Winchester VA to Ithaca NY

Our departure was our usual crack of dawn [9:00am] after filling up the tank for $31.06.  These prices will soon be history for us, so I'll brag about them while I can.

Traffic started out reasonably light but more and more transports joined us as we moved northward.

The 'fun' started when we drove into Pennsylvania: the temperature went down to freezing, then the snow started.  

At mile 45, there was an 'incident' and we were expected to have major delays.  The snow stopped and the major delay started: we were essentially parked or creeping forward for about five miles, or, to put it another way, it took us about 40 minutes to drive 5 miles.

The 'incident' was a tractor trailer that had flipped over and essentially dumped its load in the ditch.  They were stacking hundreds of large boxes on the side of the highway, then loading them into a waiting tractor trailer while another crew were still moving the bigger chunks of what remained of the incident causing tractor and trailer onto flatbed trucks. The gawking over, traffic resumed at its usual 5 to 10 MPH over the speed limit, and then the snow started up again, this time with a vengeance. Every bridge had the usual sign, "Bridge freezes before road", so many cars and trucks slowed down to nearly half the speed limit of 60 MPH.

At times visibility dropped to less than 100 feet, so slowdowns were frequent.  Then a group of fast boys came along so I tucked in behind the one with the brightest tail lights and eventually, we  were making up time again.

We arrived in Ithaca NY for a couple of sleepovers to visit Joan's cousin Keith and Marty. We had hoped to be here by 3:00pm but we were about an hour late.  All in all, a successful drive to the sounds of an audio book, and the windshield wipers.

It's now below freezing, the night sky is clear, and Joan's already sleeping.  Time for me to do the same.

Fort Myers > Jacksonville Fl > Winchester Va

We're on the road again, heading home.  We had a great send-off from our southern friends after leaving a tasty Italian night supper at the pool. 

Our intentions were not to leave right after the party, but stories of slow moving traffic on Interstate 95, combined with our packing already being done, helped us decide to leave on Sunday night, right after the party.

Mind you, pool parties and similar events at the Pelican Preserve usually end before 9:00pm, so our decision wasn't much of a surprise to anyone.

After hugs, promises to keep in touch, and tearful eyes, we were off.  ...only to return moments later as I had forgotten my meds...  The old squirrel / shiny object thing: I guess that's a guy thing, but I digress.

After a fill-up at Walmart, we hit I-95 at 8:00pm sharp.

Whatever traffic there was, travelled quickly and I just fit in with the boys in the fast lane.  There were no delays of any sort, just the usual construction sites where the fast boys slowed down if workers were present.  Otherwise, it was near 80mph all the way, in 70mph areas as well as 55mph constructions zones with no workers...  Needless to say, we made very good time.

We stopped for some sleep around 1:30am in Jacksonville Florida: quite an amazing accomplishment considering the expected snow-bird migration traffic that we had expected.

A  rather lazy start after the 6:30 wakeup call, we were on the road at 8:00am.  The gas fill-up in Georgia was under $35.00, and later in the day, we put in 15.9 gallons in a 15 gallon tank for a paltry $31.16!  $1.959/gal. in the Carolinas.

The scenery was stunning today: the early morning clouds threatened poor driving, and yet they were actually quite beautiful.  The threat never materialized and we had clear driving all day except for about half an hour when we had showers, but nothing of any consequence.  Much better than what had been forecast, and we're OK with that.

Some of the scenery was stunning: the spring colours of budding trees, and shrubs, gave us a rainbow of the most intense colours possible.  Even the terrible Kudzu invasive vine is beautiful in full bloom.  The Wisteria was also in its prime.  What a wonderful sight: Spring!

We stopped for the day in Winchester Virginia, our sixth state today, at 7:00pm. [Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia].  

Tomorrow should see Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York as we go to visit Joan's cousin in Ithaca NY. The weatherman threatened bad weather in Pennsylvania, but the storm clouds we spotted on the way to the Outback Steakhouse had dissipated when we walked back across the street to our Country-inn suites room a while later.

Much as I don't want to jinx the rest of the trip, I must admit that so far, out trip North has been very quick and uneventful. Well maybe not completely uneventful: we did see dramatic and threatening clouds, and we did see a forest fire on a mountain near the highway.  Too bad, stops 'to make photographs' is not considered an 'emergency stop'.

I hope the returning snow-birds have a smooth trip home as we've enjoyed so far.

Swallow-tailed Kite

Sometimes I'm lucky, sometimes I'm very lucky and today was one of those times.

Yesterday we had supper with Phyllis and Dave, both avid birders who have been great mentors. As the four of us drove over to their place in Sanibel, we spotted a swallow tailed bird which we dutifully described on arrival.  Their well reasoned reply was: a Swallow-tailed Kite and we were congratulated for spotting it since it is apparently quite rare.

As mentioned, today I was luckier; just outside our door in Palazzo, not one but two Swallow-tailed Kites soaring around like good raptors do. 

The car is pretty well packed, peace has replaced panic, and the world is unfolding as it should.

Life is good!

Harn's Marsh

Harn's Marsh facilities consist of a dirt parking lot and a walking path through a fence that goes along one side of the large marsh. 

Most times when I've visited, I've seen two or three photographers shlepping top-end DSLR's on honking big tripods.  And I should mention their gargantuan telephoto lenses, the type that start at over $8,000 and can easily and quickly top $20,000.  I just proudly hand-held my old used 90 mm for which I paid $5.

I've mentioned before that most birds will poop just before taking flight. This Glossy Ibis obviously didn't get the memo. 

A couple of weeks ago, on an adventure with Jan, Joan spotted a pair of Sandhill Cranes with two young ones.  I was driving and there was really no safe place to stop, so I drove on.  I've been regretting that choice ever since because the young ones were just a little shorter than the parents, and they still didn't have their flight feathers: they were just big fluffy balls of down.

At the marsh, we saw such a pair with young ones, but this time, the young were much smaller, and the foursome wasn't going to stick around to model for us. They crossed the gully behind the walkway, upped the steep slope and vanished into the woods.

Note how well they hide themselves in plain view.

Next is an overview of a small part of the marsh with two snowy egrets flying away from me. All these pictures were made with the same 90 mm lens, so this is the only un-cropped picture in this blog entry.

The remaining shots are of a Tri Colour Heron, in full breeding plumage. He's sporting a very blue beak, white feathers at the back of his head, and rusty brown feathers on his back. The birders I was with had never see one with such a rich blue beak. These colours are straight from the camera, not enhanced.

The first shot has our heron with an inch long fish in his beak. The Tri-Colour heron has interesting fishing techniques: He jumps up, flies a few feet and lands quickly, dunking his head to resurface with the catch.  You have to catch a lot of fish this size to feed this large bird.  Mind you, they also catch bigger fish around the 5 - 6 inch size.

Cameras capture a very thin slice of time: sometimes this results in showing you something the eye is much too slow to see, like this face. 

The next shot is about a tenth of a second later, no face.

In the last two shots, our bird is stopping abruptly while making a fast turn to the right to show a different view.

I hope you enjoyed the marsh as much as I did.

Ding Darling, Sanibel

Starting at the end of the day, we went to the Lighthouse area of Sanibel, hoping to find some shells reputed to be there.  Well, things were different: no shells, more people on the beach than we've seen before.  More people in the water also, strange since we've seen bull sharks along the coast... 

Don't forget you can click on any picture to see them all larger.

Ding Darling preserve on Sanibel is a great place to see shore birds. Every Wednesday, around 9 am, a group of volunteers starts out on the road around the different coastal shore tidal lakes. These volunteers include a few new friends who are serious birders and know more about birding than I can ever remember; but it's fun learning from them.

Ding Darling is a large preserve where there is a road that circles the tidal lakes, so viewing the birds means driving slowly around the area with stops where the birds are. It's a very pleasant experience, especially when you know the docents who are most knowledgeable and very friendly.

This first shot is of a Cormorant getting ready to dry his wings.

Here's another Cormorant drying his wings with a White Pelican watching. The White Pelican is the largest bird in the area: I think it has a 9 foot wingspan...

Remember when you see a flock of birds flying together as if they had a co-ordinated mind?  Here we have such a scene.

And another.  In this next scene, they seem to be performing for a judging team, in this case, four White Pelicans and a Cormorant, or maybe it's an Anhinga.  Whatever, these are the same birds performing, twisting and turning for the pleasures of onlookers.  Actually, they were likely distressed and exiting stage right.

Every now and again, the photo opportunity is not of birds, but something else in the area. The next two pictures are of sand crabs.  The next one shows the single big left claw being waved about for some reason or other: likely for reproduction...

This next picture is of a seriously handicapped crab: he [or she] doesn't have a large right claw. Pity.

All in all, we've had quite a few very pleasant adventures on Sanibel, and we've barely scratched the surface.  If you're ever out this way, make a point of learning all you can about Sanibel, and try to experience its very best.

The Reserve at Pelican Reserve

Sometimes the best laid plans just don't work out as planned.  I went to the Preserve area and the butterfly garden within our community. I'm still trying to stalk the elusive red headed woodpecker and shoot it just to prove that they really do live nearby.  There's a good reason, but that's another story, for another time. 

The reserve did have a lot of music provided by the birds, but they seemed to be better than usual at hide-and-seek.

I suspect this might be a Carolina Wren, but I'm far from sure.  I heard the Carolina Wrens everywhere, but my model refused to sing.  Cute though...

Not so cute, and actually quite dangerous, is this cottonmouth snake, just enjoying the heat of the spring sun.

This guy is over three feet long and quite venomous.

Lichens grow nearly everywhere in dampish areas, and the slough is damp to say the least. Lichen come in many different colours and decorate tree trunks throughout the swamp. This white patch is about a foot high and the lichen made this floral shape for our pleasure.  Some say this is really the deposits from the side-shitter forest-thrasher, but I'm not so sure.  

At any rate, it shows a certain good health of the eco-system nearby. Some designs are simple, some so convoluted or widespread that they defy description.

As the heat increases in March, the reptiles come out in force to sunbathe and do other things that spring breakers do...

This little guy is sort of asking a question, but I can't guess the answer.

The ferns are in full growth and here's the underside of one in full bloom [of sorts]. The brown is made up of thousands if not millions of spores that might eventually start new ferns. You can just get a hint that the top side of the leaf is the usual fern green.

Next is a fascinating [to me at least] little spider man. He's about the size of my small finger nail.  Of course, the 'face' is actually his behind, but who cares about the details right?

The next three shots are of the Zebra butterfly. Note that the underside is not just a bleed-through of the backside colours.

Needless to say, the butterfly garden was fairly active today.

As I mentioned, not as planned, but I hope it's of interest.  Enjoy!

Palazzo

Pelican Preserve is the name of our gated community. Go to: Pelican Preserve if you want to read all about it.  Within the development, different housing areas are grouped into 'local' communities that share housing styles like, four story condo [ours], two story, semi-detached, bungalow singles  etc.  Each one of these areas has its own condo name: ours is Palazzo.  Palazzo is literally at the end of the road, two miles from the only gate into and out of this development.

These two shots were made looking out of our lanai on a foggy morning: first looking left then right. The grass is part of the condo called Palazzo, the trees and background is part of one of the three 9 hole golf courses, part of the greater base infrastructure of Pelican Preserve. 

As with many cookie-cutter designs, our entrance is just like any other in this four story building of 24 units.

The two windows on the left are the kitchen windows and you can just see through to the lanai in the back.  You can see the edge of the front door, with the window on the right belonging to the front bedroom. The right side of the photo is darker because it is shielded from the outside by the elevator.

The building on the right is our building: the brake in the roofline of the relatively empty car-port is at the middle of the building, and the walkway to the prominent staircase, elevator, storage area leads to our unit behind it.

Same building, different view leading to the end of the road turn around.

Notice the Cairns Enclave and our fine old Solara seem to be the only ones in the car-port, a pretty rare event.

In front of the third building on our side is the Palazzo pool, available to the residents of Palazzo only.

The fourth building on our side is not quite finished yet as a fifth building is being started next to it, and another slated to start across the road, next to the pool.

This is our pool area, looking back to the building pictured earlier.

Stepping to my right, similar view with the hot tub in the foreground.  I'm not sure why they need a hot tub when the pool is in the eighties, but I digress...

This is looking into the pool building that has washrooms, a kitchen [shown] and two gas BBQ's next to the building.  It's a welcoming area that is well used and host to Tuesday pool gatherings where Palazzo residents and friends show up with munchies, food platters, and desserts to share stories, meet new friends and generally laugh a lot over a few drinks. Fun!

What's a pool without noodles?

Next are two views from the area in front of the pool kitchen.  Imagine tables grouped together, people eating, drinking and laughing a lot, so it must be Tuesday.

Another external view of the poor house, oops, I meant pool house.

That's our building, just out of sight, at the end of the road.

Foggy mornings allow for some neat pictures of local trees...

 

And here's Peter and Cragen out for their morning walk. If plans become reality, this field may eventually have two new buildings, just like ours...

Tired Puppy

We've talked about shelling on Sanibel island, mentioning the thrill of the chase, the sunshine, wind and waves.  The trip there often lasts a frustrating hour, and the trip home can be longer, due to traffic.  All this to say even a relatively poor shelling day is exhausting, so the trip back to Palazzo can be quiet...

In a brief moment of wakefulness, Joan made this picture of Chris; one tired puppy. 

...picture of a thousand silent words...

The Preserve at Pelican Preserve

Our gated community is fairly large, with well over two thousand units, and expanding.  The original plan set aside about 38 acres of natural areas where a boardwalk was installed so you could go through this large natural area. A butterfly garden is at one end of this Preserve, and the main part is mainly a cypress swamp.

The community has many interlinked ponds throughout that make the golf courses and housing areas interesting and quite scenic.  Some of the larger ponds like this one are constantly aerated: quite spectacular since the fountain is at least 20 feet high.

This shot was taken on the way to the Preserve; you can see the small bridge leading to the boardwalk into the bush.

Next is a shot of the meandering boardwalk through the mixed wood [primarily Cypress] swamp.

At this time of year, the reptiles are coming out of their winter hibernation, and enjoying every minute of sunshine and warmth.

I think these next two shots are of a red shouldered hawk flying through the trees: awesome. If you click on the picture, you can see it larger and maybe you'll notice that this hawk is carrying a foot long stick that has an air plant near the end of the stick, about 8 inches behind the tail feathers.  If you look back and forth at the photos,  you'll notice that the stick and plant are also flying through the trees, neat!

This Snowy Egret is almost always elegance personified...

Spring and warm places means that even reptiles' minds turn to mating.  This is a before and after showing the 'flashing of the throat' to attract a mate's attention ritual.  I know that there's a much better way to describe this, but procrastination has delayed this post long enough...  The flash lasts about one longish second, but if you're looking at these rocks, you'd see the flash quite nicely from about 6 feet away.  I guess the flashing must work since there are many of the ghekos, anoles, lizards, or whatever these guys are...

 Next is a blooming bush / vine named the Queens Wreath; it's also called the sandpaper vine since the leaves feel just like fine sandpaper. It looks very much like wisteria from a distance and you often see it covering arbours and other structures where it can drape down like wisteria. Notice that the flowers are not identical: some are male [left] some are female [right].

Next is a neat fritillary butterfly: neat because the underside has very bright white areas that look like chrome in the sun, while the back is fairly non-flashy.  The first shot shows an upside-down fritillary where you can see both sides of the wings.  The shot that follows is the much more subdued backside.

See if you can see the water snake just reaching the shore. If you don't see this footlong snake, I hope you still enjoy this shot made at the same pond as the first shot in this post.