A Typical Day

Ah, life on the road. Just returned from a morning of photography. Light lasted till 9:30. Now it’s just sit around camp bonding with my brother RV’ers – dry weights, tank capacity, tire pressure. The jargon of the homeless. God, I love it.

We,ve stayed in West Palm Beach for fivew days. The photo opportunities have been outstanding. The county (and even some subdivisions) have created quite a few artificial wetlands as part of mitigation/water treatment for Everglades restoration. They can’t release any water that hasn’t undergone tertiary treatment and all these “wetlands” are stocked with native vegetation. It’s the final step in the treatment process, and the water either recharges the groundwater or evaporates. It’s not the old Glades, the waters still managed with a system of dikes, but at least its not suger cane runoff. Anyway they’ve made elevated boardwalks and the areas are heavily used by both walkers and birds. The walkers are kind of wrinkly, like a storks head, but the birds are neat and very used to people.

We’re at a county park, so Alice has made uae of the driving range, practice golf course, bike paths, etc. But tomorrow we head for the Evefglades, if we can get through Miami.

Well, almost time for thew evenbing shoot….

The Kayaks Hit the Water

After hauling the kayaks on top on the trailer from Montana . . . they finally got to hit the water.  Yippee!!!  Having kayaks to just paddle around has been on 
Alice’s bucket list.  It’s been killing her to drive past all of this water when it was so cold.  So now that it is sandal and shorts weather . . .  we did a six-mile paddle on the Loxahatchee River in Florida.  This is a tidal river so having a tide schedule helps you plan when to leave, we didn’t have that so coming back we were paddling against the current  fortunately it wasn’t a big deal.  We did see an alligator ambling along in the water and a turtle taking a nap.   We will post pictures from the maiden voyage.  A big thanks to Marty Cypher and her gift to Alice of a point and shoot camera so she could document the trip, too.  She has as many megapixels as Pete’s old camera.  Our next job is do figure out how to down load the pictures!!!!!  Oh boy another manual to read!!!!!!

We went back to Vierra Wetlands for two days before coming down here.  It was pretty productive – l0ts of birds and lots of opportunities.  That masked duck is causing quite a stir among birders there.  We got in a masked duck jam that made me wish for a ranger to come by and get things moving.  It’s down to Palm Beach county tomorrow for a couple of days.

But first, it’s time to find a sports bar…..

A New Place and A Chance Encounter

T-shirt weather, finally.

First photo crisis: my new camera went belly up and I had to send it it to get fixed. Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t have a lending service, so I’ll have to go with the old 100 alpha for ten days. As I told the Sony rep, “I guess thats why everybody buys Canon.”

We’ve been out of WYFI for a couple days over by Kissimee, but now we’re back on the coast at Cocoa Beach. Spent three days at Meritt Island NWR. It’s always had a good reputation and well deserved. Lots of birds. But the real reason we came back over here is a place called Viera Wetlands. It’s a totally artificial wetland constructed by the county as part of their water-treatment facility, and has the best concentrations of birds I’ve seen in Florida. It’s like the constructed it for photographers – lots of different habitats, and you drive around on the dikes. They keep the grass mowed to the waters edge. The opportunities are exceptional. So we came back over there for a couple days.

But the most amazing thing was when we were driving around Viera, I ran into the legendary Alaskan photographer, Milo (Like Madonna and Pele, Milo neeeds only one name.) True to form, he blatantly lied to me, saying he was waiting for coots to come closer, hoping I wouldn’t see the American Bittern in the nearby cattails. Being wise to the wily Milo from previous encounters, I noticed the bittern two hours later. I knew Milo was down here, (he and Paula come down to visit her folks every couple years) but I thought he was farther south and dind’t think there was much chance of running into him. We had a good visit and went out to dinner with he and Paula. He flew back to Cordova on Sunday.

Got a Limkin catching a snail. It’s a lot like a wolf catching an elk. Only slower.

Alice is setting up her first golf game now, so the next installment will chronicle that. Carl Hiassen beware….

Now, off to Viera.  Clear all cards….

Better and Warmer

Alice is ruining this whole trip. She’s making me shower every day. This may be a vacation – but it certainly isn’t a Ben-G Tour.

I think we’ve finally out-southed the cold. We’re in Titusville, Fla., near Meritt Island NWR. We spent the last three days at Anastaisa State Park in St. Agustine which was pretty good. It would have been better if they had windows on the shower house instead of screens, but I guess they’re more concerned with insects than icicles. We had to poach WYFI next to the dumpster at Starbucks, so didn”t have a lot of time for posting.

At St. Augustine I went to the legendary (at least by Artie Morris’s standards) Alligator Farm. Id have to say that Arties’s right. It’s kind of hokey and touristy (they make you wear a pith helmet and safari jacket), but the photo ops are phenominal. I’ll bet between 4:30 and 5:30 last night 300-400 egrets, herons, and ibis flew into the rookery. Pretty neat. It’ll be better during nesting season, ane we’ll stop back in April on our swing north. Anastasia also had lots of beach birds (gulls, terns, sandpipers). Photographing these beaches is pretty challenging. They’re not exactly the Tetons, but I’m figuring is out. Meritt Island looks like its reputation is deserved, so I’m looking forward to the next couple days.

Well, time to scrub up…..

The Grand Strand . . . and Grand Cousins

Myrtle Beach, as so known was the Grand Strand, was trip down memory land.  Alice has two cousins that she grew up with who have retired there.   Thanks to Paula and John for their Southern hospitality,  and to Rita  for taking time out of her busy schedule to spend the evening and the next morning catching up on old times.  We will be stopping by again in spring when it is warmer.  They had snow warnings out for the area.    We headed to Florida hoping for warmer weather.  So far . . . no go.  Staying in Anastasia State Park has been breezy.  Especially the bathroom which have screens rather than windows!!!!  Talk about a cold experience . . . imagine sitting on the john in 20-30 degree weather with the windows opened!!!!    At  least in the shower warm water is running.   There was a beach wedding here yesterday . . . I imagine those vows were spoken in hast.   I think we are going to a sports bar for the Packer/Cardinal game!!!  Anyone for some “hot” wings?

It’s Good to Be Adaptable…

I wenI went out to photograph the sunrise at Hatteras the other morning – 22 degrees and 30 mph wind – and was as cold as I’ve ever been taking pictures.  The wind rippingf the tops off the backilit waves was pretty neat, but the novelty wore off really fast.  So I think we’re going to make the first change of the trip.  We’ll head directly to Florida, and pick up everything from Georgia north on the way back.  Unfortunately, this will mean abandoning the Big Bend portion of the trip, but if I’m going to do a book, I’m going to have to get more out of this area than what I’ve got so far.    By April the migrants will be working their way north so that will be a plus.  Besides, its pretty damn cold here….

Florida’s going to be cold too, but  it’ll be warmer faster.  (That’s what its come to) Either that or be prepared for a lot of posts from the Dry Tortugas…..

Carolina . . . Cold and Closed!

Looks like El Nina is cooling down things.  There is snow in the forecast for tomorrow.  We are camped in Carolina Beach State Park.  We are the only ones camping, maybe that should tell us something!  And they lock the gate at 6:00 pm and don’t open it until 8:00 am so you are kind of stuck there.  Not only is it cold but many things are closed for the season.  We camped under a bridge at Cedar Island because there were no campgrounds opened.  Thinking about heading down to Florida as soon as possible because at least when it finally warms up it will be warmer and more things will be opened.

Carolina on My Mind Jan. 3, 2010

We are now on the Outer Banks of NC (OBX) and can honestly say we have not been this cold in a long time.   32 with a wind chill factor of 19 but the dampness puts different spin on it.  One small town we passed through today had snow, just a skiff but it was snow.  (Some NC kids woke up to some fun!)  The wind is just howling.  They have a truck with a plow to push away the sand on the road. Pete says it’s some of the worst wind he’s been in other than Utah.  The trailer could masquerade as a sailboat tonight.  As I sit here typing . . . the table is bouncing and frankly so is the whole trailer.  We have been to the beach twice and our attire was downcoats, winter hats, and mittens.  We have not blown the winterization stuff out of the pipes in the trailer so we are trekking across the campground for pit stops.  Brrr!!!   Me thinks it’s a two dog down night and not a flip-flop day!!!  That said . . . I love the Outer Banks (and all the beaches of NC) and am glad someone had the foresight to make it a National Seashore.  The developement that has taken place since my childhood is astounding and if the National Seashore wasn’t here it would be solid houses all the way down to the SC.   I guess we will be rocked to sleep tonight by the wind!  Happy New Year!

oh for one

There probaly are 10,000 snow geese at Mackay NWR. However the more important fact is that it’s still hunting season. It sounded like Verdun most of the day. The geese are all grouped in the center of the refuge where theres no hunting and no access. But I could see them. In the distance. Obviously, none of the non-winter birds are here, so except for a few kingfishers (good luck with that), it was pretty grim. I am, however, amassing qiute a collection of the Women of Wal-Mart, as we daily indulge Alices visceral need to push a cart down an isle….

We did a little beach hiking at Back Bay NWR. Down to the Outer Banks tomorrow.

Pictures