February Photos

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Photos: Trip to Florida, Day 6, Part 1 -- From Sebastian to Ft. Pierce Inlet State Park

Today we leave Captain Hiram's Resort and Inn, head south to Ft. Pierce Inlet State Park, and then turn west to drive across the Floridian Peninsula just north of Lake Okeechobee.  These flowers were on bushes beside the walk at the Inn.  I've hunted around, but haven't found a match.  The bud is something like a cyclamen, but these were on a bush.

Click pictures to enlarge.  However, captions can only be read with they are in thumbnail size, as below.






Our room was at the lower left, just to the right of the smaller building that will be a breakfast nook when renovations are complete.

The sidewalk had impressions of palm fronds, starfish, and other pretties in it.

Our little deck.  Victoria claimed it as her 'phone booth', ha.

Larry, loading the Jeep

Gator Bait Airboat Adventures

Front of the Inn


Beyond Useless Boutique

The Cat's Meow Cat Clinic

Village Sandwich & Oceanviews Optical Shoppe

Island Style Hair Studio






Some fire stations are fancier than others!

Gated communities abound


The little 'Entrance' buildings are fancier than my house!




Events, Weddings, Florals




Spanish moss everywhere


Barber shop, bar, and brewery.  Better hope the barber doesn't frequent the other two joints first, before launching into the hair-cutting!







Thunderbird from Connecticut















Victoria and Larry, heading to the beach at Ft. Pierce Inlet State Park.



Victoria, Sarah Lynn













Deep sea urchin, maybe?

Looking here, looking there, ...




















Aaaaaaaaaaaaa... whoa, whoa, whoa --------

Okay, just about got it ........

Keeping the center of balance low......

Wait, what's that back there? -----------

Oops.  Bye-bye, cruel world.
Gotta keep concentrating, bub, gotta keep concentrating!



Royal tern




Larry is collecting seashells













Larry and Victoria, shell hunting












































Comparing seashells



Look, it's a cotillion of terns!  All facing into the wind.







Seagull 






The unique balding tern
(or maybe it's just a juvenile who hasn't come into color yet)

A squabble of gulls

...though, since they're not squabbling, perhaps we should just call them a 'colony' of gulls


'Bird steps', as I called them when I was two years old, according to my mother's entry in my baby book















Sanderling, member of the sandpiper family

They are more gray than other sandpipers, though they are in their winter feathers, and will rarely be seen by anyone in their summer attire, since their summer nesting grounds are in the far, far north, along the banks of the Arctic Ocean.

They love to run to and fro, in chase of and away from the incoming and receding waves, snatching up morsels the waves leave behind.



Look at him sidestep as if to keep his feet dry --

-- while, moments later, as the water falls back, he runs right into it.




Ah-ha!  Got it!



And there's another!

Nom nom nom nom nom




Mmmmm, good stuff.
Sanderlings eat crustaceans, bivalves, polychaeteworms, insects, and amphipods during their migration months to the southern coastlines.














Brown pelican



A squadron of pelicans out on those rocks


Seagull lying in the (relatively) warm sand


Aha!  Found a tasty (and dead) fish!


Slippery thing, though...

It keeps popping loose from the gull's beak.

There, got it.

Or maybe not.

Trying again...

Well, this thing is downright elusive!

And just about too wide for my beak!

Hmmm...  ((debating possible strategies))

(((STAB)))

Success!

Sure got the ol' feathers all in a ruffle, though.


Aaaaa... slipping... slipping...

Okay, now I've got it.  I think.

Meanwhile, over in the pelican pod...



















Ruddy turnstone, a member of the sandpiper family









BANZAI!!!!!


Abort dive!  Abort dive!

Incoming!

Brown pelican, snowy egret in background





Brown pelican, snowy egret


Kitesurfing
























'Flight Risk'

Kitesurfers, preparing their kites

Victoria, still beachcombing

Brown pelican, still fishing











Surf-kite ballet



Sarah Lynn (yes, it's windy; I didn't fix my hair like that on purpose)













We just can't get away from the Geico gecko!













Look, look!  There's a lesser frigate bird in the sky!  First time I've ever seen one.  Or at least, seen one and recognized it.

In fact, there are several lesser frigates, frigating around like anything.
Why didn't we have the new binoculars with us?!

Answer:  Because they were buried in a box in the back of the Jeep.













Gopher tortoise





He was pulling grasses out of the ground with funny swwwooooooosh, swwwwooooooosh, noises.



"I am smiling!"













Okay, that's enough; the photo session is over.



I think I'll just hid behind this little bush, here.  
I'm hidden, right?

Wild snapdragons, aka yellow toadflax



Deciding he wasn't so well hidden as all that, he tried a new hidey hole:  a little indentation in the middle of some dried palm fronds.



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