Check out this tiny little sand dollar that I found. It's only 3/8 of an inch. I can't even believe that I saw it! I was bent over in the shell pickers stance taking a photo of a shell on the beach and it just caught my eye. I've got a thing for the really tiny shells. They are just too dang cute!
Here is my little mini shell collection. April 11, 2008 A little birdie told me
On Wednesday as I was walking down the boardwalk a little bird landed on the rail and started chirping and walking back and forth. I started taking pictures of him and usually when I get too close to a bird it takes off, but this one stayed and kept walking back in forth in front of me and chirping as if he was trying to tell me something. Suddenly it flew right in front of me over the edge of the boardwalk and landed on the ground. When I looked down over the edge of the boardwalk to see what it was doing I saw that it had landed just a couple of feet away from a snake! The bird then quickly flew away and I wanted too as well. But, I convinced myself that the snake could not leap into the air, grab me off of the boardwalk and eat me and that I should just calm down and take some photos. The first few were a little blurry from the shaking of the camera in my on the edge of hysteria hands, but I finally relaxed enough to get a few good shots. Then as I was walking away I kept looking back to make sure it wasn’t following along and going to meet me at the end of the boardwalk for lunch. That is NOT what I like to see on my walk! I have been to a few sites online trying to identify the snake and I think it is either a Water snake or a Cottonmouth. I’m thinking probably a Cottonmouth though because of the pit between the eye and nostril. It was about 2 feet long, but very fat so maybe it was too full to eat me anyway.
Just looking at these photos makes me feel a little panicky all over again.
April 16, 2008
Creature Gallery
I have been such a slacker lately with posting! I'll try to do better.
Just posted some of my photos of different creatures that we have seen on the beach and near the boardwalk on the way to the beach. You can see them here.
April 17, 2008 Bird watching My walk on the beach today was perfect.
The temperature was around 70 degrees with a slight breeze, warm sun, waves lightly lapping on the shore, pelcians gliding by
And oh yes...the sweet sounds of freedom flying right over my head!
F-22 Raptor
April 21, 2008 Pelicans There was a gathering spot on the beach today for the birds. A few Pelicans, Gulls and some Royal Terns.
I'm so fascinated by the Pelicans. Watching them glide by and sometimes so close to the water is just amazing.
You can see in this photo how the tip of the wing is touching the water.
As I was looking through my photos I noticed that this one is tagged with a coded band on it's leg.
Here is the photo zoomed in on the leg. It looks like there is a band on each leg. I didn't notice the band while I was taking the photo or I would have tried to zoom in closer. I didn't want to get to close to them though for fear of scaring them away and also I read that they can sometimes be aggressive. They have an average wingspan of 6 feet so I think it's best if I keep my distance. I am searching online to see if there is somewhere to report sightings of banded Pelicans. If anyone knows anything about that please email me.
April 26, 2008 A Crabby Day for a Walk There were so many crabs on the beach today.
They are really funny to watch. When they would see us coming they would quickly burrow down into the sand and you couldn't even tell where they were.
Except for this guy who didn't burrow completely. He had to keep his eyes on us.
I don't know what kind of crab this is...
But this is a the harmless orange crab that molds the sand up rather than burrowing down into it.
April 28, 2008 Bird Watching I was going through some of the photos I have taken and came across a video that I made of a bird eating a crab on the beach. While I was watching it I suddenly realized that my cat Dale, who was sleeping on my desk had become entranced by the video. He kept getting closer to the screen and eventually started pawing at the bird on the screen. I set the video to loop and he kept watching it over and over. It was so cute! So, I made a video of Dale watching the video. Then he became intrigued with the video of himself watching the bird video!
If want to see the video of the bird eating the crab you can view it here.April 30, 2008 Adventures of a Scaredy-cat
As I was walking along the beach today I suddenly heard a very strange sound coming up quickly behind me. It was sort of a fluttering sound that just sent chills up my spine. You know that feeling you get when a bee buzzes by your ear? Only this was much louder and larger! I turned to see a very large bird swooping down over me. The sound I heard was actually the wind whipping through the feathers of its wings. I was so scared! It zoomed low right over my head and after I stood back up and picked my heart up off of the ground I got this photo of it as it flew out over the water.
I stopped and watched to see what it was going to do and wondering if I should turn and run. Then it landed on the shore quite a ways ahead of me and I saw that there was something in the shoreline near where it landed.
I wanted to so badly to see what it was and tried zooming in with my camera to see if I could tell without getting too close. But I was too far away to tell. So, I just waited to see what the bird was going to do. Apparently it was worried that I was going to steal its lunch and I wasn’t sure if a bird like that would actually attack so I just stayed in place and watched it from a distance. Shaking in my shoes and wondering if this was the last sight I would ever see since that bird could probably come over any minute and peck my eyeballs right out of my head.
After a few minutes it started flying and circling around. I was keeping still and watching it the whole time. I didn’t want to start walking and have it sneak up on me. Eventually it flew towards the wooded area and far enough away that I could no longer see it.
It was gone. Whew!
I stood there contemplating whether to keep going and see what that was on the shoreline or just turn around and head back. I felt scared and yet I was so curious about what I might see. I’ve always been such a chicken but as I am getting older I am realizing that being afraid of your own shadow makes for a very boring life. And since I started walking on the beach I am beginning to feel a little more courageous. Not too much, just a little! I still have a very healthy amount of respect for nature. So, I started walking slowly and kept looking around for the bird. I finally got close enough to see that it was a very large turtle that had washed ashore. Poor Mr. Turtle had taken a beating already from the bird and who knows what else, but there was still plenty of him left so I snapped a couple of photos and quickly started heading back towards the boardwalk. As I was walking and my heart was pounding I started thinking I must be crazy. But at the same time I felt happy for being a little more adventurous than my usual scaredy-cat self. But still I kept looking back over my shoulder often just in case.
Here is one photo of the turtle. I did take some closer shots, but they are a little gruesome so I won’t post them.
Click on the journal link to read prior entries.
April 11, 2008
