Cloud Reflections
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Talk about arriving to an awesome RV site in Orange Beach, Alabama. Ours included a fishing pier over a small pond where I had the perfect perch with my camera.
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I know, ridiculous….but cool!
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One evening’s sunset afforded a spectacular light-up and reflection of the eastern clouds high in the sky.
Notice, if you will, someone else enjoying this view alongside me on my perch.
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Final minutes before sunset, Great Blue Heron
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seven minutes later, the sunset
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five more minutes
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seven more minutes
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Although we were to stay at this RV resort for several weeks, on our 5th day we had to pack back up and hit the road, to get out of the path of category 2 Hurricane Zeta. I have a few posts forthcoming to share from Alabama, and I still miss that fishing balcony perch!
Having relocated a week now in Port Charlotte, Florida, wouldn’t you know it, today we were issued the warning for Tropical Storm Eta. Because of its unpredictable wide cone path, we decided to stay put 15 miles inland and ride it out instead of trying to outrun and predict what it will do. Hoping we made the right decision.
Lesson learned for sure. No more scheduled coastal camping in the fall in the U.S. southeast!
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Great Blue Heron
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I headed down a dirt road trail on Bodie Island for the first time and passed an oncomin in tow. “Not much back there, just a Great Blue.”
I was okay with that. I hadn’t seen any Great Blue Herons except at a distance since arriving at the Outer Banks.
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A distant Great Blue Heron and Great Egret at Pea Island NWR
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So I continued on to the end, and there it was.
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Great Blue Heron fishing
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A fish strike is a miss…..
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And then I was spotted.
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Great Blue Heron closeup
Great Blue Heron on alert
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And with those last two shots, I gave a nice thank you and left, letting the heron get back to its peaceful fishing.
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A Willing Willet
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I had a fun time with this Willet as it ran the water’s edge, hunting for a crustacean in the wet sand to eat.
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“Willet On The Run”
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“Run Willet Run”
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“My Shadow”
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“Long Legs and Long Toes”
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“Smiling for the Camera”
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“Crustacean Down the Hatch”
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“A Perfect Pose”
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Always rewarding when you have a willing Willet performing a photo shoot!
Cool fact: Although both parents incubate the eggs, only the male Willet spends the night on the nest.
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Reflecting Pond At Golden Hour
This pond reflection was shot during the morning’s golden hour along Cape Hatteras National Seashore last month.
Sharing it in two compositions from two photos. 😊
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Morning’s Golden Hour
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Morning’s Golden Hour
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Series: Take A Moment and Enjoy A Sunset
Time to feel a sense of peace, even if just for a moment.
Sunset over Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore
“I wish you the peace that sunsets can bring. As the sun sinks, and skies grow dark, we can be alone with our thoughts. Trying to push away the fears and anxieties crowding us — sickness, civil strife, burning, and incredible heroism. So much is incomprehensible.
Let it all recede into the night.
Rest.
Think only of blessings now.
Courage will find us all in the morning.”
― Margaret Moss
Birds in Flight at OBX
What a fabulous time I had birding in the Outer Banks last month.
You know I love the challenge of birds in flight! Here are more of my favorites.
Canada Geese
Brown Pelican
House Sparrow
Belted Kingfishers (Northern Shovelers in background)
Marbled Godwits and Willets
American Wigeons
American Wigeons
Canada Goose
Yellow-rumped Warbler (nicknamed “Butter Butt”)
Tricolored Heron
Tricolored Heron
Willets
Forster’s Tern
Forster’s Tern
Caspian Tern
Caspian Tern
Shorebirds at OBX
I’ve had a lot of fun trying to capture shorebirds around the Outer Banks in the past month, but many times it was quite challenging trying to ID them in their non-breeding plumage, especially if shot at a distance.
Those interested in a great shorebird ID book, I recommend “The Shorebird Guide” (O’Brien, Crossley, Karlson). Also any help you can obtain from a pro-birder is a plus. (thanks HJ! Avian101)
Now on with the shorebirds. (And three new lifers for me!)
Killdeer (a plover)
Semipalmated Plover
Black-bellied Plover
American Golden-Plover
Herring Gull (juvenile)
Forster’s Tern
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper (new lifer #215)
Stilt Sandpipers (new lifer #216)
Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Dowitcher (new lifer #217)
Marbled Godwits and Willets
Close-up Marbled Godwits (pink/black bills) and Willets
Marbled Godwits and Lesser Yellowlegs
And finally, a funny shot of a Sanderling kicking sand, chasing another away from his little area.
Sanderlings – “This is my beach turf!”
Spooky Tree
I saw this tree this past Spring and have been saving it for Halloween.
Two crops, I couldn’t decide which one I liked best.
Spooky Tree
“Come Here, So I Can Tell You Something”
Seemed appropriate for the day!
(Sorry for another absent from blogging and reading blogs. We left Outer Banks and drove 1,000 miles to Gulf Shores, Alabama, which after a beautiful week there, Hurricane Zeta decided to head towards there as well….. Soooo, we left Alabama and drove 600 miles to get out of harm’s way, to Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte, Florida. Whew! I’ll be back in couple days, catching up with my Outer Banks photos, and more…..I haven’t stopped taking photos!)
Lighthouses: Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island
I’ve visited two of the five Outer Banks lighthouses.
The first is the most famous of the five, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
North of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
Bodie Island Lighthouse
Bodie Island Lighthouse
Bodie Island Lighthouse’s Fresnel Lens
Bodie Island Lighthouse’s Fresnel Lens
American Golden-Plover at Oregon Inlet, NC
We’ve enjoyed being at the boat docks late day at Oregon Inlet to watch the off-shore charter boats return with their catch.
I would also watch and photograph the Brown Pelicans, Boat-tailed Grackles, and Killdeer that hung around there too.
But, I was really looking for a specific bird. Sightings had been confirmed an American Golden-Plover was seen at the marina. But I never did find it, and soon sightings were no longer reported on eBird. I was disappointed I missed this plover’s rare appearance.
Almost two weeks had passed. I was at Pea Island NWR when I got a tip from another birder that the American Golden-Plover was back at Oregon Inlet, she had just seen it there a short while ago.
I was ten minutes away. Off I went! I pulled into the marina’s parking lot and went to the area she mentioned; and bingo, there it was, foraging in a large grassy area just as she said, all alone. I photographed the plover from my car so I wouldn’t scare it off.
Welcome to my bird lifer list, #214 American Golden-Plover! 💃
American Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
This plover is considered one of the fastest fliers among shorebirds. No doubt, as it migrates every year from Arctic Alaska and Canada to southern South America, a very long distance.
It is most common for the American Golden-Plover to do a circular migration, migrating in the fall down the East coast of North America, flying offshore nonstop and returning in the spring up through the heartland of our continent via the Great Plains and the Mississippi Valley.
This one must have needed a break on its nonstop flight south!
American Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
Back to the fishing boats. For those of you who love fishing, here’s a few photos I also shot while hanging around the marina.
Boat-tailed Grackle on one of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center signs
Half of the charter boats at the marina
Happy fishermen
Dolphin Fish
Yellow-fin Tuna
Happy fishermen
Fishing reels
Two big Wahoo and happy fishermen
Bay Photos by Donna 