A Full-time Life

Category: Florida birding

Beautiful Beginning

Here's a look at last week's sunrise from our dock:

We had a couple weeks of "Winter weather" in Florida, but it seems to be over for now. Days are warm and sunny.

On the same morning, just a few steps away from the Cottage, this red-bellied woodpecker was doing his best to make sure the neighborhood was awake. Next is a picture of what's keeping us close to home these days.

The multi-talented travel planner in the family is wearing another hat these days as he adds a new bathroom to a corner of the Cottage. Photographs are to show him where the infrastructure is located when he needs to know after the walls are finished. I'm including just this one picture for our own memories. The rest of these pictures are follow-up from a nature walk the week before last.

Hickey Creek Park is a mitigation park originally established to protect the endangered Florida Gopher Tortoise.

Environmental mitigation is an attempt to offset the detrimental impacts of development on native plants and animals. The land for this park was purchased through a conservation trust. Usually, a walk in this park is a serene almost jungle-like experience (but with established trails). And indeed, most of the time last week it was exactly that. Except for a while during the first portion.

I knew there had been a prescribed burn early in November. This sign at the entrance explained the benefits of the burn. One section says that the burn reduces overgrown vegetation, resulting in a more open landscape, including for keystone species like the gopher tortoise. It says the burn will increase soil fertility and vegetation re-growth. Controlled burns also reduce wildfire danger by reducing overgrown vegetation. Controlled burns mimic the natural process that existed before population growth required them to be suppressed. I understand all this and I'm glad it happened. But even so …

… I almost turned around and gave up on my walk before it really even started, because this is what it still looked like almost three months after the burn. I was glad to read that the fire had been monitored closely by trained burn professionals, because it is scary to think of it being out of control.

It seemed like longer than it was as I walked past the burned area before again seeing the beautiful woodsy landscapes that I remembered from other years.

Here's one more beautiful morning from our dock:

Winter morning, Florida style.

Thankful for good weather and beautiful views, even when we don't really go anywhere.

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NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

February 6, 2022
CYPRESS DOME TRAIL

Real moon and fake stars (fairy lights) from our screen porch

(Last Sunday)

It was cooler last week with some rainy days, but no more bad storms. There are home improvement projects going on here so the rain is OK and so is the cooler (for here) weather.

But we chose a sunny day on Friday for a short hike on the Cypress Dome Trail, part of the CREW Watershed. It's a few miles from home, well out of my comfort zone for driving through city traffic, so I was happy that Bill (who is the one actually doing the home-improving) was willing to take the time.

The particular trail we walked was part of the CREW Caracara Preserve. It was an interesting area – a mixture of palms, palmettos, and hardwoods surrounding prairie-type lands.

It was a perfect day for being outside. We saw a couple of woodpeckers and spent a few minutes watching a murder of crows chasing a couple of much larger hawks, but no Caracaras. So no good sightings of the bird the preserve is named for, but also no sightings of the Florida Panthers or bears for which this is also a habitat.

We did see panther tracks though!! You could see where the big cat had been bounding along the trail we were on. I would really love to see a panther in the wild, but would just as soon be in a car or shelter of some kind when I do.

CREW stands for Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed and the CREW Land and Water Trust is a private non-profit conservation organization dedicated to preserving wildlife as well as the watershed. The organization maintains public trails and some camp spots in several different areas in Collier County. We hope to visit more of them this season.

Although we didn't see Caracaras on this day, we have seen them a few times in other places in Florida. Here is one of my archived photos:

The Crested Caracara is Mexico's national bird. (Some people call it the Mexican Eagle.) It is a raptor with a face that looks like a parrot. In the USA it is seen only near the Mexican border and in Florida.

Grateful for the work of CREW and happy that they open the trails to the public.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

January 23, 2022
Winter in the (not always) sun

Sunny Saturday — 75 degrees F in the neighborhood and hardly a cloud in the blue sky. But then on Sunday …. We were actually under a tornado alert for a couple of hours. The picture on the right was taken this morning from our covered porch after it was safe to go outside. Our phones buzzed the warning at 8 a.m. and continued every half hour until 9:30. We had no damages in our immediate neighborhood — just a dark morning with lots of wind and hard rain. Other parts of our area were not as lucky, but as of right now I don't believe there were any fatalities or serious injuries.

Harriet guarding her home

I stopped by the Eagle Pasture on Saturday. Our neighborhood pair are raising two eaglets this season. As always, the very popular SW Florida Eagles nest cams shows way more than any picture from the ground can. But I like to stop by a few times during the season just for fun and maybe for bragging rights. The pasture is really close to our Cottage and just off the main road we travel for everyday errands. It's fun to know that people from all over the world are watching the nest and we can easily be there in person. I just checked the webcam and Harriet is feeding her babies. The rain and wind obviously didn't bother them a bit. And besides that the sun is shining again now. Weather is changeable here.

This is one of the other residents of the Eagle Pasture — one that you won't see on the Eagle Cam. There are always at least half a dozen horses within camera range and they are often followed around by cattle egrets.

I always like to include an un-zoomed picture of the Eagle tree, just to show how far away the fence is. The eagle family is safe.

Here is a link to the webcam. You have to put up with some ads but after clicking on the video they go away.

LINKING this week to the following. Thank you to the hosts:

NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.

January 16, 2022
FLOR-ORADO – two favorite places

Here's the nature walk of the week here in Florida. These pictures are from Ann Olesky Park on Lake Trafford, in the Northeast corner of Collier County. We had some rain last week, but on this day, the sky was blue and it was shirt-sleeve weather.

Lake Trafford

Lake Trafford is about a 45 minute drive from home and we had to drive about half that distance in order to return a couple of packages. When we got to the UPS facility, we found that the Internet in that part of Fort Myers was down and we were unable to make our returns that day. So we did some accidental birding — something that's not at all hard to do around here. Little Blue Herons and Ibis are both fairly ordinary birds here, but these are the first ones of the season. Actually of two seasons, since we weren't here last year and neither of these guys hang out in the Pacific Northwest.

Like its title, this post is a mashup of two of our favorite scenic states. The following pictures are from last month's visit to Colorado.

Aspen trees make wonderful photo ops, whether a picture is a golden stand in the distance or a close-up showing the thin white outer bark, so different from other deciduous trees. And they are a fascinating tree. "One aspen tree is actually only a small part of a larger organism.   A stand or group of aspen trees is considered a singular organism with the main life force underground in the extensive root system." This Source article is well worth reading : National Forest Service Tree Profile.

Debbie's Meadow and Chimney Rock

We went along for Max's walk at Debbie's Meadow one day. We had a good view of Chimney Rock. Scenes from the original "True Grit'" movie were filmed here. And although I'm not much of a John Wayne fan, of course now I want to watch the movie again because I don't remember any of this.



On another day Geoff drove us over a Jeep trail to the ski resort city of Telluride. It was a beautiful drive and not anywhere near as scary as the sign makes it sound. We trusted our driver! It was on this drive where I took many of the scenic pictures from the past couple of posts. We enjoyed a good lunch and a walk around Telluride, which wasn't too busy during this off-season time of the year. (I don't imagine we would have been driving that back road if it had been ski season.)

It was almost impossible to stop taking pictures of Colorado gold! We were so lucky to be there at just the right time. But November is a pretty nice time to be in Florida and we're glad to be home. The picture below was taken a couple nights ago from our back porch. It's not the best moon shot ever, not even the best one I've ever taken. But like the birds in the top photo, it's the first one of the season. And we don't have good moon views from our porch in Oregon.



We are grateful.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; WANDERING CAMERA ; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

November 21, 2021
SMILES — REARRANGED

Nothing much new under the sun this week. Or actually under the rain and gray clouds. Rain is definitely needed, so I'm not feeling sad about it at all. And besides there are photo-worthy skies in the archives. Here are a few I re-arranged:

These six pictures are from four of our favorite states. Can you guess which? There's a hint (and an answer) at the end of this post.

No hint at the end about the above plant, but information from any experts is always welcome. It's fascinating that it has green flowers! There's a whole bed of them in a neighborhood garden I walked past last week.

Random soft color from a neighborhood walk before it started to rain.

When I said nothing much new happened last week, I meant in a blog-worthy way — the camera didn't get much of a workout. But things happened. We read, we walked, we ordered groceries, we cooked, "we" worked on getting our tiny trailer ready for some future trips …

And, as usual these days, we got a delivery or two. Now honestly, does every photo-blogger have a mental list of things they wish they'd snapped a picture of? My long list now includes the new mattress FedEx delivered last week. It arrived vacuum packed and rolled in a box light enough for the two of us to carry from the porch. Then we watched it magically inflate to a lovely 14"- thick queen-size as soon as the tight wrapping was removed. I wish I'd taken a picture of that! It's kind of amazing — sure beats the old way when a mattress purchase took two furniture store delivery persons . (Of course this time we had to move the old one ourselves — that was the harder part.)

One of these "wildflowers" is not like the other. Can you find it? Oh wow it's another puzzle. Every open space along the walking path is covered with these little jewels, in about the same proportion seen here. All so spring-like and pretty. I refuse to call them weeds.

This collection may help with the sky photo locations. These animals and birds are from the same four states as in the sky photo — re-arranged in the same order. (* see below link ups)

Thankful this week for the rain (but also kind of glad the sun has peeked through occasionally); for the new mattress that feels almost like it was custom-made for us; and for travel — both memories and future trips now in the early planning stages.

Linking this week to the following: Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

Top row L-R: Colorado, Florida, Oregon. Bottom row: Oregon, Colorado, Washington.

April 25, 2021
HOPE and GRATITUDE

We have decided to head for home (in Oregon) a couple of months early, practicing social distancing while on the road. It's actually hard to know what the best thing to do is under the current circumstances — but when we weighed the options, this is what came out on top. So we've been getting ready to close up the Canal Cottage — a routine we go through every season, but usually not this early and usually not working this quickly. Obviously, none of the pictures in this post are new.

The sign is on a back-road in Big Cypress National Wildlife area. We did NOT turn around then and I hope we will not wish we had on this trip. Usually just keeping on works out pretty well for us.

These Spring Flowers are blooming in yards here in the Florida resort where we spend the Winter/Spring season. The pictures are from another year, but the same flowers (even the same potted plant) are blooming right now. Spring is different here, but we enjoy it. Most snowbirds go home in late March or early April. We enjoy the people, but also (in better years) the quiet after they leave. We'll miss that, but it will be good to be closer to family after this trip. I'm grateful we are able to travel between states.

These were two neighborhood baby eagles a couple of years ago. Actually, I guess, teenage eagles by this stage — shortly after I took this pictures, they flew the nest never to return. This year, the adult pair lost their first hatch and they now are incubating a second pair of eggs. If the first hatch had been successful, the young ones would be flying away right now. This pair has never had a second hatch before and like approximately a million other people worldwide, I'll be watching the webcam and hoping for success.

We usually do some Florida exploring in April and May. These are some of the birds we've seen on those trips in other years and were looking forward to seeing next month. I'm quite sure the lack of audience won't bother the birds one bit . Still, I hope we get to be among their fans again — in person – next year.

Sunset over the wetlands that border our neighborhood

We'll be practicing social distancing while on the road with our new (and very small) travel trailer. I hope to be able to keep in touch with other bloggers as we travel. It is comforting in the midst of all this to touch base. And to see the beauty that still exists in nature no matter what. And to read about how everybody is dealing with the social isolation and all the changes. Reading your blogs makes everything more "real" than the news stories.

(not my picture, not our trailer)

I'm grateful that we have a relatively safe way to cover the distance between here and Oregon (3,184 miles). And, as always, I'm beyond grateful to "the travel planner" for making it possible.)

And I'll really be grateful if that planner and I are still speaking to each other by the time we get the Canal Cottage closed up and hit the road! (We're definitely not practicing social distancing from each other right now as we work together in two small spaces! )

***

THANK YOU to all bloggers for keeping in touch with posts and comments — and as always thank you to the hosts of the following sharing opportunities (which I hope to be able to link to on the appropriate days):

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;   SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

March 29, 2020
KEEPING IN TOUCH …

… in the time of Corona Virus

The first day of Spring in this hemisphere happened last week — but it was kind of overshadowed by all that other news. I hope everybody was able to go outside for at least a breath of fresh air.

We are using technology to keep in touch during the isolation — but for us that really isn't all that different than ever, since we are so far away from family. Just that it is even more important these days.

The Blue Jay pictures above are mine — taken near home (the Florida one) on the first day of Spring. The rest of the pictures were texted to me from further away — also on the first day of Spring. I'm grateful that all of our families are well and able to go outside and breath some fresh air.

The first two below are from Oregon:

A Rhododendron blossom from our daughter and son-in-law's yard.

(in Oregon)

We didn't venture far from home last week. Nature parks and beaches (and restaurants) are closed here. We kept busy — working on the Canal Cottage project and spending some time assessing our various traveling options in light of the current situation. (Traveling back to our home in Oregon — nothing more exotic than that needless to say.)

Cyndi and Jeff's beautiful Black Walnut Tree and the Spring garden under it

The next picture came from our son in Colorado. Their back yard (taken on, may I remind you, the first day of spring). It's definitely an outlier among the blue skies and spring flowers:

Colorado people are strong and healthy and happy in all kinds of weather though (aren't they?) – and anyway, by now, it's highly possible that the snow has melted and the sun is shining.

My sister sent the next picture from a walk in the park near her Seattle home. Our oldest son who lives in that corner of Washington State also texted that he spent the weekend working in their yard.



Perfect Spring Days in the Pacific Northwest! (except for the you-know-what). As the old song said "The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle" – it should have added "when it's not raining." (That is also true for our corner of Oregon .)

(from Oregon)

Don't forget to keep in touch with those you love.

And go outside to play as often and as long as you can.

Thank you to our family for essentially writing this post. It would have been a boring blog with just one picture of a Blue Jay.

Linking to the following: Thank you hosts!!!!

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

March 22, 2020
BURROWING OWLS OF CAPE CORAL 2020

Like probably just about everybody else in the world, especially those in our age demographic, we spent a lot of time last week trying to make sense of the corona virus news and thinking about our options. And touching base with everybody we love. As always, in good times or not-so-good, being outside improves my mood. (And it's an approved activity as long as it's done only in small groups.))

Our neighbor friends told us they had never seen any of Cape Coral's burrowing owls, so we took them on a photo safari around the Cape's maze of streets and canals to some of our favorite places to find these adorable ground-nesters.

Burrowing owls are diurnal — that is that unlike most owl species they are out and about in the daytime. It's a little bit early in the season — by the end of April or May, we will see whole families out by the burrows. Here's a LINK to one of my posts from another year that provides more information.

We need a little color too — so from the archives here are some typical Florida Spring flowers. Gardens are showier and more flamboyant here in the subtropics than what we remember (fondly) from our gardening days in Oregon. Oddly, I found these in the same photo file as some owls from a few years ago — I was searching to see what month it was when I got wonderful pictures of the owl babies. (It was May). And sorting my photo files is obviously something I need to do (and maybe I will – if we end up being quarantined and I get seriously bored.)

Beautiful Florida sky — this one is also from the archives.

I'm grateful this week for weather that allows us get outside — and I'm especially grateful for cell phones and texting — technology that allows us to stay in close and instant touch even though we're far away from family.

Sweet Dreams!

May we all sleep as easily and well as this little guy.

Linking this week to the following:

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; SAY CHEESE; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

THANK YOU to all of the hosts!

March 15, 2020
TARPON BAY and LOCAL EAGLES

Drove to Sanibel Island one day this week — battling heavy in-season traffic all the way! Everybody wants to go to the beach. We forget that fact at least once a year. This time, we also forgot that the wildlife drive in Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge is closed on Friday. (We go to the Island to see birds, not to lie around on the beach).

Royal Tern

So our outing plans took a small "tern" and we hopped on one of the Refuge's pontoon boats for a Tarpon Bay nature cruise.

The Tarpon Bay Estuary is also part of the Wildlife Refuge — we boated past several Rookery Islands (where the birds looked like white flowers from the distance — that's all the closer the boat got, for the safety of the boat and even more important for the welfare of the birds.) The Mangrove trees are important for so many reasons. They provide habitat for wildlife and a natural barrier against wind and storms for animals and people on land.

Brown Pelican

While the Royal Tern claimed Mile Marker 15, Post #21 belonged to this napping Brown Pelican. We saw other terns, gulls, cormorants, egrets, ospreys, and pelicans on posts and on the edges of the water — it was a windy day though and with the motion of the boat (and shaky hands on the photographer) , pictures were hard to come by.

I took the above picture on the causeway as we headed off the Island toward home. Note the blowing palm tree at the bottom … it was a a good day for the wind-surfers!

We're fortunate to have a variety of natural places that are easy to get to for day trips. Some are even closer — on another day at home last week, I stopped at the Eagle Pasture on the way to do errands:

I saw at least 50 Cattle Egrets, plenty of small birds, and several very pretty horses. And only a tiny glimpse of an Eagle's head peeking out of the nest. (The nest tree is the skinny slash pine in the center picture (center of the center picture). No Eagle pictures this time, but as always, it is a nice little nature stop on a day otherwise dedicated to mundane activities. The pasture is right across the street from a supermarket shopping center and on the way to just about every other place we have to go to routinely.

The pictures below are from the archives. Two years ago I had much better photographer's luck with these neighbors.

Our Eagle nest — 2018

And our pair of Eagles had better luck also that year, successfully raising a pair of Eaglets. The lower three pictures are that year's "babies" — just ready to fledge and (in the center) actually flying away for the first time.

This year, sadly, only one of the pair's eggs hatched and that baby died from what was later discovered to be from ingesting rat poison. Adult Bald Eagles will take both living and dead prey — fish, birds, small mammals). Now, at about the time their nestlings would usually be fledging, the pair are incubating a second hatch — two more eggs. This is very late for this climate, so it remains to be seen what happens. There is a very active webcam site for this pair, so you can watch the progress from wherever you live! There are a lot of ads on the site, but the camera angles are good and there are links to several informative sites. Just google Southwest Florida Eagle cam. It's a good and easy way to learn about these iconic birds.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to all of the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday;  SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

March 8, 2020
BABCOCK RANCH TOUR

It's getting close to time to leave the Canal Cottage for the season. So Saturday morning I probably should have been scrubbing stoves or cleaning refrigerators or one of the million other last-minute things that have to be done to get ready. But instead I went to Babcock Ranch.

About eighty percent (0ver 90,000 acres) of this huge historical ranch is preserved as open space, nature reserves, and agricultural use. It is owned by the State of Florida and Lee County. (Part of the ranch was sold to a developer and contains the new planned development city of Babcock Ranch that I have blogged about before.) We toured several habitats — open lands, farmland, swamps, and lots of watery spaces.

Barred Owl

Every habitat had its unique plant and animal life. The above in one of the swampy areas was my favorite sighting. The barred owl was a first-time bird for me! He (or she) was calling its mate — I wish I'd taken a video to share that distinctive sound.

Great Blue Heron

Some of the (too) many feral hogs and one of the (few) Florida cracker cows that make their home on the Ranch. This now-rare breed of cattle was brought here by the Conquistadors. They are hardy and well-adapted to the Florida climate. The ranch is still a cattle operation, but according to the tour guide modern methods allow them to raise more familiar breeds nowadays. (I assume — for better or worse — that means fatter ones.) They will still breed and raise a few of the Cracker Cows because of the historical value.

Feral hogs cause many problems to farms and parks and they are trapped or hunted. (They were brought to Florida by DeSoto in 1539; they adapted well, and breed rapidly. It is estimated there are currently over 500,000 in the State.)

Snowy Egret

Soft-shelled Turtle

Osceola Turkeys

Limpkin

More alligators than I've ever seen in one place — one area was called Alligator Ridge and I counted over 15 in the water there.

This smiling guy soon slithered into the culvert and the pond.

More pictures of the Barred Owl —

just because he was my favorite.

Thank you to the hosts of each of the following sharing opportunities, where I'm linking this week:

NATURE NOTES; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; SAY CHEESE; WILD BIRD Wednesday; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING

May 19, 2019