Wood Stork, Wood Stork, Osprey, Osprey, Vulture

This is one of several dead trees which must have been in a higher area at one time on Lover's Key. It reminded me very much of my favorite picture from Yellowstone. The difference is that the white here is sand and the white there was the results of the acid climate at Yellowstone but then again, Yellowstone was once an ancient seabed and the springs all contain the remnants of those shells that were deposited millions of years ago.

Well, the weather has been absolutely fabulous!! How can you miss with mid 50's nights and low 80's every day. Last weekend we had a couple of cold fronts come rolling through and a full moon. This led to one of those wonderful high, high tides followed by low, low tides. Like last year, I walked way down the beach and collected all sorts of shells, including some that have been elusive over the past few years (true tulips). I have found nice examples of almost every shell native to these beaches now and if I can will post a little identification guide on my blog. I am still grappling with the computer with very limited functionality at this point so have to switch back and forth between mine and Warren's. I have to upload the pictures to his computer, edit them to make them smaller and then update my blog from there. It is still very annoying and I am harboring very bad feelings about Microsoft and Vista.

Last Friday we went to the Corkscrew Swamp Audubon Sanctuary which was a lovely 2 1/4 mile boardwalk through the swamp. We didn't see too many birds but then we have become spoiled with what we are seeing just looking in the "backyard" here.

There are actually two ospreys up here on this nest -- one of two very active nests at the end of the beach here. This one had moments before swooped down and tried to steal a freshly caught fish from a local angler!!


I got several pictures of the ospreys soaring above. It was a gorgeous day as you can see and the sun and the ospreys were cooperating for once.

This is one of the vultures which we see every day. Do you think they are waiting for us to expire??

Tuesday we took our nature walk through Lover's Key State Park where Gail and I collected shells and reminisced about our childhoods at the beach and collecting shells with my father. It was great fun and we took some nice pictures.

Yesterday, I managed to wrest control of the van from Warren and my sister and I got to finally stop and take pictures of the wood storks which had eluded us because our dear husbands refused to just stop the cars by the side of the road. Luckily the storks were in a place where there was a small turnoff so she and I finally got those pictures! Our husbands just moaned. As she has been able to post more, you can see what we have been up to at http://www.parkersbarkers.blogspot.com/ which is my sister's blog.

This is one of the wood storks we see every day as we head over to Ft. Myers. They are an endangered species but we have seen quite a few this year.





This is a flower from a tree growing right by my sister's condo. It is called very aptly aHong Kong orchid.


More of those omnipresent vultures waiting to pounce.



This is a view of the wood stork that decided that he was interested in having his picture taken anymore. Quite a magnificent bird!