HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE - REVISITING A TRIP TO FLORIDA TAKEN IN JANUARY 2013

 We woke up this morning to wind chill warning as low as 10 below zero. Can cause hypothermia if you are out in this too long. Temperature is 12 degrees F.  People east of us have worst conditions than we do, and probably further north. Please stay safe out there. Gregg just sent me this from his cell phone. Neither of us remember experiencing this before.

Now back to my ‘warm weather’ post.

The information below was found years ago, so may not be up to date, though I have checked and fixed the links when needed for this redo post. They do over the years keep changing. What you read below was done in 2013.

Today I thought I would share some photos I took when we were on vacation in Florida a while back. It was a fun experience taking photos of birds we don’t get in our state, definitely a bird-lover’s paradise. Some of these were taken in the Everglades and others at a bird rehabilitation centre found while driving down to Key West.

We found this beautiful Green Heron when looking around a Marina.

The Stork was having fish for lunch under a pier in Sebastian. A fishing boat had just pulled in and one of the men from the boat tossed a bucket of leftover fish bait to the birds.

A Brown Pelican found also in Sebastian.

We found these pelicans at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center in Tavernier.

As we did the Great Egret.

I have included a couple of maps showing Florida in the first map, and the Keys in the second. You can see the location of the rehabilitation center. It's very much worth a visit.

I was surprised to see all the restaurants pinpointed too. If you travel down Rt. 1, you can see the sanctuary approximately two-thirds of the way down. You can enlarge any of the photos for better details by clicking on them. I sometimes forget to do that when I am visiting blogging friends.

But now we are in the Everglades where there were many, many photo opportunities to take photos of Cormorants close up without using a zoom. It was an incredible experience. They must be very used to visitors and they should be. The Everglades typically welcome 1 million visitors per year (I added this information on Sunday, 2/7/26)

I saw several with outspread wings, drying them in the warm sun after diving and swimming for fish.

This pretty little bird is a Palm Warbler. 

And now for the bugs we found on the palm trees. These are the Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, young nymph (Romalea microptera).

2-7-26: thank goodness for old photos when the well is running dry, so to speak. I have been trying to take photos of bird out back and am not very successful at capturing them. My reflexes are definitely slowing down and the camera with our zoom is getting heavier it seems. Still, I never give up, says I smiling.

Thanks for looking everyone.

Have a great day.

DUCKLINGS AND CO.

 These are from my archives. I have been looking at a lot of old photos lately and thought to reshare. I have a lot of fun observing all birds. On a small pond I found three little ducklings with their parents.

I am easily distracted by ducks!

Hello little ducky, hello there little friend. It's so nice to meet you.

Something I read once, I can't remember where. "Immerse yourself in the outdoors. It will cleanse your soul and make you a better person."

I am just a 'girl' who likes ducks. Okay, not so much a girl these days. I have moved forward many, many years. I am an older lady who absolutely adores ducks.

Oh ducky, I love you!

Ducky love is recognizable in any language.

Whoever said that was a wise old duck!

Ah well, rub-a-dub-dub, it's time to go scrub the tub.

Thanks for visiting and 

have a great day everyone.

A STUDY IN GULLS

These photos were taken not too far from Pike's Market Place in Seattle in 2009.There were those who really didn't want to be photographed...and didn't stay around long enough to pose. But then again..."Is this my good side?"There were the fly-bys...and the ones who were enjoying bread from a man feeding them. A quote I once read from Edward Norton Lorenz, a meteorologist and mathematician, had remarked that if the theory was correct, one flap of a seagull's wings could alter the course of the weather forever. (We also now know that there is no such thing as a seagull, but the term is commonly used to refer to a variety of gull species.) I could believe that quote when I saw this sight. Those wings were flapping up a storm. I couldn't tell who was having more of a good time, the birds or the man. He had such a wonderful smile on his face, but I feared for his fingers as they came down in droves.An ear-splitting cacophony! I wasn't far from putting my hands over my ears.Stroppy little thing, this one kept asking for more.

I don't see many people feeding birds bread any more. It is discouraged nowadays because it's not good for them, or for us as they can be very aggressive. I have never been afraid of them, spending many of my growing up years and my married life near the ocean, but I am aware.

I hope you've enjoyed these old photos. They were taken on a road trip back in 2009. Another post from my old blog. 

Thanks for looking and 

I hope your day is a good one.

ANTELOPE CANYON PHOTOS TAKEN IN AUGUST 2009

This is the Navajo Nation Power Plant Station  near Page, Arizona, taken from my archives when we were on a road trip in August 2009. We were heading to Antelope Canyon. 

The tour trucks were just coming back from the canyon. We would soon have our turn to ride one.

The day before we had gone to Monument Valley and met Brian at the visitors' center overlooking The Mittens. Brian was an Englishmen from Manchester. We were both looking at that magnificent view and he told us he was traveling alone and asked us if we would take a photo of him. We were happy to oblige and he did the same for us. When we told him we were traveling through the area and wanted to see as much as we could, he asked us if we had seen Antelope Canyon. At that time it was completely new to us. He said it was incredible, and that we really ought to check it out if we had the time. He gave us directions and after we left the Valley, we headed towards Page in Arizona. We owe him a great deal of thanks. 

It was one of the many highlights of our trip. Truly we did not know what to expect as we pulled into the entrance, a dusty little parking lot which we had driven by once. When we realized we had missed the sign we turned back. It seemed that we were in middle of nowhere, or so we thought, but we saw the sign on the second pass and headed for a small kiosk with a lady sitting inside. After chatting with her we found the next tour was in a half hour or so. As hot as it was we decided to wait because Brian's great description of this place had piqued our curiosity. There were a few other people waiting and it wasn't long before we hopped on the Navaho Tours truck, and were heading helter-skelter along the well-traveled wash which you can see in the photo above.

Above and below Gregg and I were hanging on for dear life. I had a seat right at the end of the truck. My sun hat almost flew off my head and I clutched it in my hands for the rest of the drive. I enjoyed this ride better than the last rollercoaster I went on when I decided five years previously that it was going to be the last one. This particular ride was exciting and so much fun but there wasn't a lot of talking going on in the back of that truck. There was, however, a lot of laughter because we were all merrily having our derriere's lifted off the seat at every bump. Everyone must have been wondering what was in store for us. Gregg was sitting on the opposite side and we were grinning at each other like a couple of Cheshire Cats.

We have reached our destination where you can see other tour trucks parked by the entrance to the canyon. The opening in the wall is on the right of the photo.

Here is a closer look.

With hat now firmly on head we wait until it was our turn to go inside.

We didn't have to wait long before we were inside looking at all the magnificent sandstone formations. In sections there was sunlight streaming in from openings above. In other areas it was very dark.

Our guide, Carol Begay of Navajo Tours, told us how the Navajo had given names to certain shapes in the rock walls, the bear, the eagle, and many more. 

She also told us that a relative of hers as a young girl had been the first to discover the canyon when a sheep ran into the opening in the canyon wall many, many, many years ago.

Gregg and someone else are taking photos.

Actually being there was surreal.

This is our guide Carol. She was the best and told us the history of this place. She also showed us how to use our little cameras for the surest shots. We all followed her advice as best we could and if we had difficulty, she was kind enough to take a photo with each of our cameras, so that we could be sure of at least one shot we would be happy to take home with us.

I remember this lady as if it were yesterday
and will always be thankful we had her as our guide.

This is an addition to my post since I wrote it all those years ago. There is a very interesting story about the Australian photographer Peter Lik and his very famous photograph taken here called The Phantom. He sold it to the National Geographic for a mind-boggling $6.5 million dollars. You can read the story on the Antelope Canyon Navajo Tours page at this link. I mentioned this photo below when we reached the same spot the photo was taken in. 

Later that night when I had downloaded our photos at the hotel, and I saw my ‘not’ $6.5 million photo below, I suddenly remembered that famous photograph I talked about previously. We came upon the shaft of light streaming from above, and it was mesmerizing. At the hotel I remembered it was in the National Geographic but couldn’t remember the photographer’s name. Now l know it was Peter Lik, biography here. You had to be there at a certain time of the day when the sun was in the correct position, and we didn’t realize when we arrived out of the blue how fortunate our timing was.

This is what many of the more knowledgeable photographers with tripods had come for. I watched them set up their cameras in the hopes of getting that same shaft of light. It wasn't a very strong light at the time, so Carol threw up some dust for it to appear more clearly. I got a little one that I was very happy with.

Below is as far as we could go as we stepped out into an opening with canyon walls surrounding us.

That's Gregg heading out in front of me.

Next is a photo looking back at the opening we had just stepped out of.

There were plenty of willing volunteers to take each other's photographs and this one was taken by a nice young lady from overseas visiting with her family. I didn't recognize where they were from. Growing up in England I had contact with many people from other countries, but no problem, we communicated with smiles and hand motions, a universal language for all people.

Gregg wanted me to take one of him holding his Ralph Waldo Emerson book that he had been reading throughout our road trip. It seemed appropriate considering our surroundings.

We are back at the entrance now waiting for all our fellow passengers to gather near the truck. Gregg who over the years is getting just like his father and knows no strangers on this planet, was chatting to another tour guide from a different company. He had pointed out this flower growing out of the wall of the canyon. He identified it but we forgot and it was lost in time until now. Thanks to my plant app I can identify it as the Sacred datura, also known as Jimsonweed, Angel trumpet, Sacred thorn-apple, Western jimson weed, California jimson weed, Manit, Indian whiskey and one I strangely recognize the name of, Nightshade. Must be because I read all those Agatha Christie books!  The guide did say it was incredibly poisonous and yes, it is highly toxic to humans. You can read  information about nightshades at this website.

In the next photo we are on another helter-skelter ride going back to pick up our car. This time as another truck approaches, Carol slows down to a stop and she has a friendly chat with the lady driving the other truck. This was all in the Navajo language and it was fascinating, not having heard it spoken before. Their conversation lasted for about five minutes...

and then we were waving goodbye and resuming our speedy ride. I made sure I wasn't sitting on the end this time. With the heat, the walk and yes even banging my head on an outcrop of wall inside the canyon (it was hard to see in the dark places, and I did the person behind me a favor, preventing her from doing the same. I heard a gasp from the young lady from overseas and we once again communicated without having to say a word. Her hand on my shoulder as I rubbed my head, a sympathetic look as she asked me if I was okay, and all this without saying a word. I assured her I was fine but truthfully had a bit of a headache for the rest of the day). No wonder I picked a seat up front as I probably had visions of doing an ungainly somersault into the sand. Nope, no back seat for me this time. There were plenty of willing takers for my place as it was a fun place to sit. I might not be going on any more rollercoaster rides, but I would definitely look forward to that ride again if we ever came back this way. It seems unlikely now but it was quite an experience and one I would most definitely enjoy repeating.

One last photo of Gregg with Ralph Waldo Emmerson and we were heading to our next destination.

It was a fantastic experience walking through Antelope Canyon. A big thank you to Brian, the Englishman from Manchester, for steering us in this direction. We are forever in his debt.