Some beaches

We spent a lot of time on the beach while we were in Florida.  Not just getting our car stuck but doing some swimming and collecting shells.  Here are some of my shots:





And the coolest thing we seen while we were out on the beach:


Pelicans were circling around, catching fish and sometimes diving right into the water and coming out with their catch. I could go back to the beach everyday!

Tuesday

Today we had a very busy day!  Let me tell you, I don't know why people think that a vacation is rest!  My husband wanted to show us things in Florida that he did as a child as well as do the space center and see the ocean.  Well as you may remember we left the house Thursday afternoon, and pushed down to Florida checking into our resort by 2 p.m.  Well needless to say we were tired!  I have to tell you, it doesn't seem like it has slowed down at all!  Today we started at 6 a.m.  Our air boat tour was scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. and we figured we needed to give ourselves 45 minutes to get to our destination.
We went out on an air boat tour for 1 hour and a half.  We didn't get to see a lot of alligators, but we did get to see a bunch of birds, and I got to see a pink bird, which I believe was a spoonbill of some sort, but I didn't get a shot of him because he took off as we were buzzing by.  Here is a bit of what we seen today:


These were the first birds who didn't fly away as we came by.  I am pretty sure that they actually put forward their best side.


It's a small world, this shot was taken in Florida, I live in Michigan, about 30 minutes away from Litchfield, and we actually worked for the owners of this company.


We seen these just before we got on our airboat.


This was the last thing we expected to see while out in the wet lands and swampy areas.

This was out on a refuge trail, we didn't see a lot of animals or many exotic birds, but it was very cool to see the areas we did see.


And finally, we did see the Manatees on Sunday, but we didn't get great photos because we were quite a ways away from where they were swimming. We did find another area thanks to some locals, and these Manatees were really close, but the water is murky and they don't surface very often and when they do they mostly just take a breath so it's quick and not a lot to see! Here's some noses:


I did get a tail. But most of the shots are of noses.
That's all for now!

More from Florida

My version of "footprints" except I think I will call it, "Webprints"



On the beach there are tons of seagulls, and there are many other birds as well, I don't know the names of them, but here is one:


Then there was these cute little fluffy birds, and they just run and pluck from the seaweed and they will fluff up thier feathers and sort of "cuddle".


And if you get out to the beaach really early, or late in the night you will see these little cuties:

They are FAST!

Real quickly tonight! First of all, sorry no photos last night, was on the road going from Michigan to Florida! Finally after 20 hours in the car we made it. Well this after noon we walked down to the beach with what little energy we had, and there were tons of things for me to photograph! Here is what I have to share tonight:

Isn't this the most adorable bird, and he was just there! Tomorrow, I will try to put more up, and we are going north to St Augustine--so tons more as well!!

Tonight

This evening I have four photos to share.

 



These were of course taken while at the boat, in Grand Haven. There are these little islands or clumps of grass that are in the middle of the Grand River. There is always some kinds of birds hanging around these areas. Birds are one of my favorite things to take photos of. Maybe because it's such a challenge, I'm not sure. One day, I plan to have an owl in my collection of birds.  Back when I was shooting with film, I seen and photographed a bald eagle right here in Hillsdale!  Someday I'll have to scan that and get it on here!

Okay my bird book says these are, to the best of bird searching abilities, top to bottom.  People around the marina call them wood ducks, but according to Sibley's field guide to birds these look most like a double crested cormorant.  Now I could be wrong, so if you know otherwise, please tell me what they are!  In the second and third shot, I was aiming for the bird standing there in the back.  Now I have always believed it was a white heron , but it seems--according the the field guide--they are rare in these here parts so next best bird with the closest matching description is a great egret.   Again, I could be wrong!  I did have a shot of a blue heron, but it was flying away from me, so it didn't turn out real great. 

There is one more shot to share tonight


Just because!

Why we didn't go....

So last weekend we head for the boat with thoughts of coasting down the shore to South Haven dancing in our heads. Ha ha! Thursday night we left our house and set off to Grand Haven. We had reservations for a slip in South Haven, which is the 2nd time my husband has made reservations. Checking the weather before we left, there was a chance, a rather big chance, that we might not be able to make the trip due to the weather. First thing Friday morning, my husband and I went and got coffee then made our way down to the beach to see how the lake was looking. The website I checked for wave heights said 6 to 8 footers, but I didn't really expect to see them:


The beach was empty, except for the seagulls, who didn't seem to mind us being there;




It was so windy that when the seagulls would try to run away from the water, they would get all fluffy, which they didn't seem to like, so they would run then turn around very quickly! They were also hoovering in the wind, a few of them right next to us as we were walking toward the shore. Even though our trip was out of the question we had quite an experience on this morning and we had an awesome day just checking out things in Grand Haven and Muskegon and Whitehall. All of which I will talk about later!

Day 8

It's starting to feel like we're stuck on a deserted island! My husband keeps getting later and later. Originally he was going to come on Thursday, but for some reason, I got the impression that he was just saying that! Well anyway, Thursday night he had no idea if he was going to have to work all day Friday or if he would be able to leave Friday morning! It's looking more like it's going to be Friday afternoon. Who knows-I sure don't! Tomorrow is his birthday and my son and I were so excited to get him up here with us, plus it's really lonely when no one else is here!

Last night Jaden and I tried a new restaurant because it was so windy we couldn't keep the grill going and our chicken was frozen. Mr Scribs it is called. I think it is a great place for pizza and subs, but you might want to pass on the ribs and seafood-my opinion-I am not an official food critic so don't take any of that to heart and put me in the papers!

While trying to make sure my son has a memorable week with his mommy, I have been diligently working to whittle away at the stack of photos awaiting edits so I can also remove the ones from my cameras so they can be added to a new stack awaiting edits. Some of these have been waiting so long I forgot I took them!

I call this one "love birds".

I call this one "bashful"

This one is "Three IS a crowd"

This one is called"stop pooping on my car please"
These were taken at the marina. We have a tree that has a couple branches that these birds seem to prefer over the hundreds of others. Everyday I have to wash my car because it seems to have a big bulls eye on it for the birds!

A few weekends ago, when my husband and I brought the truck and the jet ski up here, we went by the old fur tannery factory, I am not exactly sure what it was because it's been closed for about 5 years, and I haven't been here for five years. I am told though that it smelled horrible! Anyway we went by this and I added a wash and hdr, gave it a new feel


The top one is hdr and the bottom is a washed version. I think the wash version makes it look like an old photo.

Last weekend-is when most of these photos were taken, I was having camera withdraws, so I walked around the marina to find some interesting things to shoot.

People are complaining about the lily pads, but they have these flowers that I personally think makes them okay. Sometimes they form hearts and make feel a little squishy inside.


Now I can unload my cameras and have some more for tomorrow! Happy 8 day!