Today I visited Split Oak Forest Mitigation Park, south east of Orlando. The cold front that rolled through yesterday brought a significant change in temperatures. This morning, when I got to the park, it was in the low 50's and very windy. This was not really cold to me, but it was cold according to the locals. The wind made it feel even colder.
The cold and the wind, I think, kept the birds down. Either that, or Split Oak Forest Mitigation Park is just not that birdy to begin with. It was an interesting park. On the plus side, it was large. Several miles of trails wind through it and I hardly saw any other people while I was there. On the other hand, the habitat seemed somewhat monotonous. I only explored the southern part of the park, which excluded a section that might have had different habitat (I think). But in the part that I did explore, it was pretty much the same habitat except with varying amounts of time since there was a controlled burn. In terms of birds, there were a good number of birds of prey to be seen, and occasionally there were pockets of songbirds flitting about.
When I got too hungry to explore anymore, I headed out, grabbed some food, and then checked out a couple more parks. First, I ate my lunch in a place called Moss Park. This was not the type of park I am interested in. It was much more a place for families to come and picnic and grill and swim and fish, than a wildlife reserve. On the other hand, there were a pair of Sandhill Cranes here that seemed fairly tolerant of humans. I suspect they are getting food handouts, which is bad, but they let me get fairly close for some pictures, which is cool (they may even be resident...the link I included above includes a photo of a pair of Sandhill Cranes). On the odd side: the park charges you $1 to get in, and insists on giving you a receipt for that $1 entry fee. I wonder how much money it costs per person to print those receipts, buy the paper and ink the receipts are printed on, and to keep the machine that prints them in good working order?
Next I visited Tibet-Butler Preserve. This is a smallish park on a lake that is otherwise getting houses built all the way around it. It is a nice park. There is an interesting visitor center, and several trails to walk (with more on the way). There were not tons of birds, but I suspect that condition was more because of the time of day (mid-afternoon) than something that generally affects the park. At the edge of the park next to the lake, I saw an Osprey nearly knock an Anhinga out of a tree. I even have before and after photos, but I did miss the actual point of contact between the two birds.
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Wireless in Christmas
I am in Orlando for a work related conference. I have arrived, however, early enough to get a little birdwatching done. I flew into Orlando this morning and first thing headed in the direction of Orlando Wetlands Park. This park is actually located to the east of Orlando in a little town called Christmas.
Today is not a wonderfully sunny day. The wind is blowing and storm clouds are rolling by above me. There is a reasonable chance of rain, and the last thing I want to do is get caught out in this park when the rain starts, or worse, during a thunderstorm.
Since I am here in Orlando for work, I have my work laptop and an "aircard" that let's me access the Internet via Verizon's cellular network. So, at the moment, I am writing this blog post from the air conditioned comfort of my rental car, while I sit in the parking lot of the park. In another browser window I have the new interactive weather map from weather.com open and repeatedly animating the radar image across the Orlando area. I probably have an hour to wait before the rain comes and goes. Then I think I will be in the clear. Later tonight, if all goes well, I will post some pictures. At a minimum I will edit this post to include some links for the places & names I referenced above.
Today is not a wonderfully sunny day. The wind is blowing and storm clouds are rolling by above me. There is a reasonable chance of rain, and the last thing I want to do is get caught out in this park when the rain starts, or worse, during a thunderstorm.
Since I am here in Orlando for work, I have my work laptop and an "aircard" that let's me access the Internet via Verizon's cellular network. So, at the moment, I am writing this blog post from the air conditioned comfort of my rental car, while I sit in the parking lot of the park. In another browser window I have the new interactive weather map from weather.com open and repeatedly animating the radar image across the Orlando area. I probably have an hour to wait before the rain comes and goes. Then I think I will be in the clear. Later tonight, if all goes well, I will post some pictures. At a minimum I will edit this post to include some links for the places & names I referenced above.
Warm March Saturday = DGCA
Today was an above average warm day in March. Even better, it was a Saturday and it was very sunny. If there was any downside to be discovered, it was the wind. It was quite windy today. So windy that it was sometimes annoying. For example, it can be hard to hold a camera on subject and keep it focused when the subject is flying around, and the wind is gusting hard enough to push you a bit, and you are using a 400mm lens.
Anyway, because it was so nice out, Tammy and I decided to visit Dutch Gap Conservation Area (DGCA). Actually, to be precise, I announced that I was going to DGCA last night and asked Tammy if she wanted to come along. She politely obliged. She tolerates me very nicely. And if you have not noticed yet, my "I am going bird watching at the last minute" location of choice in the Richmond area is DGCA.
Here are a couple pictures from the trip. The first is of a Red-shouldered Hawk. He was hanging out in a tree near the visitor center parking lot. If I remember correctly, there have been nesting Red-shouldered Hawks very near this parking lot the past two springs. As I walked below this particular hawk to take pictures, he watched me...well...like a hawk.
The second picture is of a festival of turtles. Or something like that. That log was quite the popular turtle sunning station. There were probably another four turtles, further to the right on this log, that had found spots to soak up the sun.
Anyway, because it was so nice out, Tammy and I decided to visit Dutch Gap Conservation Area (DGCA). Actually, to be precise, I announced that I was going to DGCA last night and asked Tammy if she wanted to come along. She politely obliged. She tolerates me very nicely. And if you have not noticed yet, my "I am going bird watching at the last minute" location of choice in the Richmond area is DGCA.
Here are a couple pictures from the trip. The first is of a Red-shouldered Hawk. He was hanging out in a tree near the visitor center parking lot. If I remember correctly, there have been nesting Red-shouldered Hawks very near this parking lot the past two springs. As I walked below this particular hawk to take pictures, he watched me...well...like a hawk.
The second picture is of a festival of turtles. Or something like that. That log was quite the popular turtle sunning station. There were probably another four turtles, further to the right on this log, that had found spots to soak up the sun.
I think I said it was cold
A few posts back, when I described the trip to Chincoteague, I think I said it was cold. If I didn't, then let me correct that misunderstanding. It was cold. And when the wind blew, it was a type of cold that requires the use of profanity to describe. Here are a few miscellaneous photos that include ice, just as a guide of the coldness of it all.
The first picture is of a piece of wood or stump that was sticking up out of the water. The wind was blowing hard enough to send a sheet of ice from one end of the pond to the other. When the ice encountered the piece of wood, the ice was thin enough for the wood to carve right through it, leaving that trail of broken ice to the right of the stump.
This picture shows a group of Tundra Swan trying to get to the other side of a sheet of ice. One of the group just took flight and flew over. These, however, decided it would be easier to climb up and walk over the ice.
Finally, here is a shot of what I presume to be a very cold Great Blue Heron. To be more precise: I do not presume that this is a Great Blue Heron, but I do presume he is cold. He is standing up to his feathers in water, right next to a section that is frozen on top. It is almost like a Great Blue Heron Popsicle.
The first picture is of a piece of wood or stump that was sticking up out of the water. The wind was blowing hard enough to send a sheet of ice from one end of the pond to the other. When the ice encountered the piece of wood, the ice was thin enough for the wood to carve right through it, leaving that trail of broken ice to the right of the stump.
This picture shows a group of Tundra Swan trying to get to the other side of a sheet of ice. One of the group just took flight and flew over. These, however, decided it would be easier to climb up and walk over the ice.
Finally, here is a shot of what I presume to be a very cold Great Blue Heron. To be more precise: I do not presume that this is a Great Blue Heron, but I do presume he is cold. He is standing up to his feathers in water, right next to a section that is frozen on top. It is almost like a Great Blue Heron Popsicle.
You learn something new every day
As mentioned in the previous post, this weekend Tammy and I traveled to DC. One day was birdwatching, and the other was a visit to the National Mall. We did not really decide which museums to visit until that morning, but ended up checking out the National Museum of the American Indian, the United States Botanic Garden and the National Gallery of Art (West Building).
Since I thought it was going to rain all day, and I expected the museums to have policies against photography, I did not carry my camera with me on this part of our excursion.
Well, I learned a few things. First, the hourly forecast on Weather.com was pretty darn useless. Each hour it claimed anywhere from a 50% to a 70% chance of rain. In reality, each and every hour was dry. I guess, according to the laws of weathermen, their forecast was accurate because a 50% chance of rain is also a 50% chance of dry. It was my fault for assuming 50% to 70% chance of rain for each of eight straight hours means that I am probably getting wet.
Next I learned, at least for the museums I visited, their policy against cameras is pretty non-existent. The National Museum of the American Indian had no policy against photography at all as far as I could tell. The United States Botanic Garden requires special permission to use a tripod, but otherwise no limits. And the National Gallery of Art, the one that I figured would be really restrictive, had no policy against photography for their standing exhibitions, but did disallow photography for their special exhibitions.
So, I left my camera at the hotel for no good reason. It did not rain and the museums did not care if I had a camera. Next time I will know better.
Since I thought it was going to rain all day, and I expected the museums to have policies against photography, I did not carry my camera with me on this part of our excursion.
Well, I learned a few things. First, the hourly forecast on Weather.com was pretty darn useless. Each hour it claimed anywhere from a 50% to a 70% chance of rain. In reality, each and every hour was dry. I guess, according to the laws of weathermen, their forecast was accurate because a 50% chance of rain is also a 50% chance of dry. It was my fault for assuming 50% to 70% chance of rain for each of eight straight hours means that I am probably getting wet.
Next I learned, at least for the museums I visited, their policy against cameras is pretty non-existent. The National Museum of the American Indian had no policy against photography at all as far as I could tell. The United States Botanic Garden requires special permission to use a tripod, but otherwise no limits. And the National Gallery of Art, the one that I figured would be really restrictive, had no policy against photography for their standing exhibitions, but did disallow photography for their special exhibitions.
So, I left my camera at the hotel for no good reason. It did not rain and the museums did not care if I had a camera. Next time I will know better.
Pollution Is Bad
This weekend Tammy and I traveled to DC just to be tourists. We split the trip into two pieces, one for birdwatching and one for the National Mall. I watched the weather forecast closely, perhaps too closely, and was convinced that we would be rained on the entire weekend. Despite the potential soaking we went anyway (i.e. Tammy convinced me to ignore the forecast).
She was right. It did not rain on us at all. It turned out to be very nice weather wise.
For the bird watching, I decided to visit a couple of parks that I had not been to before. They are situated on land that juts into the Potomac River, so the chances were good to see lots of diving and dabbling ducks. We started with Mason Neck State Park, then visited the Great Marsh Trail within Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, and ended with a brief visit to Pohick Bay Regional Park. The birding was typical for the winter. In the spring and summer, there are places and days where I cannot keep up with the birds. In the winter, most of the birds are more stationary and the pace is just generally slower.
These two pictures are from the boardwalk in Mason Neck State Park. The water is Belmont Bay, part of the Potomac River. In the first picture you can see debris and lots of trash on the shore. And this is just the trash that actually ended up washed up on shore. Reminder to everyone: If you do not pick up your trash and handle it properly, this is where it can end up. Do not litter, on purpose or by accident.
The second picture is from the same location, but I am facing the opposite direction. I wanted to show that big tree that fell due to shoreline erosion. What you cannot see is that pollution is also the cause of that tree falling. There was some information in the park that explained this. Essentially pollution is killing the underwater vegetation, and that underwater vegetation acts as a break against wave action. One of the side effects of the vegetation dying off is that the wave action on the shoreline is increased and erosion is accelerated.
She was right. It did not rain on us at all. It turned out to be very nice weather wise.
For the bird watching, I decided to visit a couple of parks that I had not been to before. They are situated on land that juts into the Potomac River, so the chances were good to see lots of diving and dabbling ducks. We started with Mason Neck State Park, then visited the Great Marsh Trail within Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, and ended with a brief visit to Pohick Bay Regional Park. The birding was typical for the winter. In the spring and summer, there are places and days where I cannot keep up with the birds. In the winter, most of the birds are more stationary and the pace is just generally slower.
These two pictures are from the boardwalk in Mason Neck State Park. The water is Belmont Bay, part of the Potomac River. In the first picture you can see debris and lots of trash on the shore. And this is just the trash that actually ended up washed up on shore. Reminder to everyone: If you do not pick up your trash and handle it properly, this is where it can end up. Do not litter, on purpose or by accident.
The second picture is from the same location, but I am facing the opposite direction. I wanted to show that big tree that fell due to shoreline erosion. What you cannot see is that pollution is also the cause of that tree falling. There was some information in the park that explained this. Essentially pollution is killing the underwater vegetation, and that underwater vegetation acts as a break against wave action. One of the side effects of the vegetation dying off is that the wave action on the shoreline is increased and erosion is accelerated.
Occoquan Bay NWR
I took today off and created a monster five day weekend (Thanksgiving Day + Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today). There are probably lots of things that I should have spent my time on today, but I instead decided to make a trip out to Occoquan Bay NWR.
The drive was supposed to be a 90 minute drive up Interstate 95, but I managed to make it a 150 minute drive instead when I got creative in an effort to avoid a nasty backup on the Interstate. That extra time was okay because anything near the water was very foggy this morning (Occoquan Bay NWR is situated on the Potomac River...in Google Maps it is shown as Diamond Laboratories).
Here are a few pictures from the day. The second picture is a Red-throated Loon in mid-stretch, likely a female because its throat is not red. The third picture is of a very stuffed-toy looking Downy Woodpecker.
McKenzie Pass
The drive to Bend crossed over McKenzie Pass. This scenic drive would have been interesting just because you pass through a lava field (from an eruption about 1500 years ago), but we timed it perfectly so that we would get caught in the beginning of a snow storm. It was very cold, very windy and the snow was just starting to fall. The snow was nothing but interesting to us as we were headed down the mountain, but elevations over 5000 feet ended up getting several inches of snow.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
As I mentioned yesterday, the visit to Yaquina Head Lighthouse was filled with wind and fog. You are allowed to climb up the lighthouse, but they were limiting the number of people to a few at a time (because of space limitations). Because everyone wanted to get out of the cold wind, there was a line to climb up into the lighthouse. We were impatient and skipped that.
Despite the gloomy weather, there were a few photos that are worth posting. The first two are of the lighthouse itself, with appropriate amounts of fog. The third photo is an attempt to show the wind blowing, using Tammy as an action figure model.
Views from the Punchbowl
Here are a couple of pictures I took at the Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area. They are pretty nice views especially with the fog and clouds.
Foreshadowing
While Tammy was driving, I took this photo from the car. It turns out that the cool clouds in this picture was actually the wind driven fog that enveloped Yaquina Head Lighthouse. That was where we were going, but we were clueless when I took this picture. We had no idea we would be cold and not be able to see the ocean from the lighthouse.
Today = Long Day
As I mentioned yesterday, I needed to be up at 3am this morning to get ready for today's field trip. From the pictures below, you can tell that I managed to get up and go on that field trip. Since it is nearly 9pm, I have been up for 18 hours. I am a tired puppy.
Today was hot! I am sure it was much warmer back home, but it was toasty up here in the Maine woods. I was worried this morning when everyone was queuing up for the field trips and I was the only person wearing shorts. Lots of folks were going on a boat, so I could see where they would not wear shorts, but my field trip was going inland and the forecast was calling for temperatures in the 80s by noon. So I wore shorts. I had to spray on more bug spray to cover my legs, but I know I was much cooler than everyone else. They all wore long pants with socks pulled up over the bottom of their pants. Even in bird watching circles I manage to do my own thing.
Tomorrow is a workshop day, which means there are no scheduled field trips. I am thinking about skipping the workshops and doing some more exploration on my own. I have not done any research, so I am not quite sure where to go. I do not want to go to the same place that one of my upcoming field trips will take me. I need to read and pick a place. Problem is, I have been up for 18 hours. Oh well. Who cares. It is vacation.
Today was hot! I am sure it was much warmer back home, but it was toasty up here in the Maine woods. I was worried this morning when everyone was queuing up for the field trips and I was the only person wearing shorts. Lots of folks were going on a boat, so I could see where they would not wear shorts, but my field trip was going inland and the forecast was calling for temperatures in the 80s by noon. So I wore shorts. I had to spray on more bug spray to cover my legs, but I know I was much cooler than everyone else. They all wore long pants with socks pulled up over the bottom of their pants. Even in bird watching circles I manage to do my own thing.
Tomorrow is a workshop day, which means there are no scheduled field trips. I am thinking about skipping the workshops and doing some more exploration on my own. I have not done any research, so I am not quite sure where to go. I do not want to go to the same place that one of my upcoming field trips will take me. I need to read and pick a place. Problem is, I have been up for 18 hours. Oh well. Who cares. It is vacation.
The Anvil
Towards the southern end of the Schoodic Peninsula is a little hill called The Anvil. It is about 450 feet high and provides wonderful views. Assuming that it is not foggy. Since it was foggy today, I could not take pictures of the views. So I instead took pictures of what the top looked like. That is my pile of junk towards the bottom of this image. A sign on the left points you down various trails. There are rocks. There are trees. And fog. Did I mention the fog?
Foggy Morning
This picture captures the morning. You can see the fog, which rolled in quite suddenly the previous afternoon (while I was enjoying an ice cream cone...Cake Batter flavored ice cream is *awesome*). You can see one chunk of my photography gear. This stuff is so new, and I am so inexperienced with it, that I feel funny just saying "photography gear". And that vain Great Egret is in the scene, just about to fly away. He actually flew to the near bank, towards me, and posed some more.
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