A Full-time Life

Category: Florida birding

Closer to home

I have been writing about the joys of travel and I love remembering those. But we’ve been home at the Canal Cottage for a while now so it’s time to share some everyday smiles. We don’t have to go far for them!

I love waking up to peach-colored skies — the top picture is blurry for a reason (besides my shaky camera hand). I took it through the screen on our porch about five minutes after I got up one morning. Bottom left is a reflected sunset and the moon also from the porch.

Even living in a warm and bright climate, it’s good sometimes to bring a little sunshine into the house. One way to do that is by visiting the traveling produce market that visits our snowbird community weekly.

The “haul” on this particular Tuesday was definitely a day brightener. I like visiting Farm Markets, but it is wonderful to know we have one visiting us — it’s about a city block length away to the front of our clubhouse, where these lovely people set up shop every Tuesday morning.

Here’s a sunny kitchen bouquet — these are supermarket flowers and they last forever!

On the way to that supermarket one day, we stopped at our local Eagle nest, just across the highway from the store. It’s interesting to visit occasionally. Their nest tree is located in a horse pasture next door to a welcoming churchyard which has plenty of parking — quite a few photographers and nature-lovers spend long hours there. You can actually follow the eagles from anywhere however as they have become internet famous on the SW Florida Eagle cam.

But it’s nice to take at least a couple of pictures every season. If you squint at this one, you can see one of the adult eagles on the “attic” branch, while the eaglet looks out over the edge of the nest, practicing independence for a not-too-distant future when it will fledge and eventually fly away.

The top picture is one of the adults (I have never been able to tell the male and female apart unless they are right next to each other), while the little one surveys the wide world below home, These pictures were taken a little over a week ago. Sadly, the mother eagle has died since these were taken — the male is doing a good job of caring for junior until it no longer needs him. Find more of the story by linking to SW Florida Eagle Cam or searching Facebook or Google.

We saw some more Florida birds last week, when we ventured across town driving to Sanibel and Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

It was the usual suspects on the wildlife drive. But I never get tired of the usual. Here are white and brown pelicans looking as if they’re bored or as if they’re babysitting assorted shorebirds.

An osprey surveys his kingdom.

I did a double take when I looked at this downloaded picture and hesitated to include it , but it is the craziest thing. I am absolutely positive that the pelican(s) at the right are an illusion somehow, but eek, where is the other pair of legs? (I cropped the photo, but it is otherwise un-edited.)

It was a lovely day for a drive and short walks on the island, but as we drove home across the busy bridge we could see rain moving in. That’s OK — in fact that’s perfect. SW Florida needs it and evening is a good time for rain — we’re almost home by then and ready to stay there for the next few hours.

We are grateful.

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities, Thank you to the hosts:

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

March 8, 2026
Around home, mostly

Blue sky days have been rare the last couple of weeks, but on one pretty morning I saw some interesting wild-flowers in the wetlands across the street. They were the tallest flowering plants I think I’ve ever seen. I zoomed in on the flowers. It’s easier to walk closer to the wetlands after the winter season because the RV lots along that side of the street are vacant.

I’m marginally better with bird ID than with wildflowers — keep meaning to install that app. I think the two ducks below are Lesser Scaups.

The Scaups were swimming on Merritt Island Parkway last month. We have been sticking closer to home this month. It’s a busy time for us and the weather is iffy anyway. The wet/rainy season is here and at the same time most days are very hot and humid. Weather is different here. The skies in the picture below are a good sample of what we’ve seen most days lately.

It’s going to pour down any minute now!

You really don’t want to be outside in a Florida rainstorm. It comes down in walls and buckets and this time of year it comes with thunder and lightning. And even though this is our umpteenth season here, I never get used to the other thing about Florida rain. Which is that it can come down in those buckets and with all that noise for an hour or two and then suddenly just stop completely. Then the sun comes out and you can’t even tell it rained. The picture below is the calm after the storm. It is taken from the end of the canal.

After the Rain

There are a few people who live here year-round, but most are snowbirds who head to their home “up north” by April. The snowbird season is typically November through March. We’re snowbirds too of course, but we come later and stay later than most. Autumn is beautiful where we live in Oregon so we love being there then. Late Spring is beautiful there too but grass-seed is a major crop and so it is also a hay-fever magnet. We are thankful to skip allergy season as long as we can.

Below is another memory from last month. The osprey didn’t seem to be impressed by the roseate spoonbill coming in for a perfect landing.

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”

Chief Tecumseh

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities, with thanks to the hosts:

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June 13, 2025
We also saw …

More bird sightings from our trip earlier this month. But first a picture taken this week much closer to the Canal Cottage :

Royal Poinciana trees are in full bloom all over the area. This one is in the swamp across the street from us. It's very hot here right now and this bright and showy tree contributes to the tropical ambience. A common name for this beauty is Flamboyant Tree which I think fits well.

And now back to our trip to the wetlands.

We spotted this adult Sandhill Crane with two juveniles as we started our second day's walk at Orlando Wetlands. It's always a bit startling to see how big these birds are.

It was definitely family day at the park, because I spotted the tribe below almost as soon as we stepped onto the boardwalk.

Common Gallinules are not a rare bird, but they can be hard to spot because they nest and hide in the reeds and vegetation at the water's edge. This pair obligingly took their family out for a morning swim just as we arrived.

The babies were so cute — it was hard to stop taking pictures.

But soon they made it easy for me to move on as they headed back to their hidden home:

Bill got a bit tired of watching baby gallinules and had gone ahead a little way. When I caught up, he pointed out some birds I might have missed.

The Great Blue Heron above and the Little Blue below were waiting patiently, but not for me. Instead, like all Heron species, they were biding their time watching for the perfect meal to swim past. I took advantage of their stillness.

Our trip was exactly what we needed and the Canal Cottage was nice to come back to. It's summer here for sure now, beautiful early mornings and long evenings but hibernation time during the heat of the day. Here are one day's skies, morning and evening:

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May 25, 2025
Bowls of Spoonbills

We took a little mid-week getaway trip last week, staying in Titusville on what's known as Florida's Space Coast. But we went to see the birds, not the rockets. We spent most of two days walking in the Orlando Wetlands near the strangely named village of Christmas.

Making angel wings!

Bowls of Roseate Spoonbills were everywhere. (That really is the collective noun for groups of Spoonbills.) I'm happy any time I even glimpse those beautiful pink wings. On this trip they gave us more than glimpses.

Great Blue Heron and habitat scenery, Orlando Wetlands

"In the midst of chaos, find peace. In the midst of sorrow, find joy. In the midst of loss, find hope.”

                                                                        Margaret Renkl, “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss"

Roseate Spoonbill

Usually we see spoonbills foraging in shallow water. They use that bill to sweep the water stirring little fishes and insects up from the bottom. So that bill (more spatula-shaped than spoon in my opinion) is a necessary survival feature, but it really isn't exactly what makes them so photogenic. On this day they must have already eaten because all we saw were perched up above the water. All the better to show off their color and wingspread.

A whole bowl of Spoonbills

This was an accidental flight-shot, but I'm rather proud of it anyway. I'm usually too slow on the button to catch that action.

Foraging Roseate Spoonbill (from an old post)

We saw other birds on our two days of walking the Wetlands and again on our Merritt Island drive-through on our way home, but they need their own future post. These beauties somehow almost took over this one.

Spending time in nature is a path toward calm and peace. I'm grateful we were able to go there.

Thanks to everyone for your support. I'm Linking to the following sharing opportunities, with thanks to the hosts:

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May 16, 2025
It’s a Jungle Out There…

Not speaking metaphorically (at least not here on this blog) – only about the great outdoors. Specifically, several of our favorite nearby places to walk. They call them swamps or sloughs or just nature preserves around here, but they are about as close to a jungle as I'll ever get.

It's beautiful and quiet out there, but it can seem a little closed in — almost claustrophobic, especially to anyone used to wide open spaces.

But then you come to a clearing where the beautiful blue sky magically appears. Bright and clear, even when you look down.

And there are birds .. everywhere if you pay attention:

Look up:

There's a Florida Wood Stork looking like the King of the Hill!

Look Across:

Spot something bright red through all the greenery … It's a Red-Bellied Woodpecker finding a meal in an almost fallen tree.

Look Down:

A Green Heron patiently waits for dinner to swim by

Once in a great while, I'm even able to identify some of the plant life:

These are Resurrection Ferns — the top row looking their best (from April last year) and in the second row unresurrected in February this year. But they will come back — fittingly, right around Easter Time.

Yes, our Jungles are full of life and beauty when you look for it.

Tri-Colored Heron, Six Mile

Anhinga, Loop Road, Big Cypress

Limpkin, Six Mile

And of course if you're walking in the jungle, you better be looking down for your own safety, eek:

This is a Cotton Mouth, one of Florida's poisonous snakes. (We were actually on a Board Walk well above this sleeping creature. ) Too bad about the branch spoiling a perfect shot, but we certainly weren't about to move it.

One more picture to end on a pretty note. At first glance, Limpkins are an unassuming brown bird, but this close-up shot I think shows that they're quite handsome with their interesting feather pattern.

I'm grateful to have there are quite a few places near us conserving nature and animal life. I hope the work continues.

Linking to the following sharing opportunities, with thanks to the hosts:

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

March 30, 2025
Back again —

In our real (full-time) life we're back again at the Florida Canal Cottage. And back in blogland after too long an unexplained absence. I've always hated it when bloggers I follow disappear without a trace and I really wish I hadn't done the same exact thing. This post is my attempt to catch up a little bit. All pictures the are from the current season here in Florida. But not all the words.

I've missed blogging, but it has been hard to get started again. We've been busy since the last time I posted at the end of October, but honestly the real reason I haven't posted has more to do with the disastrous result of November's election. I've always thought of the blog as my "happy place" — where good memories are stored. Although I don't dwell on the state of the world every moment while we're living our lives, whenever I thought about putting a post together for the blog, it somehow seemed shallow to be chronicling only happy times when our whole country honestly seems to be falling apart.

Black-Crowned Night Heron at Ding Darling

He looks cranky, but I think its just because of the photographer and not because of the state of the world

I hate the feeling that there's really not much we can do. But wallowing in depression certainly isn't good for me or for anybody else, so I am back to chronicle the good memories and to share them with anybody who happens by. Even though I'm afraid the nation's problems aren't going away anytime soon, further posts will, I hope, be more about our personal life and less about worry.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Looking up — at Six Mile Cypress Slough in Florida

We stayed at home in Oregon longer than usual this time, enjoying lots of happy times with our Oregon families including two of our "kids"* , our grown grandchildren, the five great-grands who live in Oregon, and even our grand-family of three from Europe who visited for almost a month while we were also in town. A big bonus was spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, for the first time in quite a while.

Loop Road, Big Cypress

Another happy, but harder, kind of busy happened because we moved our Oregon "home-base" to a newly-opened independent senior community. We enjoyed our shiny new "lock and leave" home along with the amenities the community provides and look forward to taking even more advantage of those when we return this summer.

Roseate Spoonbills, White Pelicans and Night Heron at Ding Darling. Little Blue Heron at Six-Mile Cypress

Although feeling barely settled in our new Oregon digs, in early January we made our semi-annual cross-country migration. We spent the majority of that month opening the Canal Cottage and happily getting re-adjusted to the subtropical winter here in southwest Florida.

Green Heron, Big Cypress Refuge

We had a joyful week in February, when we had a visit from all three of our sons. They came from Colorado, Texas, and Oregon for a brothers' reunion and to see the old folks (and for two of them to visit us here in Florida for the first time.) We loved showing them around some of our favorite places. We missed our Oregon daughter and son-in-law and our daughters-in-law, but it was a delight to see our boys* all together. Almost all of the family pictures I took, both here and from Oregon are on my phone and somehow those don't seem to want to upload easily to the blog.

*All four of our children are old enough to be eligible for residence in our senior communities, although none of them are remotely interested in such a thing just yet. But it's sure a reminder of our own advanced age!

Great Egret in front of everybody's favorite (?) Florida icon in the background , at Big Cypress

It always seems to happen that we see several of one certain species whenever we go to one of our 'nature places.' The Black- Crowned Night Heron is that one so far this season, as we've seen at least one on every outing. Below is just one more picture of this pretty heron.

Black-Crowned Night Heron. Big Cypress

It's good to be back to blogging again . Thanks to everyone who reads, visits, comments, and hosts.

SATURDAY CRITTERS; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; ; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

March 14, 2025
Back to the Slough

Six-Mile Cypress Slough used to be one of our regular nature walk places , but it had been a couple of years since we'd visited. So it was great to get to go back one day last week.

Green Heron on Alligator Lake

We didn't even get all the way around the trail because there are so many overlooks and places to spot wildlife. This Green Heron was waiting patiently for a fish to swim by as he perched on a lily-pad raft at the edge of the lake. (We didn't see a single Alligator on the Lake named for it .)

Cypress Tree Forest Wetlands

It's the end of the dry season here in Florida, but there's been enough rain to turn the forest floor green. The Cypress Tree needles are still brown. They'll turn green during the wet season. The white spots on the trunks are lichen and they are signs of healthy trees.

Not really lily pads floating in the sky. It's the beautiful blue sky reflected on the surface of the Lake. I like seeing upside down skies.

A little natural Valentine floating in the water — and some pretty blue pickleweed on the edge of this pond.

There was a pair of Tri-Colored Herons enjoying the puddles in the Cypress Forest.

Six Mile Cypress Slough got its name in the early 1900s. Travelers in wagons would get stuck in this low, swampy area (the Slough) on their way to Fort Myers. They knew it was six miles more to town once they got unstuck.

In addition to providing a sanctuary for plants and animals, this forested wetland is important because it stores water during heavy rains and cleans that water before it flows into Estero Bay.

Florida Softshell Turtle

We didn't see alligators, but did spot this variety of everybody's favorite reptile. The Softshell Turtle was crawling through some pretty dry looking habitat, probably on its way to the nearest water. These turtles are big ones! They can get up to 24 inches across.

A little more Plant Life in the Swamp. The plants in the top photo are Resurrection Ferns — they'll come back in the next wet season. I don't know what the one in the lower photo is but it looks like a miniature sun.

There was a hawk nest up in these trees — I saw the adults flying back and forth and spent too much time trying to get a picture with no luck. But it was fun to watch. And at at least I got a picture of the blue sky while looking up at it.

We had a lovely morning at Six Mile. This is the time of year when we're grateful we can stay later here in the sunshine state than most winter visitors do. We like to pretend we're local — and we're happy to enjoy the less crowded conditions.

Linking to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

May 12, 2024
The lovely month of May

It has always seemed to me that the first of May means Spring is really here — even if the season officially begins in mid-March. When we lived in the Pacific Northwest, March and April were just teasers — leading up to this grand month. Here in Florida, there's not a whole lot of difference, but I still feel like the season really began last week.

At the Canal Cottage morning skies have been beautiful as usual. But May is really all about seasonal flowers .. and nostalgic memories. When I was a child, on the first day of May, kids would fill hand-made paper baskets with garden flowers. We'd hang them on the door knobs of our older neighbors, ring the bell and then run and hide. We just knew people would be delighted with their surprise. I do think people expected and enjoyed the custom back then.

Spring 2020, Oregon

When our own kids were quite small they would make baskets for their grandparents and maybe a few neighbors, but they'd be delivered by properly knocking at the door and visiting for awhile. By that time, the days when door-knock surprises were welcomed was pretty much over. May was a wonderful month for flowers in the Pacific Northwest and we always enjoyed sharing bouquets from our gardens (but not as surprises).

Most years since we retired though we have been away from our home state during the Spring, either traveling or here at the Canal Cottage in Florida, where Spring is different. The daffodils and the beautiful tulips in the collage below are from the most recent entire year we spent in Oregon (2019/2020 — you probably remember why).

The tulips were blooming beautifully in our daughter's and son-in-law's garden when we arrived at the end of April 2019 after our shortened season at the Canal Cottage. It was like a special added welcome in that year, when we were even more thankful than ever to be safely back home and near family.

In ordinary years lately, by the time we arrive in Oregon Spring perennials have finished blooming for the year.

May is a great month for birds too of course — this Stellar Jay is a more recent Florida photo and so are the neighborhood flowers below:

Local Spring flowers –Florida

Colorful tropical (or almost tropical) flowers bloom pretty much all season around here, but it seems to me that they really put on a show this month, before it gets too hot and rainy for them during the summer months .

Another Florida picture — this one from the archives.

This photo shows more than one species of Florida Spring birds enjoying some shallow water similar to the more recent picture in last week's post. This one was taken a few years ago near the same place, but it's a much better view of the Roseate Spoonbill, here showing off an impressive wing-span.

Grateful to enjoy our beautiful Spring here and grateful for Spring memories from the recent and long ago past.

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NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

May 5, 2024
Ding Darling Preserve

We drove to Sanibel Island one day last week hoping to see some of our favorite Florida birds at the Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve. And also to see what's happening with the island's hurricane restoration efforts.

A pair of Ibis in a dead tree

Roads to Sanibel were closed most of last season, but opened toward the end of the time we were here. We drove across the bridge back then to look at the beaches and homes, but the devastation was still so sad. I thought I took some pictures on that drive, but apparently I threw them away out of sorrow as I couldn't find any for comparison. It seems like most homes are recovering or recovered now but the beaches are still undergoing massive restoration. People were still using some of them anyway.

We're not beach people though, so we were really here to drive through the preserve and look at birds.

There was an Osprey nest on the other side of the road from this male and he was singing (screaming) his heart out at it. There was a bird in the nest but she wouldn't put her head out far enough to to even acknowledge his efforts — or for me to get a picture

Ding Darling Reserve wasn't opened last year, so we hadn't been there for quite a long time. It used to be lush with mangroves and cypress trees. Now there are a lot of dead trees, but nature is recovering — new growth is emerging and some mangroves survived.

But birding was disappointing — we didn't see much at all on the refuge's famous Wildlife Drive. It's a four-mile one way road, with lots of pull-off stops and viewing platforms and we've usually seen more birds than we can count. Maybe we were too late or it was too hot and wildlife certainly doesn't have to appear on our schedule. But we did notice that a lot of the water was heavily green with algae. And we wondered if that made a difference. The most birds we saw were outside of the wildlife drive just as we were leaving the refuge.

Here on this barely visible puddle in the dead grass, were at least five different species of birds. (This also makes me think there may have been something wrong with the water on the Drive where they would have had so much more room.) Identifiable birds in this picture are a Roseate Spoonbill, immature Ibis, and Snowy Egrets ("Yellow slippers"). We also saw Great Egrets, adult Ibis, and a Great Blue Heron in another puddly clearing just a few steps away from this one. Not very picturesque with all the dead foliage, but at least we saw some birds.

Now to go back home to our Canal. The picture below is from an earlier day this season:

This is the Canal where we live. I took it from the back of our boat as we exited into the Caloosahatchie River. Our Cottage is on the left of this picture, but about halfway down, so it doesn't really show here at all. On the other side of the canal, the motor home (RV) is parked in a space where there used to be a house. It was one of over 30 homes in this resort destroyed by Ian. We were lucky. It's an ongoing reminder to count our blessings.



LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to the hosts:

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

April 21, 2024
Fly Away Home

Yes, it's time to close things down here on the Canal and head back to Oregon. So FullTime-Life is on a planned blog break for the rest of June. We're taking the long way home and doing some traveling, but as is the norm most years lately, we'll be home in July. With pictures I hope.

We leave the Canal Cottage in good shape and with fingers crossed that it will still be the same next season. In spite of all the hard work, it hasn't been a bad season. We enjoyed some good getaways and are grateful for all accomplishments. (Although I hope we never have to repeat what it took to get to this point.)

Hope everybody enjoys the beginning of the new season wherever you are.

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June 4, 2023