Thursday, March 13, 2014

The YoYo

Well we have been down and up again. The East Coast that is.
Our Journey down to Florida last fall had several long stops. After the summer haulout, where we had the hull compounded and polished, we moved Serendipity in September, down the Chesapeake to Newport News. We let her sit there for a month while we went back to NJ so Carole could go on a trip with her cousin and Mitch went to settlement on on our new house and then moved in.
In October we moved her down to Myrtle Beach and left her there until December, and went home again to really move in and join friends and family for Thanksgiving.
In December we started South again, and with stops for weather, and more importantly, to visit friends.  We stopped in Fernandina Beach and spent Christmas with friends, and were in Titusville for New Years and decided to spend an extra few days to watch a satellite launch.
 Not as spectacular as a shuttle, but worth the wait.












We finally got out of the cold around January 10th.

The trip across Lake Okeechobee was uneventful- 


followed all the way across the lake by the watchful eye of the Okeechobee Air Force.












We decided to bypass Marathon this year as we were so late. We missed seeing our friends there although we did see some of them as they too did not get to marathon this year.

Friends Donna & Leigh visited us from NJ. They stayed for 9 days in January and have been wondering ever since why in the heck they left.
This trip we visited a number wildlife conservation areas and took several hundred pictures. Some of the better ones follow.
We started about a week ago and plan to take two weeks on the St. Johns River. I hope to cover that later.
Here are a few wildlife photos:
Manatees gather in Manatee Park when the river water gets too cold.

There were over 100 manatees here in January. By the end of February there were none.















Shelling on Bunche Beach



A Sanderling on Bunche Beach.













This Painted Bunting is not in a cage. The feeder has real small openings to keep the starlings out.
The Painted Buntings were very shy and the only time we could even see them was in the feeder.










Mystery Blobs. The gray colored round things are about the size of egg yolks. We asked several naturalists at the Corkscrew Swamp what in the heck these were. No one could identify them.
Anybody have any idea?











Just to left of the sign ------







the Water Moccasin was laying there. It was about two feet long.









Pileated Woodpecker




 Unknown Butterfly under a flower

















Several Scarlet Spoonbills - the picture does not do justice to their color.








Great Egret


Anhinga drying its wings




 Alligators






It was a warm day and there were lots of them.









Wood Storks














American White Pelicans












Ornate Diamondback Terrapin - identified by the tour bus driver after  we pointed it out when the bus was driving by.



Little Blue Heron













Yellow Crowned Night Heron - Juvenile














Yellow Crowned Night Heron

One of two sitting in a tree near the juvenile - maybe the parents?











This racoon was so busy looking for crabs and clams that it never noticed us - or couldn't be bothered.








If you made it this far I hope that I have not bored you.
Enjoy the coming spring. Except those of you down under. I hope you enjoyed your summer.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.