Patience Pays Off

The drogonfly came back. His favorite bugs must live on the dead branch of the plumbago. Charlie would scare him off, and I would stand still waiting for him to take a rest. Each time he stopped it was on this branch.

While waiting for the dragon fly to come back, I got shots of Susie and Charlie.


Susie just loves the sun.


I had a discussion with Debbie the other day. I found a camera that might be even better than owning a DSLR. It has an 18 zoom on it, which is like having a 500 mm lens attached. I said, "I'll wait 'till the end of the year. The prices will come down."

She played devil's advocate and asked, "what happens if it comes down and a DSLR comes down?"

The Giant Swallowtail in my yard made the decision for me. He was still. I ran over to get a patio chair to stand on, because he was so high up in the bushes. I only got off one shot. My autofocus wanted to focus in on the leaves surrounding him. I need a camera that I can turn off the auto focus and manually focus. When the prices come down it will be the DSLR. Even though a 500 mm lens will cost me a fortune.

The sports mode on my camera can't stop these wings.

I've got to stop fooling around. I have work to do, luandry and finishing the bathroom.

Magenta Dragonfly

I just love watching these things fly around the backyard. You most likely won't get a reprieve from this until I get a picture of the blue and red ones that zip around the yard. This guy didn't land in an prime lighting area.

Close Encounter on Friday the 20

The one day I didn't bring my camera to work, a turtle came up out of Lake Seminole to find a place to lay eggs. I only had my camera on my phone to take a picture. I finally retrieved it from the phone.


She had found a place. 2 hours later I was able to go home for lunch, get my camera and get another picture of her. I didn't want to get too close.

She's so ugly she's almost cute.

Polydamus Swallowtail

This butterfly is really hard to capture. He just doesn't want to stay still.


Another View


Whoops this isn't a butterfly. It's a hungry puppy.

Nature Preserves in the Area

There's a small nature preserve on Indian Rocks Beach right of Gulf Blvd. (The website says it is between 9th and 10th Avenue on Gulf Blvd. I can't believe I've been driving past it all these years.) When you first enter it, it looks like a small park in a small town. The board walk will take you all the way to the Intercoastal, and with it looping like it does, it makes it a nice little walk through the mangroves. The picture of the Heron was taken in an area that still needs to have some tall plant life. You can see the condo's too easy, except in this collage. (I know I'm at it again. I decide to take the less impressive photos and create a collage.)


Deb should live by the The George C. McGough Nature Park in Largo. (If you are traveling west on Walsingham Drive, it can be found to the right, just before you hit the bridge that takes you to the gulf beaches.) They have a turtle pond, and you can buy turtle food from the Gumball machine. This area must have a lot of turtle fanatics, because when you walk up on the deck, they come swimming over to you, their mouths open looking for a meal.

I know Deb will yell at me for writing this, but I think the Florida Soft-Shell Turtle has to be the ugliest turtle I have ever seen.

A Return to Boca Ciega Millennium Park

This time I had company. Linda, Deb, and Mayra took the canoe and I took the kayak.
We hit the water approximately 4 hours before high tide. The tide chart showed the tide as being above +1 by 8:00 am. I prefer mornings to afternoons. You see more wild life, and at Boca Ciega you don’t have to hear the personal water craft. Those people aren’t early risers .As you can see from the picture Mayra did the rowing, while Linda relaxed.

Mayra goofing off. Forgetting to clean the lens filter after getting water on it, wasn't the only think I forgot. Shortly after taking this picture, the phone in pocket began to vibrate. I went to answer it, and it wouldn't stop vibrating. That's when it dawned on me that I had let it get completely submerged. Yep, the cell phone is dead. Time to buy another phone.

When we left the island, Deb took Linda’s spot. Linda had used Mayra’s water bottle for an ash tray. Deb and Linda got a good laugh with Mayra took a drink of the cigarette infested water.

The birds were out. I could have sat in the kayak and watched the osprey dive for fish. Sorry I didn’t get one picture that was worth keeping.

I like this picture of the Heron drying himself off.

Another day at the beach.

Are you looking at me?

On our way back in, they didn't make the turn, and ended up in the grass. This picture may not look like it, but they are going backwards. I think Deb was a bit embarrassed, as she should be. Not only was I taking this picture, but people from the tower were watching too.

Dragonfly in the Back Yard

I came home for lunch to let the little ones out. I again left my camera in the house. I went back in to grab it, and when I returned to the yard, as I suspected the dragonfly had flown away. I stood around the corner of the yard i had last seen him. He came back. I got about 12 pictures of him. Each time I would take a step closer. This picture was the closest he allowed.

Weedon Island Preserve

I dragged Linda kicking and screaming to buy a canoe. (It’s OK to go out alone occasionally, but I wanted someone to go out with me, especially to places further away from home.) I explained to her a canoe would be good to have when family comes to visit. I know my Mom and nephew would want to go to some of the places I’ve mentioned, and Bruce and Rose would be game to paddle through the parks in Pinellas County.

This morning we awoke at 6:30 am to prepare for our trip to Weedon Island in St. Petersburg. Got to Mayra’s around 7:30, and off we went with Linda as the navigator.

I thought we were lost half way there and pulled over on a side street. Linda kept telling me we were on course After she reminded me that she had navigated from Bellingham, WA to Seminole, FL on our move down here in ‘99, we had no problems finding the place.

Weedon Island Preserve has over 1,000 acres, and 4 miles of canoe trails. (And thank goodness those trails are marked through the mangroves.) The shot I have of the launch site was taken when we were coming back in. Linda wouldn’t let me take a launch shot. She was still in her “I really don’t want to do this. It’s going to be hot, I want to go swimming in a pool, I’m hungry, and ...” mood.

We didn’t see the markers until we had grounded ourselves on the oyster beds. Once we say the signs with the numbers, we were smooth rowing. We’ll sort of. Turning a 14’ canoe around some of the bends wasn’t easy. Most of the time we found ourselves heading into the mangroves.


Some of the trail is so narrow you have to stop to let someone pass. That how I got the picture of the man in the kayak, going the opposite direction.

After we had made it out into the bay, Linda had had enough. She was hungry. We switched places, and she took the oar and the bow. I finally seen a Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, but as you can see I didn’t get a great shot. Linda was determined to turn the canoe into a cigar boat. I swear we had a wake, with her rowing.

I did get a shot of an immature Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, because we had stopped to let some kayakers pass.

The preserve is next to a power plant.

Before I turned the bow over to Linda, I got a picture of a Tri-colored Heron in a dead tree.

Linda is a convert. She is ready to go out next weekend. "It's so relaxing." That's what I have been trying to tell her.

After the trip, Mayra treated us to lunch (Thank you Mayra) at The Pub on Indian Rocks Beach. I had no problem sitting there watching the boats come in and out, and the dolphins swimming.

By the way, if you are wondering obout the semi circles. I bought an adapter for my Kodak Z612 that allows me to use a filter. When I'm out on the water, my lens was getting wet. With the filter, it is now protected. Wide angle shots are affected.

Backyard

I came home from lunch today, and caught this picture of Giant Swallowtail. One of these days I will remember to take my camera out with me. I had to run back into the house to get it. By the time I got back out into the yard, he was almost through hanging out on the Plumbago.

I Forgot

Yesterday, while I was at Boca Ciega Millennium Park, I took pictures of some Kayakers from the tower. It wasn't until I returned to the Park to launch my kayak, that I encountered the kayakers I had photographed. One of them had a beagle. I looked over my photographs again, and zoomed in on one of the pictures. I know the picture isn't very clear, buy you can see a woman with a beagle. I can't imagine Susie riding on a kayak.

Boca Ciega Millennium Park

After taking the girls for their walk, I decided to check out Boca Ciega Millennium Park. I wanted to see the kayak/canoe launch. When I go there, I seen 3 people preparing to launch a canoe. I thought to myself, “these people didn’t check the tide chart.” The water was so shallow.

I walked around the board walk and still couldn’t figure out where these people were going. I figured they were going to walk a trail to the water like I had seen 2 guys with fishing poles do.


I finally climbed the tower, because without the tower, you can’t see the water through the mangroves. I heard a man ask his wife, “have they launched that canoe yet.”

“No”, she replied.

He walked to that side of the platform and looked down at the people preparing to launch the canoe. I said, “ don’t see how they can do it. The water isn’t very deep.”

“This is high tide.”

High tide. As you can see, from the picture on the left, the water doesn’t get very high. And I would say the launch is a good 40 feet back from the board walk.

Then I asked myself, "I wonder when high tide began?"

"I’m only 15 minutes away. I could go home get my kayak, and be in the water in 30 - 45 minutes from now." I jumped in the car, looking at the clouds out the window, hoping we weren’t going to get a storm any time soon.

Got on the computer to check the tides. (I’m a dork! The park posts the high and low tide times for the month at the entrance of the launch site.) Good news as I sat down with the iBook, high tide was 12:49 and the time on my iBook said 12:35. I was in business. Smeared sunscreen on me, filled the water jugs up with water, (after I had to replace the 5 gallon bottle on the water cooler.), loaded up the kayak, put Charlie in her crate, and said to myself, “forget the bathroom tile. I’m going kayaking.” (By the way, we have to take showers at Art’s because I have the bathroom torn apart.)

It is so cool. To get out into Boca Ciega Bay, I had to paddle through this mangrove tunnel. This was truly a Florida experience.

Once out in the bay, I seen a Reddish Egret. I turned the kayak around to get a picture. As you can see, he posed for me.

From the tower and the water you can see the multimillion dollar homes of Redington Beach and Madeira Beach. I didn’t have to worry about the people in the boats zooming trough the water. The area I was in, the water was about 3 feet deep.

It all came to an end too soon. Thunder in the distance told me it was time to get out of the water. Other people, including 3 guys standing in the water fishing, ignored the distant booms. The weather changes too quickly down here to ignore the the thunder. I’ve heard of people hit by lightening on the beach, and there wasn’t a cloud over the area.


I just had to find the mangrove tunnel. Pinellas County could do a better job of marking the way back to the launch. I used the tower for my marker. (I had water on the lens. )


Coming back to the launch I had a spectator.

On my way out of the park I had to slow down for a Gopher Tortoise. Once he crossed the road, he really started to move.