Birding In My Backyard

It’s been an exciting Spring around my feeders.  Eastern Bluebirds have visited my yard in the beginning of Spring before, but never have I seen them so frequently as this year. They don’t land on the feeders, but they love to gather pine straw and such for their nest and also getting bugs and worms from the yard.  Next Spring I plan on putting up a house for them.

Female Bluebird

Female Bluebird

Juvenile Male Bluebird

 

Painted Buntings are the most colorful of my backyard birds.  They frequent my feeders all summer long.  The males, as in all species of birds, are the colorful ones.

Carolina Wrens may not have striking colors, but its song is loud and beautiful for such a small bird.  They like to nest around our house and this year they chose to nest inside our workshop on top of my husband’s hiking shoes.  There were four eggs and at least three hatched.  Unfortunately, we left for a trip a couple of days after they hatched, so I did not get to see them grow and fly from the nest.

It is always a thrill to see hummingbirds.  I have two feeders and several hummingbirds feed pretty regularly.  One flew into my glass door and sat stunned on a chair.  Thankfully he was fine and flew away after a while.  My pictures are not the best, but you may still enjoy seeing them.

About to take flight.

Stunned hummingbird. He flew away after resting for awhile.

We always have Cardinals around.  This year I got a couple of nice shots of a male feeding it’s young.

Juvenile Cardinal

Female Cardinal

There are a variety of other birds that frequent my yard.  They include Black-capped Chickadee, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch and the Red-bellied Woodpecker.

This Osprey landed in one of my trees just above the bird bath.  This is very unusual.

It is nice to be able to go birding without leaving home.  Put up a feeder in your yard, you may be surprised what will show up.

Family

Family has always been a big part of my life.  Growing up in a small town, next door to my grandparents, whose eight of their nine children raised their families near by, allowed me to know my kin well.  My grandparent’s house was the gathering place for holidays, Sunday dinners, afternoon ice cream making and watermelon cuttings.  We were a close family, and I know growing up amist all that family defined who I am today.

I moved away from that familiarity forty-two years ago, but made at least several trips a year back.  My grandfather died the year that I married and my grandmother passed while my first child was very young.  After that it never did seem the same.  The big gatherings grew smaller and less frequent and no longer in my back yard.  My grandparent’s children remained very close, so I guess you could say the fault lies with my generation.  Some of us moved far away, others just a short distance away, and the town grew and grew.  It just isn’t the same small town, even though it is still considered small.  Our lives grew busier and busier, speeding along like a fast moving train.  Life seemed to be so slow back then, and I miss that.

My youngest son was here last week with his wife, two girls and our new grandson.  They live in California, far away from any of their family.  We get to see them several times a year, somethimes more.  Last year, we made a trip in the RV and spent six weeks in their area.  We plan to do the same this year.  Family is still important to me.

 

 

California Fun, Part 3 (the final chapter)

Our final destination in California was Joshua Tree National Park.  We camped at Indian Wells Carefree RV Resort in Indio.  It’s a beautiful RV park that offers a lot of amenities.  Snowbirds come there for the winter. Their rates were exceptionally low, $25!  That is the cheapest we stayed in California.

Since we arrived early in the day, we took a ride to Joshua Tree NP. Twentynine Palms is the closet town to one of the three entrances to Joshua Tree.  It is on the northern side of the park and does have a RV park.  We chose to stay on the southern side of the park, which meant a 45 minute drive to it’s entrance.  Most of it’s trails and sites are in the northern part of the park as well, so it meant a lot of driving for us.

We grabbed a map at the visitor center and talked with the park ranger about places to see.  He recommended a couple of good places to be around sunset. Cottonwood Springs was our first stop.  It is a little oasis you can drive to with a very short hike.  The palm trees looked weird as they had never been trimmed. They were tall with green tops and dead palm fronds hanging to the ground.

Next, we drove to Cholla Catus Garden.  It was amazing!  The area had a large concentration of Jumping Cholla cactus, also known as Teddy Bear Cholla, as far as you could see.  It looked beautiful with them all glistening in the sunlight.  I would like to have walked through the gardens, but there was another area we wanted to get to before sunset.

Can you see my shadow amidst the shadows of cactus?

Skull Rock and Jumbo Rocks are across the street from each other and offer some great sunset shots.  There are trails where you can walk around and over the rocks.  At Jumbo Rocks a couple was having a pre-wedding photo shoot. What a beautiful setting for wedding pictures.  The bride had to be freezing though.  The wind was blowing and the temperature was really dropping as the sun faded.  This area has Joshua trees.  They only grow in the northern part of the park.  The Joshua tree is neither a tree or cactus.  It is in the lilly family and looks like a yucca.

The Joshua Tree

Skull Rock

Shadow of the couple.

We got to the park early the next day, driving to one of the north entrances to go hiking to Fortynine Palms Oasis.  It was a moderate hike three miles long with an 300′ elevation gain both ways.  The weather was great for hiking – sunny and cool.  As we climbed the ridge the landscape was dotted with barrel catcus.  John stopped me on the trail and pointed out some Bighorn Sheep.  We watched them as they crossed the trail and went up the ridge where they stopped to graze.

The start of the trail.

Bighorn Sheep

The ridge was dotted with barrel cactus.

Barrel Cactus

Beautiful view from the top of the ridge.

It was a very comfortable 70 degrees that day.

Upon reaching the oasis, we saw charred palm trunks caused by an out-of-control campfire.  According to the park’s information, fire can be benficial to the palms by encouraging seed developement and killing off competing plants. However, campfires are illegal.  The oasis are formed from a crack in the Earth’s crust and groundwater rises to the surface.

We could see the oasis in the distance.

Fortynine Palms Oasis

California Fan Palm

Charred trunks.

We could see a little water.

A roadrunner across the way.

After our hike, we went into town for lunch and then returned to the park.  We made the ride out to Keys View.  The elevation is over five thousand feet and you can overlook miles of valley, mountains, and desert.  It was very windy and cold. Since we were in shorts and the views were hazy that day, so we did not stay long.

A little hazy, but still a good view.

It was much nicer in the lower elevations.  There were still two short hikes I wanted to do, Hidden Valley and Barker Dam.  Hidden Valley is a rock-enclosed valley said to been used by cattle rustlers.  It certainly was a well hidden place for cattle, but I wondered how they managed to get water to them.

Hiking into Hidden Valley.

Hidden Valley is enclosed by rocks.

This is a popular area for rock climbers.

Hidden Valley

Joshua Trees abound in this part of the park.  The landscape was just thick with them and some of them were huge.

Just before sunset we hiked to Barker Dam.  It was built around 1900 to hold water for cattle and mining use.  Sometimes you can see wildlife there, but not during our visit.

Barker Dam

Wildlife come here for the water.

Backside of dam.

We really enjoyed our visit to Joshua Tree NP.  California is a great state to explore with so much to offer.  There was only two highlights for the trip back east after leaving California.  One was a stop in Arizona at Green Valley to visit with John’s brother, Eddie and his wife Judy.  We spent five days there doing some maintenance and repairs on the RV.  While there, we also visited the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area in the Coronado National Forest.  Then our last stop was in NC to visit with my family.  It was a great ending to a wonderful trip.

John’s brother’s house in Arizona.

How about this for a view every evening.

Cactus garden.

There was plenty of room for our RV.

Javelinas are a frequent visitor to Eddie’s yard.

This roadrunner sat and posed for me.

He probably wanted to be fed.

Eddie’s neighbor had someone to carve this dead tree.

We visited Sabino Canyon Recreation Area in Tucson.

The mountains are thick with Saguaro Cacti.

This one is just starting arms.

Nice Saguaro Cactus.

Barrel cactus with fruit.

Prickly Pear

Cholla cactus

 

California Fun, Part 2

After leaving Half Moon Bay we drove south to Monterey.  We drove on coastal Hwy 1, which is fairly RV friendly compared to the northern coast we had driven on a previous trip.  We chose an RV park (Carmel By The River) nestled against the mountains instead of one we could had stayed in right on the ocean.  Their advertisement said something about being lullabied to sleep with the sounds of a river and croaking frogs.  It sounded like a nice change from the ocean – Duh! California is in a severe drought.  The river was dried up and I never heard one frog, but John said he did.  Oh well, we went to sleep with the sound of silence.

Isn’t it always fun to go down roads with the uneasy feeling you shouldn’t be there.  The road that led to this campground was like that.  It narrow down to one lane and it would be impossible for another RV to get by if you met one.  There was no shoulder to pull over on, but there were a couple of pull outs so cars can get out of your way.  An RV would NOT fit in these pull outs.  Thank God we didn’t meet one going in or out.  There was a very steep hill we had to go down that ended at the campground.  On top of all that, there wasn’t good signage leading you in, which made you wonder if WAZE was taking you down the wrong road with no way in hell you could turn around.  Oh the joys of RVing.  All in all, the campground was nice.  The sites were not as spacious as we were hoping, but we did fit in.  The length was fine, but there are tall bushes between each site that just barely gave us enough room to put our slide out.

Nice view of the mountains.

That afternoon, we took a nice drive down to Big Sur State Park.  Big Sur is the southern most boundary for the redwoods.  The southern redwoods are smaller and less numerous than the northern redwoods.  That is due to the warmer and drier air.  Also, scientists have learned from studying their growth rings that the coastal fog has decreased by 30% in the last 50 years.  The redwood’s survival is at risk.  There was plenty of coastal fog the day we drove to Big Sur.

Fog as far as you can see.

It was like being in a plane looking down on clouds.

Driving in Big Sur State Park.

The redwoods are very tall.

The next day we drove into Monterey to go on a whale watching excursion.  The weather was as near perfect as it could get.  The winds were almost calm, which they said was very unusual for the bay.  We saw sea lions, seals, dolphins, orcas and humpback whales.  The humpbacks nor the orcas were close enough to us for great pictures.  The whales were feeding down deep, so they did not stay at the surface for long periods.  It was a bit of a disappointment in comparison to our whale watching excursion in Nova Scotia.

Whale watching boat.

Leaving the harbor.

Sea lions

Sea lions

Sea lions

Lots of dolphins were in the bay.

Dolphin

Humpback whale blowing.

Two humpback whales.

Fluking.

Orca

Harbor seal

Harbor seal on his back.

We had a late lunch on Fisherman Wharf, then explored around Monterey by car.  We liked Monterey.

Fisherman Wharf

Fisherman Wharf

The harbor

Cannery Row

Coastal road and bike path in Monterey.

Checking out the tidal pools at Asilomar State Marine Reserve.

There were some marine biologist students studying the tidal pools as well.

The students said these were some kind of slug.

The pools are very beautiful if you look close up.

Sea Anemone

Our next stop will be Joshua Tree Nation Park.  Stay tuned.

California Fun, Part One

Not only is California a big state, it is a very scenic state.  We have driven and explored many of it’s highways over the last eight years. There are still some parts that we have not covered.  All the roads we traveled on  have been scenic. There are some states that are just boring to drive through, at least in my eyes, but not California!

Our main goal this trip was to arrive at Half Moon Bay and set up camp for six weeks.  From there we would explore the San Francisco Bay Area and spend a lot of time with our son’s family, who are a mere thirty minute drive away.

There are many areas of California that have captured my heart, but I have to say the coast pulls at my heartstrings.  All of California’s coast is dramatic with it’s towering cliffs and jagged shoreline.  I enjoyed morning walks along coastal trails as well as bike rides with my husband.

Walking the coastal trail with a little fog.

Coastal trail led us right by this beautiful golf course.

We made a day trip to Santa Cruz, stopping along the way to admire the magnificent coast, stopping at Pigeon Point Lighthouse and even walking down to the beaches.  In Santa Cruz they have a boardwalk with shops and carnival rides, which didn’t appeal to us.  We really didn’t see a place to eat that interested us, so we set our sights on the Wharf.  There is parking on it and quite a few restaurants to choose from.  A local had recommended Stagnaro Bros. Restaurant and we were not disappointed with the view, service or food.  I had crab cakes and a cup of clam chowder, both were outstanding.  John had seared tuna on a bed of sea weed that was also outstanding.  It was pricey, but then everything in California is. On the way back to my son’s house, we stopped at one of the many roadside farm stands to buy chocolate covered strawberries.  My granddaughters loved that treat.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

The Wharf in Santa Cruz

We have visited San Francisco before, did a tour there, visited Fisherman Wharf and China Town, so those things were not on our list to do this time.  Alcatraz was though!  It was a very interesting tour.  Did you know that Alcatraz was known to have the best food in our prison system?  They say there was not a successful escape, but five prisoners are listed as missing and presumed drowned.  Al Capone was their most famous prisoner.  The view of San Francisco from their recreational yard must had been a psychological punishment.

Approaching Alcatraz.

The showers.

One of the cells.

Library

What a prisoner’s room probably looked liked.

View through a tiny window in the hallway.

Visitation window.

View of San Francisco from Alcatraz.

Remains of the warden’s house.

What the fake head that was used during a prison break may had looked like.

Kitchen

Recreational yard.

We discovered a lovely winery while driving along the scenic Skyland Blvd.  We drove through Thomas Fogarty Winery and Vineyards, but did not have time to do the tour and wine tasting.  I really meant to get back to it on another day.  We have toured Nappa Valley on a previous trip and found it to be delightful.  I enjoy wine and find wineries alluring.  Driving Skland Blvd. allows you fantastic views of the valleys on both sides.

Entrance to winery.

The view from Skyland Blvd.

There are lots of hiking trails in the Bay Area, and we took advantage of this a few times.  We hiked a coastal trail, through a redwood trail and even a trail in our son’s neighborhood. There were always nice views and a chance for a little exercise.

We stayed at three campgrounds in Halfmoon Bay.  Half Moon Bay RV Park was the first one, where we spent five nights.  It is behind Cameron’s Pub.  We found it to be quiet and very friendly, but very dusty.  Then we moved to Pelican Point RV Park, just a little outside of town.  We spent four weeks there.  We had a view of a golf course in front and if nobody was camped in the sites to our right, we had a small view of the ocean.  There is a short trail to ocean access and the coastal trail where you can walk, jog or ride bikes.  Reservations for October need to be made in advance.  They really book up on weekends due to beautiful weather, pumpkin farms and a Pumpkin Festival.

After that point, we didn’t have reservations.  We wanted to stay a little longer and to also see how we would like Pillar Point RV Park.  Pillar Point is right on the ocean and is first come first serve.  Sunday and Monday are the best days of getting in.  They also have a website that they update several times a day telling you how many sites are available.  We moved in on a Tuesday to an ocean view site.  I think it helped that we were only 15 minutes away.  You can arrive as early as you want.  We stayed six nights. It is like a big parking lot, with sites that are a little tight, but the view can’t be beat.  You can watch the surfers to the left of the campground and there is a nice beach in front.  Several restaurants are within easy walking distance.  However, they don’t have laundry services.  The biggest drawback to us was the road noise.  There was road noise all the time, but we drowned it out at night with a portable fan.

The view from the front.

The surfers.

The beach out front.

We had some big waves crashing over the rocks one day.

We left Halfmoon Bay to start our trip home.  More on that in the next blog.

Family Time in California

What is more wonderful than spending time with family?  There are many things that top my list to make me happy, but family time, no matter how simple it may be, well, let’s just say I am at my happiest.  Being able to spend six weeks in California near my grandchildren just put me on top of the world!. I have so many memories to look back on.

We celebrated three birthdays and one anniversary while we were there.

Making birthday brownies for Papaw.

The girls made a birthday present for Grandma Sherry.

Blowing out the candles for Grandma Sherry.

Kevin and Susie went out for their 6th anniversary.

The girls are ready to party.

Happy 4th birthday Eliza!

Twilight Sparkle gets a cutie mark for her 4th birthday.

Everyone got tattoos at the party.

Eliza loved her magna-tiles.

Birthday pancakes!

Everyone enjoyed pancakes.

Hazel knows the best way to eat pancakes.

All of us visited the tidal pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.  The girls loved looking for creatures in the pools and then playing in the cold water.

Looking at fiddler crabs.

Eliza in the cold water.

Family photo.

Grandparent photo.

Kayaking at Half Moon Bay was a blast!

Eliza rode with us.

A selfie!

Kevin and Hazel.

We took the kids to Lemos Farms at Half Moon Bay to ride the ponies and get a pumpkin.  It was such a fun time.  Sadly, Kevin and Susie couldn’t go with us since it was a weekday.  The traffic and crowds on the weekend would had been impossible to bear.

Her face says it all!

Both girls on ponies.

Hazel loved it too!

Lollipops and train ride.

My darlings!

Hazel just had to hold a pumpkin.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin.

I like this one grandma.

The girls loved to help with the meals.  They were always pulling up a chair to stand on so they could just watch.

Teaching Eliza to snap beans.

Hazel could do it too.

They loved rolling out dough.

They cut out shapes for the pot pie.

This is going to be so yummy!

They can be the silliest girls, especially at bedtime.  You should just see their bedtime routine.  It is a hoot!

Here they are at bedtime.

They call this ninja obstacles. Guess you know what their favorite tv program is.

Ninja warrior!

More obstacle playing. They love jumping from the table to the couch.

Silly underware hats.

Sitting in a bucket of rocks.

Tea party with their stuffed animals.

Eliza on a train.

They pretend they are in a egg and hatch from the blanket.

The Oatland Zoo was a big hit with the adults and kids!

The kids visited us at Half Moon Bay.  We all enjoyed the beach.

We enjoyed lots of meals outdoors, reading to the girls, playing games and most of all just enjoying being with them.

It was sad to say good-bye to them, but I am dreaming about the next trip to see them.  Oh my goodness!  I forgot to tell you, there will be a new arrival in March! Eliza says it is a sister, but we will be waiting for the birth to find out.

Just a Bump In The Road

We are westward bound to the west coast where we will spend five weeks just thirty minutes from our youngest son and his family.  His family includes his beautiful wife and two of the cutest and sweetest girls around – at least in my eyes.  I’ve been telling everyone that I was going to find out what it is really like being a grandparent, well, a grandparent who gets to see their grandchildren regularly.  Not only that, we will get to explore the San Francisco Bay Area!

A rainbow the morning we left Tybee.

We are allowing eleven days to our final destination, Half Moon Bay.  That way John won’t have to drive extremely long days and we can even spend two nights at a couple of spots.  One thing about RVing that all RVers know, you may hit bumps in the road………that is in your well laid plans.

It was a good start, traveling smoothly down the road, until we hit Memphis, TN.  John hates driving through Memphis.  There is not a great southern loop around the city and the roads are rough to say the least.  We made it to I 40 in West Memphis when a trucker was honking at us and his passenger was waving wildly at us.  At first we both wondered why he was honking at us.  We certainly couldn’t tell anything was wrong, but we knew something had to be up, so pull over on the shoulder we did.  John gets out to check things out and then returns with the words, “It’s bad.”  We had lost a wheel off our tow dolly and the dolly was dragging along the road.  Amazing that we didn’t even feel anything.  Even more amazing that it didn’t cause us to wreck or damage the car.

We don’t know how long we had been traveling that way, but surely not far.  John unloaded the car and went in search of lug nuts so he could put the spare on.  Luckily, he did not have to go far to get to an auto parts shop.  He even backtracked to see if he could locate the missing wheel with no luck.  With the spare on, we decided to camp in West Memphis in order to buy a new rim and tire.  We didn’t trust that spare for the distance we were going.  Oh, and all this happened with a light rain falling of course.

Now for the lucky part of the story, and we are very thankful that we had some luck too.  When we arrived at the campground, the bottom fell out of the sky.  Thank God it waited ’til we were off the road.

I explained our predicament while I was checking in and they gave me a business card of a tire shop very close by.   After the rain let up, John went to the shop and they said they could have a new rim and tire ready by 9:00 the next morning.  As luck had it, it was ready by 8:00 and we got back on the road by 10:00.  I’m so thankful we didn’t have to wait two or more days.

Bump number two happened in Oklahoma.  Rolling down I 40 and a beep beep starts sounding.  Now we are losing air pressure.  We just happened to be at an exit with a Loves, plus a mechanic.  If it had happened a little sooner, we would had lost all our air and the brakes would lock up, leaving us on the shoulder of the road again.  We just did make it to the parking lot.

John found a hose where a hole had rubbed in it.  Between him and the mechanic, they removed it, but of course they didn’t have a replacement part.  The mechanic located a part for it, but it required John driving a good ways to get it.  When he returned, the mechanic was busy and John replaced it himself.  The mechanic did not charge us, so it was a rather inexpensive fixed, but we lost a lot of time.  We are still on schedule though, but we did lose one of our two night stay to do something fun.

Then we hit scenic New Mexico along with it’s long grades of hills.  Now our RV does not have a big engine allowing us to go uphill at a fast rate, but the slowness we were going was bordering on ridiculousness.  I kept thinking we didn’t have this kind of trouble for these size of hills before and was wondering how the heck we would ever cross the mountains in California.

We stopped for lunch and John brought up the subject.  He had been wondering the same thing.  Something was definitely wrong and the only thing he came up with was a dirty fuel filter.  He had a new one with us, so he changed it at a truck stop.  What a difference it made!  It was just a short hang up and we were once again rolling smoothly along.

Windmills in Texas

A New Mexico Sunset

Arizonia

Now we are in Bakersville, CA, just one day from our final designation, and a day early!  Tomorrow, I get to see my son, Kevin, his wife, Susie, and their two daughters, Eliza and Hazel!  Yea, yea, yea!

We arrived in California!

Bugging Out in the Florida Keys

We arrived in the Florida Keys well ahead of lobster season.  Our boat is stored here in the Keys, and we were adding some features to the boat that was going to take some time.  John spent a week on the boat before putting it in the water.  All during calm weather too.  Luck was with us this year, the light and variable winds stayed until our last week in the Keys.  It made for some very hot weather, not having a breeze, so much that I purchased another fan to use outside our camper.  Now John has one blowing on him and I have one blowing on me. Outdoor air conditioning at its best.

Mini season starts on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday of the month. It is a two-day sport season that is only for recreational lobstering.  After the two days, the commercial lobstermen can put their traps out, but they can not pull them until the start of lobster season, which is August 6 of every year.

Back to why we arrived here two weeks before the mini season.  We like to spend a lot of time scouting out holes, to see where the lobsters are and which holes have the most lobsters.  That way, we know exactly which hole we want to be on first thing opening day.  We have so many holes marked now, there is no way we can check them all.  John came up with a system on our GPS.  He changed the color of the symbol to blue last year for our most productive holes.  We have found in the past that lobsters tend to cluster in the same holes.  Now John can quickly see on the screen of the GPS where our best holes are.  Don’t get me wrong, we certainly check the other holes in the area as well to see if they have become a favorite of the lobster.  Sure enough some of those holes were productive and some of the blue marked holes were not.  This years good holes have a red symbol.

Lobsters on a hole.

While we were scouting we definitely noticed a decline in the population of the lobster.  So many holes were just empty, and other holes had very few legal size lobsters.  A few holes had as many 18 legal lobsters, but this is really down from years past.  We have a favorite hole where we have been able to limit out every year with four people on board and still leave legal lobsters behind.  The limit is 6 per person per day.  This year when we checked this particular hole, there was only 1 lonely lobster in it.  We checked it again the day before the season started and still no lobster.  Beats me why they were rejecting this hole, it is such a beauty.  This was not going to be a good season.

John checking out a hole.

The water was so clear.

A college buddy of John’s was joining us for mini season along with his wife.  We have kept up with Mick and Cindy over the years and have taken some vacations together.  Mick is a great diver and loves the water as much as John does.  They were only in the Keys for four days.  This was Cindy’s first trip to the Keys and she absolutely fell in love with them.  I have a feeling she will be back next year. They took lobster home with them and some hog fish as well.

Mick snorkeling over a hole.

Mick diving on the hole.

On opening day of mini season, we left the dock at five a.m.  Leaving this early, we are almost assured we will be the first on the hole, and we were!  It was a good thing we left early, because some boats came near by not long after we arrived. They moved on to another hole, but it was obvious we were on the one they wanted.  This was the chosen one because there were 15 keepers on it and a lot of them were big.  Now we wait for the sun to rise.

Waiting on sunrise.

Here it is!

John and Mick were in the water before the sun actually appeared and had the first lobster by 6:50.  We did get 15 nice lobsters off that hole.  It took us diving four more holes to get the last 9 lobsters, but we had our limit by 8:00.

Mick, Cindy, Sherry and John with 24 nice lobsters!

John and Mick taking the heads off.

See the difference to a “Bertha” size lobster and a small legal size.

Second day of mini season was a completely different story.  We didn’t bother getting up early, since all the holes had been picked over the previous day.  In years past, we have never gotten our limit on the second day.  This year was not going to be any different.  Our friends, Mike and Pam, went out with us, making six on board.  We left the docks at 9:00.  John and I have what we believe to be a secret place and saved it for the second day for just that reason.  It is in a grassy area where there are not any holes around it in a quarter-mile radius.  Not only is it out in the middle of no where, you have to drive almost over it to even see it, meaning it is not visible from a short distance.  We found it quite by accident when we were flying by in the boat.  Sure enough, it had not been picked over. We managed to get 13 lobsters there and lots of them were big!  After that, it was really slim pickings.  Twenty more holes later, we only had four more lobsters and it was 12:30.  Time to call it a day with only 17 lobsters and have some fun. We went to The Island for cocktails and lunch.  Returning back to Jolly Roger, we cleaned the lobster and headed to the pool.  There were not many reports of anyone getting their limits that day.  Where are all the lobsters?

Enjoying the day on the water.

Measuring a lobster.

Cocktails and lunch at The Island.

Mick and Cindy on their phones.

There is a week between mini season and regular lobster season.  John and I took a couple of days off from boating and then decided on a day of fishing in the Atlantic.  The water wasn’t too rough, but the fishing was a little slow.  We did catch some hogfish and came back with three keepers.

Now we have three days to scout for lobster before the season opens.  The good news is we were finding lobsters, only not in the numbers before mini season. We managed to find several holes with 10 or 11 keepers in them, but many holes were empty or only had a few keepers.  Our friend, Dixie, would be going out with us, and Buddy would be going with Mike and Pam, but in the same area as us.  This morning we didn’t leave ’til 5:30 and we were the first on our hole.  We only got six off this spot, so I guess some of the lobsters walked during the night. Lobsters feed during the night and may end up in a different hole.  After checking 16 more, we finally had our limit of 18 lobsters at 11:00.  The other boat had their limit by 12:00.

Pam, Dixie, and Sherry with lobsters.

Buddy and Dixie

After opening day, we continued lobstering, sometimes with just the two of us and other times with other people on board.  We had good days where we managed to get our limit and we had bad days where we only came back with four. Everyone in the campground was struggling to find lobster.  We heard that they were slaying them down around Big Pine Key.  From the stories we heard, I guess that was where all the lobsters were this year.  After three weeks of regular season along with the two-day mini season, John and I came home with 102 lobsters. Not too bad, all in all, but it was a lot of hard work to get those.

John, Mike, Pam and Dixie

John and Mike

John down on the hole.

Pam

Mike with a lobster.

Dixie

We did more than just lobstering.  Six of us went to the Sombrero Reef to snorkel on a calm day.  It was so beautiful!  I bought a disposable water proof camera to use, but not many of the pictures turned out good.  All of us enjoyed the reef, and we went to lunch at Sunset Grill.

Sombrero Reef Light

Pretty fish.

The reef.

Dixie at Sombrero Reef

Buddy

Our captain, John.

Did I mention all the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed?  No, well, there were many of them.  Lots of people gather every evening for the sunsets hoping to see a green flash.  If conditions are right, a green flash will appear just at the last moment the sun sets into the water.  I did not see a green flash this year.

Ahhhh, sunsets and wine.

We also shared many dinners with friends, either gathering at our place or theirs.  Also, the pool felt really nice after coming back from lobstering.

Mike and Pam at our place.

Morning coffee club.

Don and Becky from our neighborhood back home found us one afternoon.

A little evening fun.

John at the pool with Mike, Pam and me reflected in his sunglasses. Can you see us?

Hopefully, the lobster population will be up next year.  Maybe we would have better luck if we let this guy ride along with us.

Iguana are pretty numerous in the Keys.

We really enjoyed the Florida Keys, but now time to head back home and get ready for our next trip.  California, here we come!

Wading Bird Rookery in St. Augustine, Florida

One of my favorite places to view birds is the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, Florida.  An alligator farm, you say, for viewing birds?  Yes, wading birds of different species come there to nest for the safety of their young.  You see, the alligators protect their young from tree climbing predators, such as raccoons. There is a very nice boardwalk that puts you at tree level with the birds, giving you a great advantage for photographing them.  I’m not sure there is any other place where you can get this close to the birds and still be viewing them in a natural habitat.

They start arriving in February, starting with the Great Egret and are followed by Wood Storks, Roseate Spoonbills, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons and Green Herons.  By July, fledglings are everywhere. Mid-March through July are prime time for viewing.

We were there April 1st this year.  There were lots of Wood Storks in the tops of the trees, and just a few Tricolored Herons and Cattle Egrets were on the scene. The birds are dressed out in their mating plumage and colors, looking their best in order to attract a mate.

Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Tricolored Heron

Tricolored Heron

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

The Great Egrets are magnificent with their plumage and bright green color by their eyes.  There was plenty of displaying going on, many were sitting on nests, and I saw one set of very young triplets.

The mating dance of the Great Egret.

I think the Great Egret has the best display of their plumage and seem to just love showing it off.

Great Egret tending its nest and the only set of chicks I saw.

The Snowy Egret is highly conspicuous and vocal in their sexual displays.  They have plumage on their backs and heads.  Their eye patch sometimes turns reddish as well as their feet, which is usually yellow.

The Roseate Spoonbills have always been one of my favorite birds.  Probably because of their beautiful pink color and unusual beak and the fact that it is not that common to see them.  There were plenty to be seen at the rookery, but it was a little early yet for their young.

In the past I have viewed the entire park, seeing all the gators and exotic birds they have.  This trip I only spent time in the rookery.  They also have a zip line, which I have heard was very good.  Please allow a good bit of the day to view everything and to attend their shows.  You can spend hours in the rookery alone, I know I do.

I just can’t leave you without baby pictures, so to give you a taste of what can be seen in the month of May, I am posting pictures from 2011.  Enjoy.

Roseate Spoonbill Chicks

Roseate Spoonbill Chick

Roseate Spoonbill Chick

Green Heron Chick

Wood Stork Chick

Wood Stork Chick

Snowy Egret Chick

Cattle Egret Chick

Great Egret feeding her young.

Great Egret Chicks

Tricolored Heron Chicks

 

 

 

Oh, A Fishing We Will Go!

February was a great month in the Keys, in spite of having some cold weather.  I know, I know, it certainly wasn’t the cold everyone north of us was experiencing, but it was cold for the Keys.  We awakened one morning to forty-eight degrees and a couple of other mornings in the low fifties!  Good thing that didn’t last too many days or the drop in water temperature would start killing the fish.  That happened four or five years ago.  A lot of tropical fish died and a lot of manatees also.

John and I have become quite experienced in fishing in the Atlantic.  We were able to venture out in the ocean a dozen times during the month of February. We had some great catches of Hogfish and some poor catches.   We were lucky enough to have our friend Gary to give us a daily ocean report.  Gary goes in the Atlantic almost everyday and calls us to let us know how rough it is.  He left a few days ago to head back home.  Gary, come back!

We took our friend, Pam, fishing a couple of days.  Her husband had injured his finger, had to have stitches and couldn’t fish for a few days.  Pam turned out to be the “Hog Queen,” because she out fished John and me.  One day, John couldn’t catch a Hogfish for nothing, and Pam even traded places in the boat with him.  He still didn’t pull in any Hogfish and Pam caught one right away where he had been fishing.  John was sure catching all these pretty tropical fishes though.  There is one fish that John and I just hate to catch.  I think he is in the Boxfish family.  He doesn’t fight coming up, and it feels like you are reeling in a really big fish.  Nope, it is this triangle shape fish that has a very dense body.  We nicknamed him Sponge Bob.

Pam with a Lionfish.

Pretty blue tropical fish.

Another pretty fish.

This one is a Parrotfish.

Pam with two of her largest Hogfish.

A 20″ Porgy!

Lots of Hogfish!

A sunny day, mimosa, good friends and Snapper make for a fun day in the Gulf. It started out slow, but who cares when you are having fun.  After having no luck on the first couple of holes, I suggested we try a hole we had not fished on this winter.  Sometimes, I just know how to pick them and the girls ruled that day. Louise and I caught the most and the largest Snapper.  I think the guys had the most fun watching us.  After returning to Jolly Roger, the guys cleaned the fish and then we had a wonderful dinner of fresh fish.

Denis and Louise, friends from Canada, brought mimosa!

This is the life!

Twenty nice Snappers!

Posing with our catch.

On one of our great days on the Atlantic, where we limited out on Hogfish, I also caught four really nice Porgies.  They ranged from 16″ to 18 1/2″.  Porgies give you a good fight, and when you are fishing in 90′ of water, it can be a real struggle to bring up one that large.  It was really wearing out my arms.  When I hooked up another large Porgy, at least that’s what I though it was, I knew from the start I couldn’t handle it.  John took over for me, and he was struggling with it also.  When it reached the surface, it was a four-foot ell!  I had snagged it.  We didn’t even take it out of the water, got the hook out and down it went.  Good riddance.

John bringing up a fish for me.

Not a fish, but an ell!

It’s not just fishing though.  We do other fun things as well.  The campground hosted a Mardi Gras Parade.  It’s a short one, but is growing every year.

Mike and Iris joined us for the parade.

Waiting for the parade.

Spectators

Here it comes!

What did you have to do for those beads, Sammy?

The campground hosts a cookout twice a month.  Here is one of the fish frys.  The fish is donated and cooked by some of the campers here.  Everyone brings a dish to share.  There is always a huge turnout and lots of great food.

Everyone starts reserving their table early in the day.

The cooks work hard, but they have fun while doing it.

Our table.

This year a lady has been leading a wine and paint class.  She provides all the materials, paint and wine.  The cost is $15 and you can choose to paint a wine glass, lobster buoy, or the end of a palm frond.  The first two times, I painted a lobster buoy.  This week, I painted a palm frond.  I am no artist, but it was a lot of fun meeting new people and I thought my artwork didn’t turn out half bad.

Wine and paint.

My painted lobster buoy.

My palm frond that I painted as a dolphin.

John went to the nautical flea market on Islamorada, looking for a new rod and reel and other stuff.  He found one and was pretty pleased with it.  One day out in the Atlantic, I was having a miserable time.  John was catching fish, but I was just getting cleaned.  I wasn’t even feeling them bite most of the time.  After awhile, John suggested I try his new rod and reel.  It was shorter and lighter, and he thought I might be able to feel the fish bite better.  What a difference!  Not only could I feel them biting, I was catching them!  Some time later, I turned and said to John, thanks for the new rod and reel, you are not getting it back.

Some cool things happened while we were fishing in the Atlantic.  One day a pod of a dozen or more dolphins swam close by.  I had never seen that large of a pod before.  We’ve seen a lot of sea turtles, but one day a turtle kept hanging around near by.  All through the day, he would stick his head up and look at us, like he was telling us, hey, you guys need to move on, you are in my spot.  I can’t count how many days two jets buzzed us.  They would fly low, right over our boat and turn sideways.  It was the coolest thing and gave me such a rush.

March has been a time for lots of good byes.  Many of our friends  have already left.  We miss them, but we still have some friends here.  To date our total for Hogfish we brought back is 96, Mangrove Snappers – 67, Yellowtail Snapper – 31, Porgy – 44, Mutton Snapper – 1, Mackerel – 2 and Cero Mackerel – 1. That is the total of the ones we brought back.  We released many more.  Our freezer is full, we gave a lot of the fish away, and we’ve eaten lots of fish.  We bake, saute, grill, fry, and stew it.  I have tried some new recipes that have been pretty good.  The fish stew I made tonight was outstanding.  It sure was a lot of work though.  I made my own fish stock and even made a roux.

Fish Stew

Next week, my brother, Mike, and his wife, Terri, will be here.  John and Mike will be going fishing and Terri and I will be doing fun things on the different Keys.  Then our time will be almost up.  We plan on being home the first week in April.  It will be sad to leave the Keys, but it will be great to get back on Tybee to see our friends.  Won’t be home for long though, we will be flying to California the second week of April!

One last picture.  Me and my 28″ Cero Mackerel.

Happy fishing y’all!