Hello Sunshine!

January 15, 2024

It’s been a long, long three years since we last visited Florida for the winter. Our last extended visit was in the winter of 2020. We had a few weeks left in our three-month stay when the pandemic hit. The first news reports were so dire that we worried about whether to remain in Florida or return to Michigan. If we returned, our doctors, family, and friends would be near at hand in case we needed them. If we stayed, there would be no one close by to help, and we had our two old dogs with us to consider. Who would take care of them if we both became seriously ill?

Ultimately, we chose to stay in Florida until our lease ran out in April, but we stopped going out to eat or spending time in our favorite coffee shop. Our niece, Holly, kindly sent us her homemade cloth masks, and we avoided others as much as possible. When it came time to leave, Mel and I drove straight through to Michigan with our two dogs in tow, and only made stops to get gas and use the bathroom. It was a long, grueling two-day marathon of driving.

While the pandemic was still running rampant in 2021 and 2022, we avoided going back to Florida, preferring instead the safety net of family, friends, and our local physicians. In 2023, we stayed home once again because our very old dog, Brandy, was in her last days. She died in April of 2023.  Our other dog, Corky, had died the previous year. As the winter of 2024 approached, we were both extremely ready for a change of venue.

It’s not that I don’t like Michigan winters. I love the snow, especially if there are beautiful pictures to be had! What makes me weary, though, are the seemingly unrelenting overcast skies and intermittent rainy days. By January, I am more than ready for sunnier days and new birds to photograph!

Mel and I checked into our rental home late in the day on Monday January 8, 2024. On Tuesday, a huge storm blew through, but Wednesday arrived with an abundance of sunshine and bright blue skies! We both grabbed our cameras and headed out the door to the nearby Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, to see what we could find.

My first subject was a tiny, solitary shorebird called a Sanderling. It was running along the beach hither and yon like someone had flipped a switch in its brain to fast forward. It was a bird possessed–and hilarious to watch!

After taking hundreds of pictures of the little Sanderling, I wandered down a nearby trail and stopped at the edge of a deep saltwater marsh where I could see Brown Pelicans diving for fish. They flew low across the water then rose gracefully into the air before plunging like a torpedo into the water for fish. The force of that impact stuns the small fish in their path and allows the pelican to scoop them up. It was amazing to watch them go through their acrobatic moves. First, they tucked their heads in, then they rotated their bodies to the left. This maneuver is believed to cushion the trachea and esophagus from the impact of the pelican’s dive. Both the trachea and the esophagus are located on the right side of their neck.

I stood in the same spot for an hour or so just watching all the different birds search for food. There was a Great Egret, a Snowy Egret, a Little Blue Heron, several Ibises, a Tricolored Heron, Piping Plovers, a Ruddy Turnstone, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loons, and a very magnificent Osprey that landed on a post less than 20 feet from where I was standing! I’ve never stood in one place for any amount of time and had such a variety of birds visit! It was mesmerizing.

After taking more than 600 pictures, I thought, perhaps, it was time to move on, but it’s never easy for me to do that even when I already have many more pictures than I’ll ever need or use! I always think there will be one more incredible shot that I don’t want to miss. On this particular day, there was!

I had walked a little farther down the trail and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a large beak and a big yellow eye peeking up from the weeds.  Oh, my goodness, I thought! It was a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron! I rarely ever see them! I quickly took a few pictures and then quietly backed away so I wouldn’t disturb him.

Having fully satisfied my picture-taking appetite for the day, I happily returned to our car, totally rejuvenated by my time outdoors and my camera full of pictures.

It doesn’t get much better than that.