A Weekend of Wildlife and Wild Rides

This past weekend hubby and I escaped for a long weekend to Solomons Island, Maryland, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay; and I’m finally getting caught up on some photos to share. We went to see the 3rd Annual Solomons Offshore Grand Prix powerboat race on the Patuxent River. Yes, I love the feel of your adrenaline pumping while going fast! Seems odd when I also love to sit for hours and photograph a single bird! LOL

So although these next photos are not wildlife, I thought I’d share just a few of the hundreds I took. I wasn’t too happy with my post location at the boardwalk railing as it was packed with people trying to see, but at least I had a direct view. Last year 15,000 attended!

As in all of the offshore powerboat races, the Miss Geico turbine extreme powerboat is always the crowd’s favorite. At 3700 hp, it’s top speed is 190 mph. Now that is fast, loud, and definitely an adrenaline pumper!

But no, I don’t want to go THAT fast! I am more comfortable at our 50-60 mph, with our top speed of 80+mph. That’s enough adrenaline pumping for me! Here’s our boat with hubby at the helm.

Our 38′ Sonic – “Magic Carpet Ride”

The boat race wasn’t our only enjoyment. I also had a need for some quiet with wildlife action! This year we went by car instead of boat to adventure on land the day prior to the big race day. We crossed the Gov. Thomas Johnson Bridge (Rt. 4) in the above race photos and headed south for about 30+ minutes to see the Point Lookout Light Station located at the mouth of the Potomac River on the Chesapeake Bay. It is no longer an active lighthouse and is presently owned by the U. S. Navy as a test center.

We then headed to Point Lookout State Park which was pretty awesome! We did some trail hiking to see if we could discover any wildlife. I was happy to come upon an osprey in a tree eating a fish. He obviously wasn’t happy with our presence though and took flight immediately. He was close to another tree that had a well-established osprey nest. Maybe it was his/hers.

Osprey with dinner

Osprey Nest

Minutes later a Bald Eagle came by, soaring beautifully in the sky. At quite a distance, I didn’t do so well on clarity with hand-holding my camera.

American Bald Eagle

This next fella didn’t seem to appreciate our presence either. Funny though, he refused to fly away, so we were the ones to leave his territory. 🙂

Northern Mockingbird with attitude!

And this young fella just hung around the piers at the public boat ramp.

Immature Laughing Gull

While hanging around the public ramp and photographing another Osprey, I discovered this next jelly fish, stirring up the white sand around him, clouding the shallow water. He was gorgeous, one I had never seen before.

Jelly Fish

I had hoped to see some migratory birds but it wasn’t in the cards that weekend. A bit soon as yet for many, but I did hope!

Upon our return Sunday evening, we were lucky to witness a dramatic sunset from our balcony.

Sunset overlooking Kent Narrows south entrance and Kent Island – 9/16/12

Finally, an update on our daily visiting Great Blue Heron. He has now taken over our osprey nest platform as a perch for himself. This is a clear sign that our area osprey are gone! I’m finding him perched before sunrise most mornings.