Come spring I should start having some really cool pictures. I’m fixing up my 14 foot ocean kayak with a stabilizing tail. I’m going to start going back to kayaking 20-50 miles out to islands in the Gulf of Mexico. I’m also going to start seeking out larger fauna within the mobile delta “ Americas Amazon” looking for alligators, cougars, and black bears. Actively tracking them to get pictures of them. Also will be looking for larger snake species like the eastern indigo snake, eastern coachwhip, black pine snake, florida pine snake, and the smaller 3-5 foot long water snakes.
I also want to follow in Mohr’s steps and catalog these harder areas that most avoid. Biggest threat are not the animals, it’s just getting lost. There is some human threats to once you get further out and are like 20+ miles away from civilization.
Looks like our climates might be similar. We’re warm and sunny in the middle of the day now but nights and mornings are chilly. I’ve been doing some pruning in the garden and recently removed a lot of wood from an Iochroma fuchsiodes which has grown way too big as well as becoming a tangled mess. I’d like to bring the total height down more but am loath to deprive the hummers and other birds who seem to enjoy it so much. Bushtits are fun to watch though they are so small it is pretty hard to see them from some twenty feet away as in his video I took yesterday.
I was just looking up some information about these little birds and read this here:
Weighing about as much as four paperclips, Bushtits are smaller than many hummingbirds . And they take full advantage of their diminutive size . While larger insect-eaters forage on the upper surfaces of leaves, Bushtits hang beneath them, plucking all the tiny insects and spiders hiding out of sight.
I did once see one of their communal nests hanging among my father-in-law’s snap peas. Definitely hung down more than a foot. Interesting to learn the whole flock will use it to sleep in. I assume the flock is made up of siblings from past generations of the nesting pair. At any rate, while I’ve seen the local hummers drive a red shouldered hawk away, the one who guards this tree disappeared while the bushtits were working it. Of course they are after entirely different food. Still I wonder if their being near in size as well very numerous in number makes it hard for the hummer to oppose them?
These are all from my hike yesterday. Woke up at 430am so I could be there by 530am and hike until 730. Then head to work.
In picture #3 I really like the blueish green of the false rosemary against the darker green Sandhill rosemary.
The picture of the pine trunk and moon is neat too. I am always surprised when I see pines with crazy bends and twists in it.
In general the costal sand dunes are great. Always cool to hike in the early morning and hear the combination of birdsong and crashing waves. Many often confuse the sand for snow in the pictures.
Looking forward to eating these tonight. Some species of puffball. I’m not sure if the exact species. Also some oyster mushrooms. I meant to collect some larger swamp chestnut oak’s acorns thst are still fresh. The season is about at its end. I like collecting like 20 of them and making enough acorn butter to spread on bread and toast it.
