Yellowbelly Sliders and Pied-Billed Grebes

Carolina Beach Lake just never disappoints me!  Each day I go down for my walk, there are different things to observe even though I am always sure there will be nothing!  Today was another beautiful day down here and as the weather is supposed to deteriorate tomorrow,  went for my walk a little earlier than usual.  I was very surprised to see these two Pied-Billed Grebes swimming and diving on the south side of the lake.  It's like the birds all know to have a different species each day and hopefully as winter comes closer, there will be more resident birds like the Coots.

Looking over to where the Great Egret was the other day, I thought I spotted some rather large turtles but they were pretty distant.  Sure enough, looks like there are three here, each at least a foot long if not longer so among the largest of their species.  I am assuming that these are the same kind that are in the following picture -- the Yellowbelly Slider which is not particular about its habitat!  

Still more turtles on one of the side ponds at Carolina Beach Lake.  You can see the yellow belly and the stripes on the neck.  As I got a little closer, they headed for the water!

This is another shot of the two grebes (yes, I am getting desperate!).

Yesterday, I walked down to my "secret beach" which clearly has seen the effects of Hurricane Irene and some of the other tropical systems that have dumped on us.  The steps down to the sand have been replaced -- there used to be about 3 steps which would sometimes be covered by sand -- now there are at least nine steps and you can see that the condos down there are really exposed.  I still love the exposed sandstone beach though and can't wait for the winter waterfowl to come and dig in the seaweed covered sandstone.

This is a closeup of the seaweed which looks like wonderful soft grass.


Later this week, I will continue my quest for Colin Firth.  Thanks to some industrious digging, I know where he might possibly be filming on Wednesday and Thursday  -- I know they are filming in these locations, just don't know whether Colin Firth is in these scenes. Now my old challenge motivation is kicking in!
(When working, bosses learned that if they framed a task as a challenge, I would get pretty persistent and almost always succeed despite the obstacles that were thrown in front of me.)