Linda and Regis travel...
Enjoying the gifts of the day with a dog named Dart
Splish Splash, Taking a Bath
I’ve been healing nicely after my surgery to have cancer removed from my face. I stayed home most of the first week and tried to organize my photos. I made great progress. We had a particularly nice sunrise at the beginning of this week, so I put on my long sleeve shirt, long pants, and snake boots and walked out to the marsh to get a picture. Regis made a nice path for me to do this, so it wasn’t too bad. The mosquitos managed to get through my shirt and suck a couple pints of blood out of me while I watched the sunrise. At one point, I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see a possum. The possum didn’t seem disturbed that I was there and just kept about its business.
Regis noticed a lot of activity at the bird bath later in the day. He counted at least 8 bluebirds coming and going and got several pictures.
Shortly afterwards, he saw a bald eagle flying over the house and got this picture after it landed in a tree down the street.
Hanging around the house all week was productive but I got antsy. We decided to go camping in Stark, Florida which is about 25 miles north of Gainesville. That will be covered in the next two posts.
NANPA Blog Post
I wrote a blog post for the North American Nature Photographers Association that came out today entitled: “A Favorite Place to Photograph Wildlife: The Silver River in Florida”. It can be seen here.
The Gifts of the Day: Where’s Dart?
We just published our second book The Gifts of the Day: Where’s Dart?
The eBook and paperback versions are available on lulu.com.
The book is an adaptation of travel blogs we posted on landrtravels.com while making this journey. On seventeen occasions, we placed Dart, our blue-merle sheltie, in or near a national park, took a picture and asked our readers to guess where he was located. We and our readers had fun with that, so we included those pictures in this book. Dart gets around!
Book Description: Linda and Regis believe that life brings gifts every day. A gift could be seeing swallow-tailed kites as they gather in large numbers before their journey to South America, enjoying a pleasant rain, watching Native Americans dance at a powwow or viewing salmon jumping over waterfalls on their journey upstream. While traveling and camping around the United States, they keep their eyes, ears and minds open looking for those gifts. In this second year of travel, they exchanged their truck and 5th wheel camper for a motorhome and a Jeep Cherokee and went from St. Augustine, Florida to Seattle, Washington and back during the summer of 2016. This book, with over 100 photographs, is about their journey.
Sups and Pups
The Guy Harvey Resort in St. Augustine, Florida sponsored a Sups and Pups event today which was a dog surfing contest to benefit K9s for Warriors. Dart would never do this.
My favorite was this young man bonding with his dog while waiting their turn.
I walked the beach in Anastasia State Park with a friend earlier this week and saw this sailboat that unfortunately did not make it successfully through the inlet.
Momma Squirrel
Yesterday, Regis noticed a squirrel frantically making a nest during the day. Later in the afternoon, he saw a squirrel running across the back of the yard with what looked like a boa around its neck. He realized it was a squirrel carrying a baby squirrel in its mouth. He watched the squirrel deposit her baby in the new nest and then return in the direction she came. Regis figured she was getting another baby so he got the camera ready and was able to capture a picture of the mother squirrel climbing the tree with the baby to the new nest.
This morning, she was back at it and took at least two more babies into the nest. It was my turn to get the photograph.
What a gift!
More Salt Marsh and a Plea
My plea is to ask people to use balloons and fishing gear responsibly. Regis, Sooz, and I tried to help a bird that was entangled in fishing line. St. Johns Audubon Society was notified about the bird via Facebook. We were unable to find that bird but I found a bird entangled in the remains of a balloon. We could not help this bird since it is still able to fly. We will keep an eye out for it this week. If it can’t eat, its health will deteriorate and we may be able to save it.
On a lighter note, the salt marsh is looking particularly beautiful lately. I spent a lot of time in front of the computer this week wrapping up our second book, so I was desperate to get out with the camera. I went to the Palencia salt marsh this morning to take sunrise pictures. The sky wasn’t as beautiful as it can be, but the marsh grasses were beautiful. Florida may not get the stunning fall colors you see in other places in the country, but it is beautiful nonetheless!
Palencia Salt Marsh
Before Dorian made a swing by off the coast of Florida, Regis and I went to the boardwalk over the Palencia salt marsh to check it out. In our last post, we posted some pictures of the clapper rails from that trip. Today I went back to the salt marsh late in the day while the sun was bathing the marsh grasses in a golden light. I took the following panoramic picture.
I went back to my picture from before Dorian in order to compare the water levels. When we went to the marsh before Dorian came by, the water was very high, probably because of the early storm surge, as well as the king tides. The following picture was taken in the same general area as the panoramic picture above.
I got a picture of a green anole. (Technically a Carolina anole, Anolis carolinensis). They are native to the area but are being replaced by the Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei). I don’t see green anoles often so I’m glad this little guy let me take it’s picture. In my Florida Master Naturalist classes I learned that the green anoles are moving higher in the trees as the Cuban brown anoles take over. This is their attempt to survive the invasion and takeover of the brown anoles and it seems to be working right now. They are adapting as best they can.
