORAMA.  That place was almost as full of funny signs as it was full of alligators!

 

 

In my post a couple of days ago (HERE) I said how this place was a throwback to  old-style Florida tourist attractions.   The price is a little different from DisneyWorld too.  (Inexpensive even if you are an uptight person.)

 

 

 

 

 

   

    Shared with SIGNS SIGNS.  Thank you to Lesley for hosting this fun get together every week.

 

GATORAMA

 Sharing another only-in-Florida adventure with OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  Thank you to the host team.

 

 

 

 When DisneyWorld opened in 1971, it changed the scene for Florida tourist attractions.  Before Mickey Mouse,  there were  many mom-and-pop roadside attractions, all trying to capitalize on exotic Florida nature.   After Mickey and all that came along with him, most of these attractions fell into disrepair.  Some of them, like the mermaids at Weeki Watchee Springs,  which we visited last year, have been bought and restored by the State and are now operated as State Parks.    

 

Last week we visited an original Southwest Florida roadside attraction that has survived pretty much as it was when it opened in 1957.  This is GATORAMA in Palmdale.    It is still owned and operated by the same family that started it back then.

 

 

There's nothing fancy about Gatorama; it did feel as if we were back in another era.   You walk down a long elevated walkway with a tin roof overhead and on either side are alligators and crocodiles swimming free,  tortoises and turtles (apparently unafraid of their neighbors), a few exotic birds in cages, and quite a few wild birds dropping by here and there.  

There were also many juvenile alligators in pens.

 

 (The pens were spacious -- we were told that this behavior -- called podding -- is normal for juvenile alligators).

 

Gatorama  advertises itself as an Alligator and Crocodile adventure, but it is also an alligator farm.  Alligators are raised for meat and leather.    And that of course  is one reason why the attraction has survived.    Diversification is the name of the game!

This young woman was cleaning one of the alligator pens.  First she had to herd the gators into another pen.  Take a closer look at her feet. 

We didn't stay for the show -- which included alligator wrestling and a chance for kids to touch an alligator (with its snout taped).  It was enough for us to see the animals -- and an almost barefoot alligator herder (ironically, she was actually wearing Crocs).

 

 

 

 

WILD IRIS ALONG A COUNTRY ROAD

 

Almost all flowers make me smile .... flowers in yards, flowers in public gardens,  flowers in nurseries and greenhouses, flowers in private gardens, even supermarket bouquets, but especially wildflowers.     

There is something very special about flowers that thrive without any attention at all.  There they are --  just adding joy to the world without any help from anybody.

And it is magical to find them unexpectedly.  

So when we stumbled on a whole big field abloom with wild irises last week,  it was a very special occasion indeed.   

 

 

 These were the first "real" spring flowers I've ever seen in Florida.  

Most of the flowers that bloom this season  in the Pacific Northwest (or Northeast for that matter) don't do well in Florida's sub-tropic climate.  I don't know what it was about this field that was different or if there are other places in this state where they bloom and we just haven't learned about it.      

I'm just glad we found these.  

   

 

Every flower was perfectly graceful and perfectly purple!

 

 

 

Except this one which was perfectly white.  And the only white one in the entire field of purple.

 

 

 Sharing the joy with FLOWERS FOR TODAY and I HEART MACRO

 

Thank you to Denise and Laura for hosting these wonderful sharing opportunities. 

 

 

 

KEEP THE ANIMALS HEALTHY

 

     Added Note on Thursday morning:   I just realized that there is a fence here (and it definitely better be a good one!) so I will link this also Tex's new meme GOOD FENCES.  

 

If you fell, it wouldn't do you much good either ....  because here are a few of the animals that live below the fence:

 

 From Gatorama in Palmdale. 

 

Shared with SIGNS SIGNS.     Thank you Lesley.

BLACK-NECKED STILT

 

 

We watched a pair of black-necked stilts  at Palmdale Florida last Sunday.

 

  

 

 

At least I'm pretty sure that's what they were ...  because this one looks almost exactly like the photo in my Audubon bird book.

 

 

 

 

It was hard to get both of them in the same frame -- they'd stay just far enough away from each other to make it almost impossible

 

 

 

 

 Shorebirds always seem to do such a delicate dance as they search for food along the water's edge.

 

  

 

 

Seems obvious why  this bird would be called a Stilt!

 

 

Sharing with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY, graciously hosted by Stuart at Paying Ready Attention.