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!!

Only one

Things are super crazy around the house this week.  Tomorrow we are leaving for a weeks stay in Cape Canaveral, Florida!  We are so excited we can hardly contain it!  There is only one photo to share tonight:



We didn't go in, but I just loved how bright this door was! What a great sign!

Ready?

Aren't they beautiful?

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!

Here we go for Sunday night I have a couple more photos from Ludington for everyone.
These are some night photos
This is the sunset, and as we were watching it go down, I was wishing I had went out on the pier for better photos:

After the sun was finally down this is what was left:

Everything was so calm and the temperature was perfect that night. The sky was beautiful. The Badger had come in and it was all lit up reflecting off the smooth water.  The badger is a car hauler that goes from Ludington to Milwaukee, in the summer it makes two trips across but it was down to just one trip a day on this last trip over labor day weekend.