Solstice

 

The first day of winter awoke to a balmy 66 degrees. While we've had a few nights in the 30's most days are "shorts" weather. While the fronts typically bring high winds and cool temperatures, they also bring in migrant birds, some of which are not common to our area.

I've had a couple of rufous hummingbirds hanging around for the past month. They are the first ones that I've seen. They are very aggressive and will get in your face! Good thing they're not any bigger.

The cold fronts push many water fowl into the bays. These hooded mergansers also been infiltrated by an alien horned grebe.

A pair of northern shovlers.

A  young red shouldered hawk has also been hanging around this week. That's only a small sample of the migrants that we're seeing.

Storm over Wewa

I had heard the rumble of an afternoon thunderstorm as I was working on an update for my new blog, which is another story that I'll explain in a minute. Anyway I decided it was time for an afternoon libation, just to get the creative juices flowing, and walked out on the front porch  and saw this thunderstorm to my west over Wewahitchka/ Dead Lakes. Unfortunately I had carried my camera inside to down load pictures that I had taken earlier today and a cool camera and warm humid air create instant fogging. The pictures aren't as sharp as I would like, but I think the refracted colors caused by winds across the top of the storm are evident.

 

I

 

Thanks for the e-mails and calls checking on my health...ok, I was way behind on an update. Other than the fact that that this is my busy time of the year tarpon fishing, I've just completed a course through the University of Florida(IFSA) to become a Florida Master Naturalist. It covered plants, vertebrate and invertebrate animals, and the ecology of the coastal systems.  Plants have long been a weakness of mine and I was fortunate to have neighbor who  is also a Master Gardner; she took the course with me and has been of tremendous help in identifying native plants. Our class project was a blog that is dedicated to the rivers of East Bay and primarily the East River. My intent is to keep that blog focused on the flora and fauna of the East River, and the photographic opportunities that avail themselves through the year.

I invite all of you to visit us at East River Florida. It's a work in progress and we'd appreciate your pictures of East River and any comments or observations.