Bird Sightings – The Hermits' Rest

Twelve thousand steps later

Today was my only Saturday in Ormond Beach. So by gosh, I was going to make the most of it! While I’m still not back to the strength and stamina I had when I was working with horses and camping so much, I still managed 4.5 miles of walking at three different parks. I got my nature walking in!

I started off back at Tomoka State Park, where I walked the mile-long paved path on the other side of the road from the main park. It’s very smooth, and can be enjoyed by people with many disabilities in addition to walkers and cyclists. I’d have enjoyed it much more if there were fewer motorcycles on the road (it must have been a special touring day). There was a never-ending parade of buzzy small planes, too. But it was shady, and I saw a beautiful box turtle. Not many birds.

The woods is very uniform, with the same mix of plants throughout. I wonder how long it’s been recovering from being an indigo plantation? Here are some sights.

I left there and proceeded a few beautiful miles down the road to a truly special place, Bulow Creek State Park. Lots to see here! First I enjoyed the area around some huge, old live oaks, including the Fairchild Oak. All the trees are beautiful. My big surprise was spotting a raccoon family in the big old tree. Mom was trying to keep up with four very busy young ones. I enjoyed them a while, then showed them to a couple of other visitors.

Next I took the shorter trail that goes through a wet area. It has a collection of fascinating seeps that flow across the clay substrate to form the larger creek. Since it’s rained recently, they were flowing nicely. They are very similar to the seeps on our property, and now I understand them more. It made my day (that and the raccoons).

I endeavored to go on as much as possible of the next trail, which is a six-mile loop. I did not go that far. I did make it to where the trail turns and follows Bulow Creek before turning back. This was a lovely trail that even had some birds! I saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly by. There was also ample evidence of wild hogs. And since there was NO evidence of bears, I concluded that the large black animal that snorted at me was a hog. Yow. But the ferns, flowers, and trees were great. I also enjoyed many brown anole activities.

I had one more stop on my route, which made a nice circle. I wish I could have taken photos as I drove, because the drive between Bulow and North Peninsula State Park is through some of the prettiest wild east coast scenery I’ve ever seen. Woods making tunnels over the road lead to stunning swamps and to wide-open marshlands. I may take Lee there just to see it again. I also enjoyed going over a small drawbridge.

At this park I went on a trail that’s supposed to be a birding trail. I didn’t see any, nor any alligators. I did see a very large gopher tortoise. It made a noise at me for interrupting snack time. I also found what had to be its hole (huge) nearby.

If it wasn’t so hot, I’d have enjoyed more of this trail, which crossed hammocks and scrub. But I got too red and knew I needed to get a drink and rest. That led me to a shiny Anhinga. A bird!

I came back to the condo and enjoyed putting my observations in iNaturalist and rehydrated. After cleaning up, I got Vicki and we had a fancy steak dinner at the fancy restaurant I ate at last week. Other than very happy and loud revelers next to us, we had fun.

Lee is halfway here, after dealing with bad traffic and wonky GPS. Tomorrow I won’t be alone in the condo!

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I sure enjoyed my day. All positive.

Visiting Mom (and more)

When I was planning this trip to northern Florida, it occurred to me that I wouldn’t be too far from the ancestral home of my mother’s side of the family, and their last hurrah in Green Cove Springs. (That town name took up lots of trace when addressing an envelope so I will call it GCS from now on.) It was, in the middle of the 20th century, when I used to visit Saintly Aunt Belle and all the Canovas, a quaint small town centered around a sulphur spring and a grand bath house for taking in the waters, which then flowed into the St. John’s River, which famously flows north.

I had not been back since December 1984, at my mom’s funeral. Let’s just say that was an episode my dad, brother, and I wanted to put far behind us as we raced away vowing to “never see those g-d people again” to paraphrase Dad. Since all “those people” are dead, and the neighborhood is a Walgreens, I felt it was safe to return. I brought Vicki so she could beat away any ghosts with her cane.

First we had to see Elvis. I asked for his blessing

We stopped for lunch in scenic Palatka, which still resembles Palatka but with some new stores. We ate at Florida’s oldest diner (apparently only since an older diner closed). Angel’s Dining car is in a real old dining car and has lots of milkshakes. We ate other food, however, and and I especially liked the sweet potato fries.

As we drove to GCS, I needed to stop to do a meeting with my boss (I took off most of the day). As I slowed down to turn into a driveway, we passed two Highway Patrol cars that had pulled someone over. The next thing I knew, we were being pulled over. I was confused. It turns out that I should have jumped into the left lane when we passed them.

I was all perky and nice, so I accepted my warning and promised to do better. As Mr. Trooper headed back to his car, a red truck went by in our lane. He got immediately pulled over! I guess there’s an information campaign going on about slowing down AND getting in the left lane, which I would have done if I wasn’t trying to turn right. Lesson learned.

While much of the area near GCS looks unfamiliar, the cemetery looks the same. In fact, I drove straight to the right plot where all those Canovas and their spouses are interred. Then I got confused because there were pinwheels all around, so I drove around a bit. Mom’s headstone had a pinwheel thing next to it. Perhaps my estranged sister put it there before she moved to Texas. If so, that’s an old pinwheel.

The round thing under 13 is a blue marble the color of Mom’s birthstone. I added that.

I told Mom, who is not there, of course, that I miss her but am fine. By the way, Mom was not Catholic; the person who arranged for her funeral and headstone was, though. See why we left? Anyway, here are some of my other dead relatives’ markers.

Maternal grandparents – my grandfather was a great guy.

We looked around a bit more, identified some plants, and went to Spring Park, very near the Walgreens where the crazy Canova children grew up (actually that house was one street over and now has a funeral home on it).

Here’s the spring now. The circular opening is what used to have a fence around it.

The Spring Park has been made very nice, which pleased me. The bath house is gone, but there’s a grand city hall across the street. The refurbished spring-fed pool is lovely.

Spring facts. What is doesn’t mention is the sulphur smell.

My happiest moment came when I saw that the outflow into the river was just as it once was. Crystal clear water briskly flowing into the river, full of fish and water plants.

The river area is not all built up, which pleased me. The only birds were Boat-tailed Grackles, but they were entertaining enough. We did see a Roseate Spoonbill on the way back, so all was well.

We made it back to the condo through some bad rain, which they need here, too. After a rest, Vicki and I ate so-so Italian food. She was a trooper today. I’m not gonna force her on my marathon of parks tomorrow, though. That will be solo.

Vicki found this green lacewing larva wearing its disguise of lichen. How cool!

It was good to have someone with me today. I didn’t know how I’d take visiting the source of childhood negativity again. But mostly I remembered how my father took care of me when relatives were snippy, and how kind the compassionate family members were to our nuclear family. I’ve done the work and came out healthier! Whoop!

Drowning my sorrows?

Today I tried very hard to find happiness amidst sadness about so many good people passing away lately (famous and not-so-famous). I should get used to it, and normally I am. This is just a rough week.

I did find beauty! This is Ohio Spiderwort.

I got up early and dragged myself to a nearby park, Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park, where I wandered around and enjoyed many beautiful plants.

I then walked across the road to a nice dock with great views of the Intracoastal and native woods. I got to see birds and talk to a couple of nice folks. I still made it back in plenty of time to start work.

It stormed pretty spectacularly this afternoon, with lightning right on top of me. I enjoy watching rain over the ocean, and it brought peace except when the big booms came.

After work, I went for a nice walk. I ended up with more birds today than any other here so far. To reward myself for working hard and because I was kind of lonely, I took myself to a nice dinner right across the road from the condo. I had old fashioned and a dessert. Good thing my meal was nice heathy fish and kale!

I’m looking forward to reading and relaxing for a while. This condo might not be fancy, but it sure is nice and quiet. Time to reflect.

Also, thanks for all the good feedback on Stephanie’s poem. She is full of understanding.

There’s a lot of water here

Since it’s Monday, I had to work. But since it’s Eastern Time, I didn’t have to work until late morning. So I took the opportunity to head over to Tomoka State Park, which is quite close to where I’m staying in Ormond Beach, Florida.

The park is surrounded by two rivers, the Halifax, which is also part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Tomoka, which joins the Halifax here. As you can imagine, there are beautiful views, many without any signs of humanity. My kind of place.

There are lots of kayak trails and camping areas. The nature trail and the trail around the point were what I focused on today, though I have plans to return and either go on a boat tour or hike another path.

Oddly, I didn’t hear many birds, just a very persistent Osprey and a Belted Kingfisher were loud. Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Carolina Wrens rounded out the songbirds, and I spotted an Anhinga, some Ruddy Turnstones, and a Great Blue Heron. Nothing too exotic.

There were plenty of very interesting plants to distract me from the lack of birds, however. The scenery was lush and verdant, with some new plants, like a hog plum (Ximenia americana), also known as a sea lemon. Apparently they’re common on the Florida coast, but I don’t remember them.

Take the tour of the nature trail with me! It’s fun.

There was lots of turtle and tortoise evidence here. I saw a nest that had recently hatched and found a beautiful gopher in its hole. I sure enjoyed gopher tortoises as a child!

Here’s more on the Gopherus polyphemus.

Okay, I’ll just share a few more interesting plants and insects I saw.

After exhausting my eyeballs from all this, I headed back to work and tried not to let the pelicans distract me as the majestically sailed by. The ocean was very blue.

After working I took a short walk on the beach to enjoy the sea birds and the shifting sands. This is a great place to come in summer after school starts. It’s warm but quiet. There are so many beautiful colors to enjoy.

And finally, I got to hang out with Vicki, whose headache was over, thankfully. We ate at a fun place in a non-touristy area with a great ocean view. After an amazing grilled cheese sandwich and much conversation about taboo topics like politics and religion (where we disagree less now than at other points in our lives), we went to a quiet beach park and watched pelicans dive as the sun set. A fine day with much water!

The cordoned off areas are turtle nests.

Sleepy time!

Hooray for friends and nature endorphins

I’m having a good time in Ormond Beach, which, by the way, is just north of Daytona on the east coast of Florida. I spent the morning getting set up and organized, then went to get my friend Vicki for breakfast. We went next door to her apartment, which is an old local favorite. The food was good, but the conversation was the best! I love being around people who know me very well but still like me. Having known each other since we were teens means we can poke fun at each other about stuff others are unaware of. That’s fun.

After lunch we rode around town, so now I’m much better oriented and know where all the vital places are, like where to get socks (I forgot socks). I just love looking at all the pine forests that cover north Florida and all the houses that look like the ones we grew up in, only more brightly colored. Sorry, but the only photo I got with Vicki was this Cattle Egret we saw while in line to get a soft drink.

I took Vicki back home to have a migraine (I’m such a good influence), then set off on a trek to get socks, an extension cord for my laptop monitors, and some food. It all went fabulously. Marshall’s had socks and nothing else that tempted me. I got all my groceries and nail polish remover at Publix (yay, the chain Mom shopped at when I was a kid), and I got an extension cord at Dollar Tree, thanks to a helpful Publix customer suggesting it.

I can see the ocean from my desk. The only place with a good view.

In the afternoon I got my nature endorphins. I really needed them, since I didn’t get much solo nature time in Ruidoso. First, I took a walk along the beach, which was pleasantly uncrowded and full of friendly shore birds. I like the beach sand here, which has a lot of pink in it.

I kept walking and crossed into the neighborhood across from the beach. I tried to listen for birds, but there weren’t too many, other than a persistent Osprey and many Blue Jays. I enjoyed all the houses in various states ranging from disrepair to perfection. Of course, I also recorded weeds/native plants.

I was surprised to see a small garden and trail that the garden club made fairly recently. I mostly took pictures of specimen plants, but it was a nice, neatly labeled, oasis of semi-wildness, right next to a pretty cemetery.

I continued walking and was about to turn back when, suddenly, there was a sign directing me to a museum and garden. Garden? Yes! I found a woodsy wonderland at Ormond Memorial Museum and Gardens. Coming the back way, it sneaks up on you.

Okay, someone really loves this place. It’s beautifully designed and cared for, with sweet surprises everywhere you look. So much tropical greenery, with water trickling everywhere. What a gem! My heart was filled with pleasure at every turn, even if it was bursting with non-native plants. They were still beautiful.

Entrance, which would be prettier with fewer signs

The turtle pond was my favorite surprise in the garden. It was so lush with water dripping and bubbling everywhere. And so many turtles! I didn’t try to ID the ones I saw, since they have so many kinds, but I did sit and watch them for a while. I love a good turtle pond.

By this time, I was a bit warm and tired, so I headed back. It was 104° at home, so I’m not complaining about the high 80s. I realized I’m really out of shape since I stopped doing horse stuff and hiking all the time. I’ll just use this trip to get back my walking legs. At least my last pleasant sights didn’t use my sore muscles. I got all these sunset photos from my balcony, from where I can see a sliver of water. I liked how the colors of the water and sand also changed.

It’s just great…

Imagine that said in the voice of the boss in The Office. I always use that voice when I see these guys.

And all the things I can talk about are greeeat, too. Work is great. I have a greeeat new orange suitcase for my next trip. And I got this thing that gives a laptop three screens. It will be greeeat for working at condos and in the RV.

Nothing that’s really on my mind is bloggable. So I’ll thank everyone who responded to my last post, remind my family who reads this that I love you, and let the rest of you know I appreciate your kindness to me. You really are great, without any sarcasm.

Nothing wrong with uneventful days

Yeah, the last couple of days have been fairly low stress, with just a couple of bobbles. Also the blog prompts are so repetitive that I didn’t feel like answering the last few. Nonetheless, there have been highlights.

Master Naturalist meeting was last night, and I even made the end of the Board meeting (but missed some ruffled feelings, thankfully). A highlight of the meeting was getting a photo with all our living Presidents as our current one received a commemorative Bald Eagle pin.

The other highlight has been Stumpy’s growing popularity with its avian buddies. We now have little flocks of House Sparrows vying for stump space, as well as Cardinals seeking out their sunflower seeds. My patience has really paid off! Here are blurry phone photos to prove it. I’ll have to bring out the good camera now that there’s something to photograph.

Look at all the birds in the tree awaiting their turn.

I’ve felt good about work, because I’ve hit a few deadlines, but I’m glad the weekend is here. We had a pleasant dinner with my son and his partner at the new restaurant in town, which always is a pleasure. I do enjoy the little downtown area.

It rained somewhere near here this evening, but not here. We are back in crispy season, with extreme heat and brown plants. I’m glad to have water to look at here! Tomorrow I’m working with the water garden some more, too.

Stumpy success

Now, that took a while. The huge stump has been sitting in the corner of the back yard for months.

It’s been many weeks since flat bits were created on the surface.

Spring Stumpy with bird bath fountain and flat spots.

I have been adding bird seed whenever rain or wind washed it off. I waited patiently, knowing the birds had plenty to eat after all the rain. But yesterday, out of the corner of my eye, I caught motion. A sparrow was eating some seed!

Today I looked over at the stump every time I went out to check the bird phone for new birds (Swainson’s Hawk today!). Sure enough, the House Sparrows are eating my admittedly low-quality offerings.

Since I’ve established that birds have discovered Stumpy’s magical gifts, I can now give them better stuff. I even sprinkled some corn mixture on the ground to attract the doves who have been hanging around. Tomorrow I’ll break out some better seed mix I’ve been hoarding so maybe songbirds will see what’s there. I can store all the food safely in my birding hut, too, since I have a tightly sealed bin. Winter may be fun when all the various sparrows return.

It makes me feel trusted when Carlton sleeps right next to me—he feels safe.

Note from self?

If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?

I hope my future self (maybe when I’m 102) would tell me how proud she is of all the learning and growing past me did, and that she appreciates all the memories of my fun with nature, friends, and family. My guess is she’ll have a lot to say.

Thankfully, today was uneventful, which allowed me to get lots of work done in between helping people, which is also part of my job, come to think of it. Other than work, I just enjoyed the animals and their antics.

Apache always thinks everyone else’s food dish is better.

There must have been something outside this evening, because there was sure a lot of barking. But I forgive the dogs, due to mostly being cute.

Watch Benito’s tail.

And hey! I finally saw a bird eating from my tree stump feeder. I kept putting food on the stump, just in case. No photos of that, just dogs. Enjoy.

I’d like to talk to you about life insurance.

It makes me irrationally happy to see Benito play with toys. The other dogs no longer do. He is so full of pure joy.

Looking and learning

I’m pretty much wiped out, but today was extra, extra fun. I enjoyed listening to and watching birds behind the hotel. I got to watch Lesser Goldfinches eating thistle seeds and the happiest Raven, who had scored an entire biscuit. I also saw unidentified animals in the hills.

Hard to believe this is behind the business district.

Next we met a fun young woman named Alison, who showed us some representative houses here that might work as summer homes. Alison was a lot of fun. We met in a restaurant where her fiancé painted a cool mural.

There was quite a collection of properties to see, ranging from sad small condos to rustic cabins to a house nicer than ours. It reminded me of the good old days when we bought houses and fixed them up.

Of course, I also found flowers that elk hadn’t eaten. This is scarlet cinquefoil.

I didn’t think anything would match all my criteria:

Not too big
No close neighbors
Space to park an RV
Lots of nature
Attractive view

Two did. One rustic place in need of some TLC near town, and one doublewide in a more rural area in really good shape. (There are so many well preserved mobile homes here.) They both are quirky, which I like.

The lady who owned the rural house had taken great care of the yard, which I liked. It was very low maintenance. The other one needed occasional weed whacking. Anyway. Here are a couple things I enjoyed in other houses.

Upstairs family room in a house that was too big

After a lot of driving around, we dropped Alison back off at the restaurant and went back to look at the area where the rural house is. It’s a big, green high mesa with a mix of double wides and nice traditional homes. There are also many horse properties nearby. However, the most interesting thing is in the middy of the neighborhood. A rock shop. Not just a shop, but the place where miners of fancy rocks with geodes and other beautiful formations inside process the raw material!

We got to see all the grinding and polishing stations. It was fascinating! We got to look at beautiful examples of the finished products and watch a slideshow of how they mine the rocks (almost all in New Mexico). after mining, they put back all the dirt they dug and seed it with appropriate plants. I was impressed.

After that, Lee took me to the Noisy Water winery outdoor gathering place, where we sat under trees and drank wine and ate charcuterie. I also listened to birds. Of course. They had a petting zoo, so I went over and said hi to the goats and other residents.

This one licked my hand clean. Yes I washed it.

But wait, you ask. Did you see any interesting mammals? Of course I did. Many elk, of which I just share a few, and a herd of wild horses serenely grazing next to a parking lot. Apparently that’s common. That was the last fun wild animal I was looking for, so yay. No bears. That’s fine.

This was a fun whirlwind trip. I’m glad we are coming back in September so I can do non-real estate activities.

I want to look at more flowers like this Rocky Mountain zinnia

I have no idea if Lee intends to buy a property. I understand why. Texas is getting more scary to us as time goes on. But we love our ranch and don’t want to go away from our family there. A summer getaway would be ok.