Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

I spent Monday afternoon and evening at Merritt

Island National Wildlife Refuge mostly on the Black Pointe Wildlife Drive. I saw LOTS of great birds...starting at the visitors center...an osprey on a nest!











A beautiful Great Blue Heron

A juvenile Wood Stork wading thru a drainage ditch.

A Tri-Colored Heron in the marsh near sunset...

...that crept across the marsh.

This Loggerhead Shrike nicely posed on the top of a sign.

A flock of American Coot's settled down for the night...their numbers kept growing...there must have been hundreds!

An American Avocet near dusk...

If Animals Could Talk..Starring Ricky & Rocky Raccoon

So here's my take on what I witnessed at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on the morning following the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.....

Ricky: psssst...Rocky..come on...the coast is clear...

Rocky: Are you sure no one is watching Ricky?? I don't want to get caught sneakin' out!

Ricky: Of course I'm sure...except these 3 birders in a government van...are now stopped in the road watching 'ole Gus the Gator over there. Make a run for it....NOW!

Gus: Affirmative little buddies.....Ned & his ladies are TOTALLY transfixed on me & Glenda here....

Rocky:Ok..ok... I'm commin' as fast as I can! The adrenalin is a little low today because that darn rocket scared the crap out of me last night...I nearly fell out of the tree! Are you sure there not watchin' us? Keep' em occupied Gus

Ricky: OOPS! I was wrong! The lady in back has a camera & its pointin' straight at us! Run Rocky RUN!!!!!

Rocky: Way to go dumbo! I thought you said they were lookin' at Gus...and a CAMERA TO BOOT!
Let's hope birdlady keeps this to herself!

Ricky: Sorry 'bout that....now let's see what kind of trouble we can get into in this tall grass!

Cute Little Armadillos

On Monday February 8th I ventured slightly north to Canaveral national Seashore. I found several 9-banded armadillos throughout the day. Cute little buggers!

This one was different though...I found him near the parking lot to the visitors center..I took a shining to him...maybe it was because he was the very first one I got to see up close! I watched from a safe distance as he foraged...never paying the slightest bit of attention to me...He started to come closer and closer and that's when I noticed the anomaly on his head. Between his eyes there was a large reddish raised area...perhaps a hemangioma or something....not sure what it was but I did not see it on any other armadillos! Hope he's ok!

He soon began foraging only a few feet from me..I decided to retreat to my car, I didn't want to trample his lunch...or be trampled either!

Birds of Viera Wetlands

Still feeling a little crabby after being up for more than 24 hours and only sleeping for 4 hours (thank GOD for LATE checkout!), I decided I needed to be away from people and go be with nature! I found a perfect spot...the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands in Veira, Florida was only about 15 minutes south of Cocoa. The 200 acre wetlands was created by reclaimed water from the Brevard County waste-water reuse system. Sounds gross...but really...no smells...just a very nice nature area! I thought about hiking...until I saw a posting to the tune of..."beware...aggressive behavior...alligator mating season...."that did it. I would just drive casually on the dirt path as others were doing...pulling off at interesting places. Like to view this beautiful Great Egret!

Up the road apiece, I was juggling my camera, binoculars and my Sibley's (large bird book) trying for several minutes to figure out what this red beaked bird was. I thought I was enough off the road as to not block the path of those behind me looking for entertainment on Superbowl Sunday afternoon...when someone in a truck beeped and screamed in my open window "Its a BIRD!"...hellooooooo..its a NATURE TRAIL NOT the INDY 500 I wanted to scream...but he was a few hundred yards away now and I was only yelling at his dust cloud. PEOPLE! Anyway...its a common moorhen I found out later after giving up & asking someone with a spotting scope.

Several others appeared in a big hurry while driving this one way route with several different loops. I just don't get it...why go to a nature preserve if you don't want to take the time and want to see and observe nature things??? Maybe they were just there to show out of town visitors alligators or something. I found this glossy ibis near the egret while looking at BIRDS!

A red-bellied woodpecker flitted by and landed on this tree and drilled for lunch as I was observing the ibises.

Up the road a bit a few Blue Winged Teal swam by.....

Still...a little further... a Great Blue Heron who was in the middle of some sort of molt happened by....

It took me a while to figure out this little guy...the Belted Kingfisher should be called the look quick & raise that camera & I'm outta here bird. I "chased" him from tree to tree for several minutes before FINALLY getting a good look at him as he perched atop this dead palm tree.

Found some endangered Wood Storks laying on this little "island" near some alligators....hope the guys in the speeding truck missed 'em!

An hourish later sound this Tri-Colored Heron along with some Common Moorhens.

Finally....found an osprey atop this dead palm & observed him rubbing and scratching his beak on it as if he was sharpening or scratching it. Was an interesting observation.

This Great Egret appeared to be mimicking the reeds in an attempt to camouflage himself.

And finally...what visit to Florida would be complete without seeing Anhinga's?!

After 3 hours on the trail...I decided to make my way back to Titusville to check into my bed & breakfast in hopes that the Endeavour would launch tonight! (And get some SLEEP!)

Who..who..who.. are you?!

While I was visiting Aunt MaryAnn and Donna, Jim & the kids they told me of the havoc the owls were causing for the outdoor sports at the school. Seriously? What "problems" can owls cause??? They rid you of vermin and insects! Not so in south Florida. The Burrowing Owl is protected in Florida and therefore...where it burrows is sacred ground. Unfortunately for the sports field of St. Bernadette's...its now home. So while at the school carnival, Emily and her friends volunteered to take me to see this trouble-causing owl. I expected to see a whole field of the critters...instead, I was led to a 3x3 fenced off area smack dab in the middle of the field! Never did I think I would get THIS close! Really...not using any zoom! He was just standing there in front of the entrance to his abode looking at me like..who the heck are you?!


So..we just watched very quietly for a few minutes....hoping to see something spectacular from this 8 inch tall owl. Instead we just pretty much had a stare down. The kids were quite surprised at its calmness...they say it usually hisses.











He didn't look like he intended on retreating to his burrow anytime soon....













Finally...something spooked him and he took several retreating steps...time to leave.

Olympic Fireworks

Fireworks are one of my very favorite events to photograph. Unfortunately, after the Olympic Torch Celebration Ceremonies had come to a close, I only had a very small amount of space available on my chip. Here are my favorites, with the crowd proudly waving their flags that were handed out earlier!

Olympic Flamekeepers

After the torch festivities had concluded for the evening, it was time to extinguish the cauldron. However, the flame itself must be kept to finish its travels across Canada and arrive in Vancouver to light the cauldron there on February 12,2010! No simple feat mind you as the flame left Greece months ago and has travelled by land, air, and water to even make it this far!







As it was explained, this evening, 2 aboriginal Canadians will capture the flame from the cauldron and place it in a lantern, and keep watch over the flame all evening, until the next morning when it will light the torch of another Canadian as it prepares to leave Windsor. I was very excited to be in the very front row by this point to experience something so interesting!

Success, as soon as the flame in the lantern was stable, the flame in the cauldron was extinguished. You can see in the close up its just an itty bitty flame.

Olympic Flame

On Wednesday December 23,2009...the Olympic Torch Relay ended for the evening in Windsor, Ontario. The city of Windsor nominated 15 year old Matthew Charbonneau (seen to the left of the cauldron in white, holding the torch) to be the last torchbearer of the day and consequently the one to light the cauldron in Windsor. Matthew carried the torch in memory of his older brother Cpl. Andrew Grennon who died while proudly serving his country in Afghanistan on September 3, 2008.