Linda and Regis travel...
Enjoying the gifts of the day with a dog named Dart
Cedar Key
We recently returned from camping several days in Cedar Key, Florida. We stayed at our favorite location – Low Key Hideway. They have about 10 campsites and all located on the water. There is a small hotel and a Tiki Bar and it is adults only. Our plan was to watch the wildlife and sunsets from the deck at the campsite and go kayaking.
We arrived in the rain and it continued to rain most of the next day. During a small break in the rain on the first full day, we hauled my kayak across the street and launched from the shore. It was high enough tide to float the kayak but required walking through the silty mud. I was sure I was going to sink down to China. It was a muddy mess. I did my best to limit the mud in the kayak and took off. Once I got on more open water the wind was too much to stay out and I immediately returned.
Instead, I got some fresh squeezed margaritas from the Tiki bar and enjoyed the view. There were no spectacular sunsets to be seen the first two rainy nights but plenty of wildlife watching available.
We were fortunate to have great weather the last day and Regis recommended launching from a boat ramp instead of the muddy shore. Great idea! The boat ramp and launch was only about a 1/2 mile from our campsite and less muddy conditions. We paddled out to the Gulf of Mexico and saw lots of birds with flocks and flocks of them flying occasionally. I rarely get to see a captivating sight of so many birds flying together in flocks.
It became too hot to stay out, so we returned to the campsite and got prepared for a spectacular sunset and were not disappointed. In the middle of taking pictures, it started to rain on top of us and we had to watch the stunning colors that appear after the sun sets while sitting in the motorhome. The Tiki bar was closed the last night or I would have had a margarita in one hand while the other hand was free to press the shutter release on the camera.
On this short adventure, we learned that we are incapable of properly packing for a short trip. We forgot so many things I had to run to the grocery store twice. I forgot Dart’s leash, which is unbelievable. Part of the problem was the thorough job of cleaning the RV after our summer trip and removing lots of items that would normally stay in the RV. For example, I removed many dishes to run through the dishwasher and all the towels, sheets, blankets, etc. All that stuff did not make it back into the motorhome. We published a packing list for other campers to use but we didn’t bother to use it ourselves.
We created a short video of some of the bird feeding behavior we saw from our campsite. Notice the mud on the feet of the first bird (little blue heron) as it walks and sinks into the muck. That bird doesn’t weigh much. I had to walk through stuff like that to launch the kayak and it was hard to pick my feet up after I sunk into the silty mud. Also, notice how the roseate spoonbills move there bills through the water to get food.
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
For the first time in our neighborhood, we saw some black-bellied whistling ducks. A few days ago, I saw two adults and seven babies. Today there are only six babies. These ducks used to be called black-bellied tree ducks because they roost in trees and sometimes nest in tree cavities. They are mostly vegetarians and like to eat the grain from agricultural fields. They usually feed at night. They can be found year round in the peninsular part of Florida. These birds make a very interesting whistling call. The little ones kept trying to get underneath one of the adults for shade. It was hard to fit six babies under one adult.
While trying to get photos of the ducks, I heard the rattling call of some belted kingfishers and saw a pair of them on one of the branches of a tall pine tree. These birds are only seen in our area in the winter. The female has two chest bands, blue-gray and rusty while the male lacks the rusty band. These are two males.
Local Wildlife 2
I enjoy all the wildlife we see near our home. As much as I love to travel and see all the wildlife on the road, I also enjoy all that I can see from home. There is always something happening.
We have been seeing lots of tree fogs lately. I found this little guy sitting on the vegetation in the front garden. We usually see the frogs stuck to the side of the house. Tree frogs are small, making it easy for them to climb trees and other vegetation. They have small legs that help them grasp and toe pads that allow them to stick to the side of the house.
This fawn was lying under the palm trees near a pond a few blocks from our house. Mother deer leave their fawns alone for safety reasons and return to them later in the day. Fawns do not have an odor while the mothers do. Usually, the fawns are tucked away in the vegetation but this little one was enjoying the sunshine. It is a little big for a fawn but it still has its spots.
Regis went exploring at the beach and found this bedraggled grackle.
Regis loves taking pictures of ospreys.
One of our little raccoon families has broken up since we first saw them when we returned. The small babies are now on their own and one baby shows up under our bird feeder regularly. We don’t know whether momma kicked the babies out or something happened to her. The babies are too small to be on their own so soon. The other family has one baby left with the mother and the her baby is bigger than the little ones that are on their own. Regis found two dead raccoons in the preserve behind our house and based on their decay, they did not recently die. I found a raccoon skeleton back there after we moved in, so it appears to be some kind of raccoon graveyard back there.
One day I went into the back yard with Dart and didn’t notice the baby raccoon under the feeder. It bolted for the nearest tree when it saw us. That tree is a slash pine at least 60 feet tall with no branches until you get to the top. We have an owl box mounted on the tree and the baby raccoon climbed onto the top of the box and stayed there for about an hour and slept part of the time. I was worried a hawk would get it because the raccoon is small. When the raccoon started to come down, it lost its grip coming off the owl box and plummeted to the ground. Even though it fell at least 15 feet, it appeared to be unharmed and we continue to see it.
We have seen Topaz, our released blue jay, several times in our yard. Topaz acknowledges us when it visits by doing its begging wings when it sees us. It talks to us and then leaves. It has been coming to the feeder that has Bark Butter bits. I know it is back there when I hear a unique bird sound. I recognize the hawk and osprey calls that it makes but I can’t figure out what all those other sounds are. The bird sounds are so unique that we know Topaz is around before we see it. When I hear it, I run out and look for it. That’s when it lets me know when it sees me by shaking its wings. The bird looks very healthy.
Local Wildlife Update
As we described in earlier posts, I raised a baby blue jay, Topaz, last spring and released it in May. We went across country for the summer and came back mid-August. About a week after we came home, we saw the blue jay about a 1/2 block up the street. The next day I saw it again and was able to get pictures. (Recent Topaz post here.) I walk the dog in that area regularly and haven’t seen or heard the blue jay in the area. Two days ago, Regis spotted a blue jay at the feeder. It left and landed in a nearby tree and when Regis got close to the tree, the blue jay started to exhibit begging behavior. That’s our bird, Topaz! It was great to see it again but once again it is remaining elusive. It was eating the Bark Butter Bits, so I will be sure to keep the feeder full.
We also posted about some raccoon families hanging around. Over the last several days, we have not seen the families together. We have seen individual baby raccoons show up to check under the feeder for any seed that has fallen. They are adorable. Last evening, I saw one of the little guys as it was starting to get dark and then an adult showed up. This was not the mother because we have seen this other raccoon before. The raccoon has an injury. My heart breaks for it but it seems to be able to get enough food. We saw this hurt raccoon a couple weeks ago but this is the first picture we got so we could check out the injury.
The baby raccoon laid on the ground when the adult came and stayed there while the adult ate what it could find. After the adult left, the baby laid on the ground under the feeder for about 15 minutes before it finally left.
Hawk Pursuit
Dart and I inadvertently seem to have interrupted a hawk pursuit. Dart likes to play with his flying disk. It’s technically not a frisbee, but we call it one. If you say “frisbee” to Dart, he goes nuts and starts running around in circles as he is trying to get outside. When he was young, he would catch the disk until he dropped dead. We had to be the ones smart enough to stop the game because he would never give up. He is older now and his desire to play exceeds his ability by leaps and bounds. Once I get out and toss the disk, he often doesn’t bother to chase it. Dart is more enthusiastic about playing with Regis. I thinks its because Regis claps and hoots and hollers when he catches it and Dart loves an audience. Dart may catch the disk twice or three times for Regis.
I took Dart out to play with his disk and tossed it into the yard and Dart stood in one spot. But, a juvenile Cooper’s hawk landed on the fence and started watching me and tweeting at me. That’s the first time I heard a hawk tweet. We stared at each other until it flew up by the side of the house but I didn’t see it rise above the roof. I went to the side of the house to investigate and found the hawk perched on the roof above a tree we have that just reaches the height of our one story house. At this point, I noticed a bird hidden in the tree. I am certain the hawk wanted that bird. The bird was panting in the heat. At first I thought the bird was severely wounded and after carefully getting a closer look without startling the bird out into the open, I saw that it was a male red-winged blackbird.
The hawk got tired of waiting for me to leave and flew into a tree behind our house and I went in for the camera. It was still there when I returned and I was able to get a few images. It gave up on me and flew through the trees proving itself to be a Cooper’s hawk. Cooper’s hawk are accipiters which are long-tailed agile hawks that deftly fly through the woods. Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks look similar, but sharp-shinned hawks are usually smaller. Although, a large female sharp-shinned hawk can be the size of a small Cooper’s hawk. Based on the size, I was pretty sure it was a Copper’s hawk but was able to verify when looking at the images because a Cooper’s hawk has a more rounded tail than the sharp-shinned. Because the bird had a brown chest and a streaked back, I could tell it was a juvenile. Adults have a gray back and pale reddish chest.
After the hawk left, I checked on the red-winged blackbird and he wasn’t leaving that tree. I checked back about an hour later and again two hours later and he was still in the tree. On the next check, he was gone. I am sure he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
Baby Shorebird
I went for a walk on the beach today in Anastasia State Park. I saw this baby shorebird. I think it is a baby ruddy turnstone, but would love to hear from anyone who thinks it is something else. This little one was very active and doing well finding food on the beach. It needs a tail.
Here is a picture of an adult ruddy turnstone I took a few years ago near Marineland.
There were lots of royal terns begging for food and keeping their parents busy bringing in fish to feed them. The young royal terns are almost as big as the parents but you can tell the young ones based on their begging posture.
Raccoon Clean Up Crew
When we returned from our cross country trip, I immediately set up the bird feeders since I love watching the birds. A few days after I set up the feeders, I noticed that two separate raccoon families were making it a habit to drop by during the day to clean up any seed that fell to the ground. The first shift is comprised of a mother and two adorable babies. The second shift of a mother and three babies shows up an hour or so later and cleans up anything that was missed or new stuff that has fallen to the ground. I feed a No Mess Blend from Wild Birds Unlimited that includes sunflower seeds and millet without the shells and peanuts. I also feed Bark Butter Bugs and Bits which the bluebirds and Carolina wrens love. If it rains, I will toss out the remaining Bark Butter Bits on the ground and replace with fresh food. I only put out a handful everyday, so there isn’t much to toss out when I do. The raccoons will not eat any of the millet that falls to the ground but they will clean up the rest.
I love to watch them pick up the food with their little hands. The mom’s are always alert and if we make too much movement in the house, the moms shoo their little ones to safety.
A few days ago, when I was leaving the neighborhood to run and errand, I saw 17 roseate spoonbills at our local pond. I called Regis and he came down to take pictures. We occasionally see a spoonbill or two at one of the ponds, but I have never seen so many at one time. We see them more often in the marsh, but even then I rarely see more than a few at a time.
Topaz Sighting
For those of you who have been following us since at least the spring, you may remember that I raised some wild baby birds for the Ark Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation prior to us leaving for our cross-country camping trip in May. There are several posts on these birds. A few of my favorite birds were a couple mockingbirds and a blue jay that became bonded prior to release. I named the blue jay Topaz and my neighbor named one of the mockingbirds Sweetie. One of the mockingbirds was AWOL after a few days, so I suspect something happened to it. Sweetie would hang around with Topaz before and after release, but we last saw Sweetie about a day or two before we left on our trip.
Topaz was still hanging around the day we left and called to us constantly while we were loading the final items in the motorhome. I hated to leave. My neighbor continued to feed Topaz blueberries and raisins for a couple weeks and Topaz became increasingly less interested in coming to her until it finally left and she didn’t see the bird all summer.
We were hoping to see Topaz when we got back, but with no sightings all summer, we were skeptical. We filled our bird feeders and bird bath as soon as we returned and our usual bird guests are beginning to return. But, no Topaz.
A few days ago, Regis was riding his bike down our street when he heard a hawk and looked for it and found a blue jay instead. Fortunately, I was walking Dart at the time and Regis saw us and summoned us to see this bird. We were sure it was Topaz. It would not come to us but watched us briefly, then flew away.
I have been keeping an eye out for the bird ever sense. I have to run the gauntlet of biting flies every time I go out, so I haven’t been interested in walking further than Dart requires. The biting flies are particularly bad right now and I have become a human windmill swatting them away from my head.
This morning, I wore a hat with a neck covering to protect my head from the flies and walked Dart a bit further than usual when I heard a hawk. But, it was not quite a hawk. It sounded less robust. I searched for the location of the sound and found a blue jay! The bird kept making hawk noises and moved from tree to light post to tree. I took Dart back home and got the camera and fortunately the bird was still there when I returned. I got several pictures and could keep tabs on the bird because it kept making hawk noises.
At one point, as I had the camera pointed to the bird, it started making perfect osprey sounds. I was watching it through the lens as it was mimicking an Osprey. It then went through a small repertoire of bird sounds, none of which were blue jay cries. It was acting like a mockingbird.
Regis joined me and when he got closer to the bird, it starting moving its wings in a begging position. Now we are certain it was Topaz. The bird seems to be missing some head feathers but they may be growing back in. At first I thought the head feathers were wet, but after reviewing the pictures, I think I see little pin feathers coming in but I am not certain.
Two other rehabilitated blue jays were released in our yard so Topaz would have some blue jay friends, but the other two birds were not seen beyond a day after each release.
Topaz is a great mimic. It was a thrill to see the bird successfully making it on its own even if it thinks its a mockingbird.
Post trip
It’s been about a week now since we got home. We have spent a good part of that time putting large piles of “stuff” away in their proper place. I guess it’s a good time to start some trip summary blogs, looking back, maybe listing pros and cons of the places we stayed and some topics that just didn’t make it into a post.
Some of the off season projects I am contemplating are replacing the LP fridge. and removing the LP cooktop. Many new RVs come with a residential Fridge and induction cook top. We have been using induction cooking for about 2.5 years. We even blogged about here two years ago. We love cooking with induction. All of our cooking in the RV is done using the HestanCue Smart cookware.
There are two main reasons Linda and I love the Cue. One, the ease of cooking the recipes. With the Cue you don’t have to guess what medium high heat is. The Cue well control the heat for you. You don’t have to guess about the time either. Fish is my hardest cooking challenge. I always undercook the first side. The Cue won’t let me do that!
The second reason is heat in the RV. The Cue does not generate excess heat. It will not heat up the RV. All the energy goes into the cookware, not the open air. Only the cookware gets hot, not the air around it. I think their website has a full description. I just can’t do it justice here. We have had both “burners” going at the same time and the inside of the RV didn’t get any hotter!
Also, we can use our pressure cooker on the Cue. If you can stick a magnet to the pan you can use it on the Cue in manual mode. It’s portable. It’s literally the size of a fry pan. I can take it outside the RV and cook on the table or fire pit. This is very helpful for messy dishes like Pub Burgers, Fried chicken tenders or what we just had Friday night, Honey chipotle wings. All favorites.
We use the Cue in the house as well. We started using the Cue in the house and then thought it would make a great addition to the RV. It works great for us in both places. We rarely cook on anything else.
Full disclosure: Since Linda and I have been using the Cue almost every day for three years, Hestan has asked me to share my thoughts about the products. I get credit for referrals and sales, hence all the links in the text to the web site. I find this product to be of value both in my home life and RV life so I am happy to share the info with you.
If you are interested in the product and want more info, please use any of the links on this page or click HERE.
They are having a 25% off summer sale now. If you missed the sale let me know I may be able to help!
If you have any question please comment to the post or email directly at landrtravels.com@gmail.com
If the people we met in Silt, Colorado are reading… Sorry I screwed up the info I gave you. Contact me and I can update it.
Linda here: For those who may be interested in an update on Dart, our dog, he is doing better since we returned. Since he was exhibiting his worst symptoms in Colorado (lethargy and lack of appetite), Regis thinks the elevation may have exacerbated his problem. I took him to the vet shortly after we returned home and they conducted numerous tests. The good news is that he is physically ok. But, the vet says he is too young to behave they way he has been, so she thinks he may be having some cognitive problems. We are now feeding him a special diet for those types of issues and we will see whether he improves.
Home 2020
We finished our cross country adventure after driving 7,018 miles. We arrived at a hot and humid St. Augustine. As soon as we got home, we started emptying the RV. It was very hot in the RV but cool in the house. Dart chose to stay in the RV during the entire process. He did not do that on our previous 4 cross country trips. He always stays in the cool house watching us sweat as we unload.
He appeared a little agitated all evening and again the next day. He tracked our every move and would not relax. Yesterday afternoon, I sat on the couch to read a couple chapters in a book and invited him up. By then, he was so exhausted, he fell sound asleep and didn’t wake up when I went outside to wash the car. He was still sound asleep when I finished.
The evening we arrived home, the air conditioner broke. I feel sorry for Dart because he has so much hair. Someone is coming to look at the air conditioner on Monday.
I think its going to take at least a week to get everything put back where it belongs in the house. At our final stops on the trip, Regis started to put together a long list of upgrades to the motorhome in preparation for future trips. We particularly enjoyed this trip. We were considering trying to sell the motorhome again when we returned and the market is good for that right now. But, we have too many future trips planned, so we will keep it and I will start planning the next trip.
We will continue posting.
