Florida Fauna

Cormorant right off shore

As I mentioned before, we saw a lot of art museums in Florida. My family visited two places regularly whenever we went to a new place: an art museum and a zoo. As a family we appreciate animals and birds. Both my parents and I are birders and we are all fans of getting to see animals and wildlife whenever we get the chance. I did a lot of birding in Florida. We saw Anhingas, cormorants, ibises, pelicans, and tons of gulls and sanderlings. The favorites were the tiny sanderlings that fed at the shore, running in and out of the waves. Birds were everywhere. It was wonderful.

Great Egret just hanging out near the Ringling Art Museum

Birding was done on the beach and in the car, but we spent plenty of our time looking at other things. Our first full day in Florida, we headed out to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, to see both their star (Winter, the dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale) and the rest of the aquatic residents. Clearwater's Aquarium is a rescue and rehabilitation center for marine creatures. Winter, the big attraction, is a dolphin who lost its tail in the lines of crab trap. The aquarium has taught Winter to swim with a prosthetic tail. We watched one of the training sessions as they explained how the dolphin got around regularly with and without the tail. Winter was interesting but I was more captivated by some of the other less famous residents.

Winter with her prosthetic tail

There were injured turtles who couldn't submerge after collisions with boats or fisherman which was heart-wrenching. I was so happy to see that these beautiful but damaged creatures had a place to go where they would be taken care of. There were otters, one of which had been hit by a car and the other that had been orphaned at too young an age for rerelease. But my favorite was a dolphin named Nicholas whose mother had beached herself (because of an illness) when Nicholas was very young. Both dolphins had been horribly sunburned and Nicholas' mother had died. The dolphin was now 11 and was quite the flirt. He'd swim by and check us out and pose for the camera. The white on his topside is where he was sunburnt. But my favorite part of the aquarium was talking with the volunteers and trainers. Everyone was so passionate about helping injured animals. It was incredible to see these beautiful animals being rescued and cared for.

Nicholas flirting with us

On Thursday my parents and I ended up in downtown Tampa to see the well recommended Florida Aquarium. After touring I can see why it was recommended. I don't remember the last time I visited an aquarium that I enjoyed so much. This had fish and birds I'd never seen in zoos or aquariums before. There was whole section on seahorses and other similar style fish, most of which were new to me. There were local Florida birds in vast open areas of the exhibition (one poor man even got pooped on by a Roseate Spoonbill). The main tank had a wall sized glass and benches set up, to just sit and watch the schools of fish swim by. As we were heading out a woman with a penguin in a cart stopped to tell us about them. The aquarium was both educational and beautiful. The fish and birds were well kept. Everything was sparkling and clean. It was lovely to see so many creatures well cared for at both aquariums.

Roseate Spoonbill with great aim

Seeing animals in aquariums is one thing, but seeing them in the wild is always a huge thrill for me. On Wednesday we drove north to Crystal, Florida to swim with manatees. Sadly I have no pictures of the day. I didn't bring my camera on the boat and I don't have anything that would work underwater. We had hoped to get the chance to swim with these incredible creatures and I'd found a number of companies that offered excursions. We chose Manatee Tour and Dive, because it didn't have pictures of people touching or hugging manatees on their website. I wanted something that respected the space that creatures need in the wild. They were a fantastic organization. We went for a two and a half hour tour with Captain Casey who took us out snorkeling to see these incredible animals. I had no clue how big manatees really are. They are like small cars underwater. My favorite encounter happened by accident. As we were heading back to the dock, Casey turned the boat back around after spotting a lone manatee out by an underwater spring. It was incredibly clear water and there were hundreds of fish around. But it was the manatee that made me catch my breath. We watched it surface to breath twice, completely undisturbed by us. The second time it rose, it stopped to watch me for a second and then returned to the bottom to rest. It was huge and slow and covered in algae and I realized just how beautiful and old these creatures look when they aren't in a zoo and scrubbed clean. Gentle giants of the water. So beautiful. So peaceful. It was an amazing day and an amazing trip.

The curious Epaulette Shark that walked rather than swam

Sandy the Penguin in his rolling glass wagon

The Bird

The bird above is the one that got me into birdwatching. It was the bird that made me pick up my binoculars and once I viewed those gorgeous stripes down its back, I was hooked. Birds were suddenly everywhere and I was suddenly paying attention. I'm not a good birder but I'm learning. All because of this bird.

This is a Red Bellied Woodpecker. We have a pair of them that nest in the dead tree along our creek. I heard them one afternoon and grabbed Jeff's old binoculars to see what was making the noise. It was a strange call. I followed the call and found the bird, and was struck dumb. The stripes on its back were beautiful. The red head was such a wonderful contrast. From a distance I hadn't seen half the details. After that, I started watching birds regularly. I bought a new pair of binoculars. I bought bird identification books. All because of this bird.

If you're staring at this bird and wondering about the name, notice the picture at the tail end of the post (tail-end, get it?). The Red Headed Woodpecker has a red head and plain black back. The Red Bellied Woodpecker has a red head, black and white stripes on its back...and a red belly. You can only see it occasionally. Like as it flies away. Remember that most birds were named after being shot and held in hand. A horrible way to name a beautiful bird.

New Years

I like transitions. For some reason new years and birthdays fill me with the same type of hope and wonder. I believe that all things are remade. For a couple days I believe in omens. Two years ago I posted about how the moon would be strange that new year. I joked about omens. Now I'm more of a believer. Two days later I broke my ankle, an injury that will continue to impact me for the rest of my life. Tomorrow I'll look for omens that will signal how the new year will go. Today was a beautiful way to end a year.

I had amazing day with the love of my life. Jeff and I relived the old days by waking up and suddenly deciding to go out of town. We used to take spur of the moment trips all the time. The plan was that we would hit the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge to do some birding and hiking (for me). Then take the back roads to Tanger Outlet Mall and to Iowa City for dinner (for him). Before we could get out towards Neal Smith, Jeff said that we had to take a detour. He wouldn't tell me where. I had to wait to find out. I didn't have long.

Every bird you see here is an eagle (some juvenile, some mature)

There is a lake between Des Moines and Ankeny where we had seen a ton of American Coots a couple summers ago. We headed out there, not for the coots this time, but for eagles. There were hundreds of bald eagles spread throughout the trees around the lake. We had the camera and tripod and were able to take some pictures. I hadn't seen this many bald eagles since our trip out to Rock Island. And the weather was perfect for viewing. If I was looking for an omen of a good year ahead, this was it. That many eagles in one place, and right along the road, was incredible.

After some time (and way too many pictures) we hopped into the car to go out to Neal Smith. We're blessed to have this fantastic refuge so close. Neal Smith has been working for years to bring back the prairie to Iowa, something that had been nearly eradicated by development. Jeff and I hiked the long trail at the refuge because it takes us right down next to the enclosure where the buffalo roam. We were rewarded with a huge herd. And some good position for pictures. With the tripod I could take some nice close-ups.

After Neal Smith, there were back roads drives, tons of shopping (I picked up some books and a really nice new robe). Then we headed to Steak N Shake for dinner. Neither Jeff nor I had eaten today so this hit the spot. Steak N Shake is a guilty pleasure. We don't have one in Des Moines so it seems more like a treat. Then we headed home talking the whole way. It was a fantastic day. And a nice way to end 2011. I had a ugly piece of mail (a rejection letter) but I'm trying not to let that damper the day. Now to see what 2012 has to offer. Hopefully plenty of days like this. Happy New Year all.

Bird Books

Over the last couple years I've become a birder. It started innocently enough when I began reading the Birdchick's blog and learning more about birds. I've always wanted to take nature photos and loved her images. But after reading for only a couple weeks I started noticing the birds around me. I bought a bird guide, which eventually became three or four bird guides. I bought a cheap bird feeder and have gradually moved up to good feeders. I can now recognize all the birds that come to my feeder. And I'm starting to venture farther afield to find more birds. I've become a birder.

So it's no surprise that I've started buying nonfiction titles about birds. This past week has been bird book week. I started with Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Christopher Cokinos. Cokinos tells the fascinating and tragic tale of six bird species that have gone extinct: the Carolina Parakeet, Passenger Pigeons, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, the Labrador Duck, the Great Auk, and the Heath Hen. I was well aware of the Passenger Pigeon but knew very little about many of the other birds. Cokinos points out that Passenger Pigeons were described in the early 1800s as wonderfully prolific. Within 50 years, they were extinct. An amazing reminder of how fast a species can go from populous to gone. Cokinos includes history of the birds, speculation about their extinction, and his own personal journey to recapture the essence of these birds. Many of the birds have been extinct for a hundred years but Cokinos tracks down old specimens, old environments, and personal descriptions written by the people who actually saw them. An amazing book, sad but inspiring.

After the difficulty of extinction, I wanted something a bit more uplifting. Tim Gallagher's In Search of Birds and Wild Places fit the bill. Gallagher is a falconer, a photographer, a birder, and an adventurer. Tim takes the reader along on some amazing journeys to some of the more remote places on earth. He describes traveling in Iceland and Greenland, searching for gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons. He describes hanging off cliffs in icy weather, boating past icebergs, and trekking in places that few people have every walked through. He describes the beauty of North Padre Island, Texas and Churchill, Manitoba. He visits California to try to save the California Condor and Alberta Canada to watch Prairie Falcons. These stories made me want to get out exploring. I want to photograph birds and nature and spend time in places that no one else have visiting. A fast read that inspired.

My next book is A Year on the Wing by Tim Dee. I've heard good things about this one and am excited to start it. I wonder if I should branch out into other types of books. I figure eventually I'll hit bird overload. But for right now I'm enjoying the birds.

Sight, Unseen

I promise that tonight I will post the rest of the information about the trip. I had planned to last night but as I was leaving work I called a friend that I hadn't talked to in way too long. He and I ended up on a wonderful two and a half hour conversation that ran me right until dinner. I made up a quick veggie wrap and some fruit and then right after I finished eating Jeff offered me the chance to get to the library. I've been trying to go all week so I couldn't pass it up.

So tonight I'll post about Skagway and Glacier Bay and we'll be finished with Alaska. I have a ton of amazing pictures from Glacier Bay. It will be tough to choose between them. But I also have other plans tonight as well. Over the weekend Jeff and I went out driving. We spent a lot of time on gravel roads just getting lost and seeing what we could see. We stopped in Winterset (Birthplace of John Wayne) and shopped their square. I found my favorite bakery of all time, The Madison County Dessert Factory, and one of the coolest shops I've ever been in, Le Collage. I bought a wonderful steampunk key necklace. I'll post pictures of that tonight. But mostly we just drove. And as we drove we looked for birds and wildlife.

Madison County Desssert Factory (Photo from KCCI)

Jeff is amazing at spotting hawks and other wildlife and I tend to be a little slow to finally see what he's pointing at (There goes that career as a wildlife photographer). But this weekend he put me to the test. Not only did I have problems seeing the birds but I had issues seeing the street signs as well. I couldn't read license plates that he could see easily. I couldn't make out billboards from a distance. And we both decided it was time to get my eyes checked.

I haven't had new glasses in almost a decade so I would not be surprised if my eyes have changed substantially. I bought these glasses shortly before our trip to Disneyworld in 2004. Six years is a long time in the world of glasses. I've noticed that I've had to squint far more to read things well. I've lost most of the leaves off the trees into just a mass of moving green. So tonight I'm heading in to have my eyes checked and to possibly get a new pair of glasses. I'm excited. Glasses are a treat, a once in a blue moon type of purchase. And I'm always shocked by how well I see after a new pair.

I still remember the first pair I put on. I had worn glasses for protection since I was six months (stupid bad eye) but right before my first year of high school, my parents realized that I needed glasses for sight. I found glasses I liked and I can still vividly remember the first time I walked out the door with them. I was shocked to see that the trees had individual leaves. That houses had individual shingles. I simply couldn't see them before. So here's hoping that is the case tonight. I'm excited about the new glasses but I'm really excited to be able to see clearly again. I'll let you know.

Early Fall

I'm sitting on the couch typing in front of my front window when I hear an odd sound. Particularly an odd sound for August. The leaves are rustling on the front patio. That's when I look up and realize that half the leaves in the tree are yellow. The trees at the other townhouses are the same way. All day the wind has been blowing strongly and the leaves are falling.

The summer has been one of the coolest on record. This July has not had one single day over 90 and we've had most of our nights below 60. There has been almost no rain and no serious storms to speak of. So I think the trees are confused and are heading into fall early. I know that I've been confused. I keep thinking it's September. My sweaters have not yet been packed away for the season. The office is constantly freezing. It simply doesn't seem like August.

With this said, I've been enjoying a little bit of outdoor time this weekend. Jeff and I went driving yesterday and found a new lake to explore. We got lost and discovered a beautiful new neighborhood with some incredible houses. We spent some time walking and just hanging out. And my big excitement for the weekend is a bird feeder. (Yeah I'm apparently old). I finally bought a feeder and hung it up yesterday. I've been avoiding buying one because of my mother. She feeds the birds, obsessively. It's a testament to her generosity but she carries it to a bit of an extreme. I don't want to get to that level. But I figure one won't hurt. Now I just need a bird to find it. I've been sitting in front of the window, playing on the laptop, and watching for the birds to arrive. I love Sundays. I just wish I didn't have to rake in August.

Weekend Update

I'm pretty bad about posting over the weekend. Not sure why but it might be that over the weekend I don't often sit at a computer that isn't playing WoW. Yesterday I leveled my new Paladin all the way up to 22. I never realized how much I would enjoy a melee class. She's a ton of fun to play and I'm just starting to learn how to take on three to four mobs at a time. I had been meaning to create her for a while but was stuck on the name. I finally decided on Hretha, a norse word meaning "the Victorious". Sadly Hretha was already taken on a couple servers, Eonar being one. So she became Hraitha. I'm enjoying getting to hack at bad guys with just enough spells in to make the character interesting. 

The rest of the day was spent reading and watching Scrubs. I'm completely addicted to the show and am going back to watch the first two seasons. It was a wonderful day. 

This morning Jeff and I went to breakfast at one of my favorite brunch places and then headed out bird watching. I've started bird watching seriously and am going to try to get into digiscoping heavily. We went up to one of the state parks and it was originally a little light. But after watching a rather intense Canadian Goose fight, we spotted a Bufflehead (interesting looking bird), a Red-Headed Woodpecker (which Jeff found by sound), and a ton of American Coots. But our most exciting find for the morning was a River Otter that spotted us and came swimming right towards us. We both got great looks. I only wish I had dragged out the camera. Then a car went driving past and it ducked underwater, not to be seen again. 

I'm not sure what I'll be doing this afternoon but for right now I can safely say this has been a fantastic weekend. Hope everyone is enjoying theirs. 

A Bufflehead 

Gooses, Geeses

Okay yesterday was all rant and darkness. Today is all goodness and light. The difference, about 20 degrees. Actual temperature degrees. The weather hit 68 today which for March, is a veritable heat wave. I decided to celebrate by grabbing a sandwich and heading out to the nearest lake to soak up the warmth and the rays. Apparently so did everyone else. The lake (Grey's Lake for those who live in Des Moines) was packed. They have added some really nice facilities there and now it has become the place to see and be seen.

Not looking for a crowd, I headed right across the street to Water Works Park. I followed the paths back deep into the park, stopped the car, and ate my lunch while sitting on the hood of the car. It was magical. Just me and the geese. Now I know what at least some of you are thinking, Canadian geese are nasty. Many people seem to think of them as pests. I think they are beautiful. The colorations on them are really pretty when you look close. And they are so much more interesting than ducks. Plus you have to admire the waddle. It's almost comical. I got out my binoculars and watched them walk gingerly across the frozen ponds. I had a small group that came pretty near to the car. They didn't beg and I didn't feed them. (there are signs up everywhere) We just sat and calmly ignored each other.

I'm terrible about getting out birding in the winter. I know there are many species that stay over the winter and that I should get out to see them. But the layers I have to wear and the cold keep me from really enjoying. So I tend to stay in during the winter. Which is why I'm so ready for spring. Today felt like spring. I walked back into the office with a deep feeling of calm that I haven't had in a long time. I felt relaxed and refreshed and ready. Thanks to a beautiful day and some geese.