14 posts tagged “florida”
This weekend, I spent a very chilly windy day at one small part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It's about two hours from where I live. I was a little worried that I might get there and find acres of just grass. Not so!
The Refuge is incredible. It is 140,000 acres sharing a boundary with the National Space Center. It was originally set aside as a Buffer Zone for the Space Center in the 1950's.
The terrain is not impressive, but the entire place is massive.
Since that time It has been tinkered with in a variety of ways to make it more habitable for both wildlife and people. I was really really impressed with the entire set up!
Not only are there areas that are attractive to birds,it also contains an area of undeveloped beach which is popular with Loggerhead Turtles during breeding times, and the endangered West Indian Manatee. There are several miles of hiking trails, as well as a Manatee observation area.
In the winter the Wildlife Service allows the area to essentially "flood" the marsh areas. The flooding allows
for the growth of foods attractive to water birds and attracts many many water birds, big and small to the area. During the other months, when birds are not hanging out so predominantly in warm, sunny Florida the waters are allowed to ebb and flow with the tides of the rivers, which I think reduces Mosquitos as well as is a more natural state I suppose for the area.
(Above is a Flock of Pelicans, on their way to Pelican Island another wildlife refuge adjacent to Merritt Island).
What impressed me most is that a great deal of the wildlife is very accessible to people who are not huge hikers. There is a 7 mile "wildlife observation drive" which has been placed so that one actually can observe a ton of activity just from the road. In fact, almost all of my photos were taken from the road. I think sometimes that Wildlife areas are so lovely, but that many people don't even get a chance to get interested because if they cruise through by auto they see nothing, and think Booorrrrring This drive would have gotten anyone excited about seeing more. Not only that, but, access to this area is free! It really is accessible to all who can physically arrive in Florida on the Space Coast.
So without Further Ado, let me show you all what a real Anhinga, snake bird, should look like!
Anhingas are a little unusual. Once they get wet, they really have to dry their wings, so it's pretty easy to get this photo. I think thousands of amateurs like myself have this photo! It's so dramatic, but frankly, unless you really really purposely disturb this bird, it is not going too far until those wings dry up!
I can't help but share two photos, I couldn't decide which I liked better.
It was a very very windy day, making things rather chilly and sometimes blowing me around as I tried to hold the camera steady, you can see the feathers of this Great Blue Heron being upswept by the wind.
By far the most exciting thing I saw all day was the field of Roseate Spoonbills. I knew of the bird, but had never seen it.
A lot of Florida tourists mistake these odd looking birds for Flamingos. But, as Flamingo Dancer will tell you, a Flamingo has longer legs and a dark blackish heavy bill. Like the Flamingo, the Roseate Spoonbill gets it's pink color from the foods it eats. The Spoonbill mostly eats crustaceans. The algae that the crustaceans eat gives the birds their wild pink coloration.
They use their shovel like Bill to sweep from side to side...there are actually odd little sensors in their bills allowing them to sense their dinner.
They are really funny looking birds, who are extra social, and seem to spend most of their time in huge groups, unlike the Great Egret , which can be seen all over Florida, usually alone.
The Spoonbills are so social, they will even hang out with any other wading birds. They aren;t judgemental about others not being quite so pink and pretty!
I caught these Ibises flaying out of a group of Spoonbills.
The White Ibis birds are very common in Florida, and hang out at pretty much every retention pond in my area. I loved seeing them in a more natural atmosphere. They are easily known by the very obvious curved beak.
Most of the birds pictured here (with the exception I think of the Pelicans) were at one time threatened or endangered due to Hat fashions of the Victorian Era.
Thankfully, these hats have gone
rather out of fashion....and the birds have subsequently recovered.
All of the birds pictured here are considered "LC" or of the least concern these days.
And I am quite pleased to not have to wear such hats
to stay in fashion!
So, thanks to changes in fashion and sensibilities, we now have flocks and flocks of these impressive birds to challenge my photography skills.
I love this photo, If you look at it carefully, you will notice the bird, which was flying oddly solo, has the oddest little tilt to it's head. This tilt made me laugh, it gives the image of an aviator trying to navigate.
Most of the time, however, the Roseate Spoonbill in flight appears more graceful than the above photo.
This is the same spoonbill, with its head in a less cocked position. As you can see, they really are very very pink,
but they are clearly not Flamingos!
As I said, I was really really impressed with the area of the Wildlife preserve I visited. I was a bit concerned that I was going to prepare my camera, make a long drive, and find that the wildlife, being wildlife, would have retreated to areas that can't be accessed by humans, either on foot or in a vehicle! Instead, most of the photos were taken right off of the "wildlife viewing drive". The Drive is seven miles of gravel road, with 14 or so stops that are marked. At several of the stops are short 1-2 mile looping trails that allow people to get out deeper into the habitat. At stop nine (where the Spoonbill in flight pics were taken) is a 5 mile loop with an awesome observation deck). I walked the 5 mile loop. While the loop was fun...there were so many mosquitos, I actually eventually wanted to rip off my pants (which were being bitten through) and roll in the scratchy grass.
I would really recommend this to anyone who has even a passing interest in birds and wildlife. It's free, so you won't feel like you wasted a ton of cash on a short visit. I regret that I didn't have binoculars!!!
And on that note.....
I'll share the view I had, as the light started to go.
I hope you enjoyed the photos! (I'm a little overly proud of myself...)
I have not been running this week because I seem to have strained my right calf severely. It doesn't hurt much to walk on it, but when I put the full impact of running on it, it was really terrible.
So, in lieu of the running, I took Teulu the wonder dog out for a 6 mile walk. (He needs to lose about 10 pounds, so it was part of his diet and excersise program as well...)
Oakland park is not really a park. It's a very small lake (about 1/2 mile around) with a gravel path, a picnic bench and some swings at one area. It is situated on the West Orange Trail about 2.5 or so miles in.
As with most Bodies of water in Florida, This sign is posted.
This is the only place with a 1-800-gator program...but they really are a problem at times. I have been to this park so many times, I was convinced there were no gators, but I was wrong.
The lake is home to a lot of wild life. It's one place where I can ensure constant sighting of the little blue heron, egrets, and a variety of other lizards etc....
I personally like to photograph the frogs. Frog photography is pretty tough with an overly excited dog. this particular frog obliged even with the dog pacing wildly. Eventually though I did not supervise the dog carefully enough and he decided to jump into the pond to cool off....
Keeping in mind the sign I had just seen I was a bit frantic to get him out. He did climb on out within minutes (he was still on a leash) now wet and covered in the green weeds. THis is the only photo I got of him. Not a pretty sight, but it does reflect his enthusiasm.
Sort of. His tail is not as fluffy as normal as it soaked in pond scum.
We kept moving around the pond after Teulu's unexpected descent into the deeps.
Fall in Florida is a bit different. We don't get a lot of "Fall color" like up north. and right now its about 83 degrees F at 8 pm. But we do have subtle seasonal changes, like the seed pod below. Seeing a whole vine of these is like looking at fairy lanterns. I know its probably some sort of noxious weed, but its very fall like, and cheerful....
and while we dont have fall colors we do have some spooky Halloweeny sights:
Moving around the pond, we photographed, and then startled a Great Blue Heron.
Which moved and then pretty much posed and posed for me until I actually got sick of photographing it.
But I did get some pictures of the bird.
At that point, I was being attacked by many mosquitos. So I decided we should move away from the water. Suddenly I hear a scratching noise on the ground, and a very large sploosh. Definitely not a frog. It was the Alligator I had been searching for for months! I was definitely too close to such a creature. From what I gather about Alligators, they are not exactly bright, as UF states they are mostly just prey driven predators.
This is the wide angle of the pond.
As we went back up on the gravel, away from the gator sploosh, I then spotted another Gator resting on a log. It does look like I am right beside him, but I have a long zoom.
This is the other view of an alligator which is more often encountered.
It's often hard to tell if it's a log or a gator, but this particular log moved about 10 minutes after I took the photo, so I am sure it was a gator....
Anyway, theres my latest photography. I hope people enjoy.
On Friday, I went to Ponce Inlet, for a little day trip. It's about 1.5 hours from home. I must have misread the information on the Internet because I had this crazy notion that it was a dogs allowed beach. Well, I was unfortunately wrong about that. but we still had a nice trip and I have photos to share.
Ponce De Leon inlet is a small town about 12 miles south of Daytona. Daytona of course is famous for Bike Week and also for allowing cars on the beach. (No dogs, but yes on the cars...)
Along the beach you can indeed see people, mostly with SUV's parked and then planted a few feet from their cars. I guess in the US, where we do have a love affair with our cars its not surprising!
The population of Ponce inlet is maybe 3000 people. From my visit I have concluded that at least half of them are older men with Leathery tans who enjoy wearing Hawaiian Shirts...
They ride pedal bikes around town and seem to be some of the happiest people around. I couldn't help it, I kept hearing Margaritaville the entire day in my head....
This inlet, formerly known as Mosquito Inlet, is one of the most treacherous ones in the Southeast.
Apparently since the 1500's ships have been wrecking on the sand bars.
The inlet was apparently explored by Ponce De Leon, who may have recognized the inherent problems with the inlet and sailed further north to settle St Augustine
which apparently has easier access to the sea.
The Mosquito inlet was claimed at times by France and Spain but except for the planting of some orange groves apparently the area was not a priority.
In 1821, Florida became American territory, plantations were drevived from earlier days and the inlet became again important in shipping...it also remained dangerous. A lighthouse was constructed there in 1834. Oddly, while the lighthouse had a great deal of current technology for the time installed, oil for the lights never arrived and so it was never lit. Continuing in the vein of bad luck, a hurricane arrived in 1835, and damaged the structure so badly that it now leaned. In December of 1835 the Seminole tribe attacked the listing lighthouse, burning the stairs, smashing the glass and absconding with the light reflectors.
It was said that the leader,Coácoochee, was later seen wearing the reflectors as a headress in the Battle of Dunlawton, a few weeks later. I searched and searched on the net and could not find an image of this, which must have been quite a fantastic sight.
Due to the Seminole War going on , no one came to repair the lighthouse and in 1836 it simply fell into the sea.
Fast forward fifty years later, the Seminoles now eradicated by war and disease, Ponce Inlet is now becomeing important in timber supply for ship building. the Inlet, however, remained a challenge. And thus, Congress once again approved money for the construction of another lighthouse.
It became very obvious how strong the need was when one examines this statement from the Halifax Gazette
"out of the eight or ten schooners employed in the lighthouse work five have been wrecked..." on the bar or in the river."
This lighthouse still stands in Ponce Inlet and is one of the most completely restored lighthouses in the country. At 176 feet high it is also one of the tallest. Due to this, I am surprised it isn't more well known.
The entrance of the Museum sports this quote... which I suppose is appropriate for the times.....
It has over 200 steps and visitors can actually climb up the lighthouse and walk about the decking for an excellent view of the coastline.
Now would be the moment for me to insert my photo of the magnificent view of the coastline, yes? Well, when I attempted to leave the poor puppy, he protested rather loudly, leaving me to abandon any hope of climbing the lighthouse.
Nevertheless, despite not being able to go to the Beach, the Lighthouse or the Marine life center due to the dog, I actually found a lovely nature trail that appeared to be a dogs allowed kind of place.
At the end of it, there was an observing platform about 4 flights of steps up, so it was very pleasant to get up there and have a great view of the lighthouse from above the trees, and some of the coastal birds...
At the time I was taking the photos, I thought this was a hawk, but now that I look at the beak, sadly I think this is a turkey vulture. Aw well, it was having fun bobbing and weaving about in the breeze....
No trip to the coast would be complete without Pelicans..
Another view of the lighthouse, from the platform. It does appear to be leaning, but I think it was me who was doing the leaning!
ANyway, I really think this is a great place to visit. It's tiny, lots of free parking, the beach is pretty nice (I am not a fan of the cars however...) the Marine life center has some cool things to see, as well as the lighthouse museum. Great for a stop-over, not a destination....Just don't bring the dog, he'll be disappointed!!!
Well, this week was somewhat improved. I'm really still sore and achy and feeling sort of distracted.
This is the part of training that I dislike intensely. I have lost a bit of my base, it is coming back, but while it is coming back running is very much a chore.
It's hard to get going, and hard to continue. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to doing it at all I seem so far from the goal that I just feel like quitting entirely.
In fact, I have to keep reciting things in my head regarding the benefits of running.
Mostly I focus on:
Its great for my heart
It is good for my waistline
I already am committed to a race.
And then I sort of get grumpy.
But it's a phase that I go through each time I stop running for sickness or things like stressful home sales!
I have to run through it, literally.
This week I managed to do 3 runs and one session on the ellipitical trainer.
If you count the ellipitical I did 16.5 miles, which is much better than the 6 I did last week.
If you dont count the ellipitical its 14 miles. Still good. 2 4 milers and a very difficult Six miler.
It HOT here in Florida. Now, I know a lot of you are saying...
Geee, DUH. its Florida. Yup, it's Florida. But we are having record Heat. Heat indices at 110. So, I hope thats part of why some of the runs have been a little difficult.
Apparently at the end of this week we will be dropping back to the 80's which is great....
So, this is the week in Runnning. This week I have an odd schedule as I switched with someone. I'm hoping to increase up to 18-20 miles, but we'll see, That six miler just about did me in.
Until then I am trying to be
I think I can.... I think I can... I think I can....
Before I was struck by this hideous illness I took the dog to a local park, in search, I admit of Alligators. Unfortunately, I went in the early morning and apparently Alligators, being creatures of the heat, were not readily apparent. But it was a nice trip, yielding some photos...
The Palatlakaha recreational area, really is mostly a recreational area with sports fields, and a Ginormous wooden castle for children to play on. But, it also does have a small little natural area which houses all sorts of interesting plants and ceatures.
Or at least Teulu found the entire trip very very interesting...
as you can see below. I couldn't even get him to turn for the camera for this shot!
It looks like he is staring into a green meadow but it is actually a little stream, covered in algae etc...
THis area was a little shady, with some enormous elephant ear style plants...
they look sort of small in the photo, but I swear, those leaves are two to three times the size of my head.
In the shade, a Butterfly that is particular to the South lives abundantly, the Zebra Longwings.
There were bunches and bunches of them in the trees, but very hard to photograph them as they were sort of folded into the trees and only flew out lazily once in a while.
We then went down to the little dock where a lot of locals seem to enjoy fishing...
On the way there we encountered some of the biggest Garden spiders I have ever seen...
Luckily they are peaceful spiders, so I avoided them and they avoided me. Their webs are enormous and I would hate to get tangled up in one accidently..eeeeww sticky.
We saw a lot of signs warning of the impending gators.
No feeding or, as it were, provoking....or enticing. I wondered how many 10 yr olds know what enticing means...
Teulu looked pretty carefully out at the water, but in the end, we had to conclude:
sometimes a log really is just a log..... No gators were sighted at all. SOme of my friends state that this is a good thing, but I sure do wish once I would have the chance to not entice, but merely photograph from a safe distance one of the states most famous creatures...
Teulu continued to poke his head in and out of the fencing....he almost got it stuck a few times but always managed to pull it out all the way....
Despite the lack of Gators, we did spot a few other Florida wildlife gems:
A heron, who stood perfectly still no matter how close I got... He or She never even turned his head....
And a very nice Spicebush Butterfly. Spicesbushes are very common in many areas of the US, but not so much in Florida...
So I was happy to capture it on film.
All in all, this little park would be a great place to bring kids, and it was definitely an interesting place to spend the morning....
A little bit spooky, but not too much!
As for me, I am still pretty ill. I am going to try to go back to work tomorro. I am unsure how that will go. Wierd sickness. I was feeling miserable with aches for a week or now have started with cold symptoms...which I assume will last another 7 days. running has taken a total back seat. while it wasn't the Swine flu for sure, it has been awful. I am a terrible sickky sooooo. Hopefully I'll be writing a real this week in running by the end of the week.
Wow. Running in the last couple of weeks has been really trying. Florida is Hot. I like the heat. This heat, however, is getting to be a wee bit oppressive.
This morning at 5 am it was 80 degrees and 95% humidity. This is a little bit extreme, even for us. The rest of the day is normal, but...it just doesn't cool off at all at night. This is the first week out of all the summer that I have had to sleep with the windows shut and the AC on.
It's so humid that we had a rainbow the other day in the clouds but we never actually had any rain..
With this weather, I, and it looks like several others have been having some problems. I've seen people running at 4:30 and 5 am which is very unusual. My town is not that developed yet and so there are lots of area without street lighting, so its very very dark. Unfortunately even going out that early has not seemed to help.
With this weather, I've been seeing a lot more water stops being pre-planted all over. Normally, people just sort of pre place water or gatorade in bags on the ground, but here, even water seems to be "got at" by ants. So instead...everything is pretty much in the trees. which takes a little getting used to.
some people prefer the bag tied to the tree, but others go a little more natural route.
which is to stick the bottle directly in the tree.
Hopefully our weather will change for the better, its just a difficult time to run through.
So next time you see something like this...it's probably not trash....it's just a pre-plant for some runner!
Well, I should probably write a little about training. It's been up and down indeed.
My left ankle still has the issue of bone growth around the Achilles. I go back to the Podiatrist in a few weeks to see about the radiographs and what he will recommend.
The plantar faciatis in my right foot is pretty much gone. I can still feel some tightness, but given my flexibility it's probably just about as tight as a regular person's facia. So thats a nice thing.
I can still run on the left foot and ankle, and like many injuries it tends to start to feel better during the middle of the run and then worse as the run goes on. I'm not really sure what I need to do about the foot/ankle. The Podiatrist recommended stopping running on it, but the actual running is not making it worse. It gets unbearable after a day of walking about the Emergency Department...on those hard concrete floors. My plan is to get a pair of more cushy shoes like Asics or Brooks, with a low heel tab thing. A shoe where the part encircling the heel doesn't come up very far. My left foot feels better when I wear shoes that don;t rub the sore spot on the achilles, so some shopping will soon occur.
Because of the advice to go easy on the running and probably a bit of my own laziness, I've been slacking. Most of my weeks have been between 10-15 miles. I've been running 3-4 days a week, mostly errrr, 3 days a week.
Unfortunately, I have the Space Coast Half coming up in late November....it's a blast, literally....
So I really want to run it. I wanted to run the full Marathon, but my slacking ways have interfered.
In the first week of February, I have a Marathon planned....
with Dudes like this to spur me along, i don't want to miss this race. The race is pretty flat, essentially a run twice around the intercoastal, and over the drawbridges.
Another reason I want to run this particular race is that my friend Monotreme
has stated a definite interest in running this race with me. Monotreme ran my ill-fated half Marathon in new Mexico last year. He was a blast to run with despite my miserable performance. I am hoping with a little better training and no fever cough cold vomit diarrhea going on, I can do a little better this time.
So. I have some work to do!!!
I plan on upping my miles form the 15 to about 20-25 by the end of August. Then up to Thirty by September.
I have a funny feeling that from now until February, not much more is going to happen in my life except the running.
Lets all say prayers that my ankle holds up until February.
The great backyard bird watch happened in February. So, I decided to go and make some photographs at a Heron Rookery that I had been watching for a while.
Herons always seem to be such solitary birds, that seeing them all nesting together was a little unusual. though it is typical behavior for them. I just didnt know!
Any way it was really fun. The nests are on the edge of a highway and I thought I was going to have one nest to look at, but as I was looking I could not complete counting the nests and such. The birds are adept at disguising themselves, so it was always a surprise to find another one peeking out.
So, there are at least 5 nests in this photo, can you spot them?
the birds are really so dramatic that I thought I'd share what photos I was able to capture.
this one is feeding and checking the nest.
I was signed today for Florida Hospital East...
Yaaay.
They signed me for 24 weeks. So I am rather excited. I wont have to move or change anything except jobs. Its a bigger busier hospital so it will be a challenge.
But this is so much better than very cold Wisconsin, or other places I was considering.
I'm very excited. I qualify for a completion bonus, and the pay rate is 8 bucks more an hour than what I am making now. Of course I imagine I will earning those extra 8 bucks, every penny of it.
I'm feeling much better now. I was getting pretty stressed out and starting to eat wierd things...
I'm in for my first Florida Storm. Tropical Storm Fay is making landfall as I write. I've been in Hurricanes in North Carolina, but, we don't really have them with the same intensity as Florida.
Am I prepared? No....not really. I had just gotten home from shopping when I heard the State of Emergency Warning. I was a bit stunned to see a State of Emergency declared when the storm itself was in the Domincan Republic, but of course this is Florida, and the DR is really not that far away.
I have some extra water and I hard boiled some eggs, thats about it. Tomorro, I am planning of getting some flashlight batteries, extra dog food, etc. Of course, by that time it may be a little too late, but I tend to think not.
Amazing the things i have heard though. I was at work all day no television or internet, so I got news of the weather from the incominng patients. Some said it was going to be a Cat One, another said a Cat three and another said just huge amounts of rain....So, essentially no one really knows.
Olympic News.
Lopez Lomong has a disappointing finish to his Olympic career, in the Semi Finals. I still Adore him. I hope we'll see more from the King of Flagstaff!!!
Usain Bolt is a Phenom on the same level of Michael Phelps. He does less races, but...sooo fast.
Damu Cherry of Clermont Fl and the National Training Center, looked hot tonight on the Hurdles. And I am cheering for Walter Dix....as he is lookinng really good.
Really loving the track and field. I sure hope that my cable doesnt get knocked out during this storm!!!
I hope everyone is enjoying and for those of you Floridians....stay safe!
