Wednesday, 25 December 2024

Christmas Storks and Christmas photos

 

Chris gave me this Advent Calendar, each day there is a small skein of wool. Some of it I will rug hook with but there's lots so.....

I bought this little Manatee, in Florida, for Cigi, for Christmas

but he's cold up here in Canada so I knitted him a blanket and crocheted him a head band to keep his ears warm (do Manatee even have ears?)

 After opening our Christmas stockings  (courtesy of Christine), Rick and I decided to go for a walk before getting started on Christmas dinner (and afterwards we would just be in a turkey coma).

We drove to Port Rowan and found that te  Sandhill Cranes were scattered through out the area.

Normally they are massed in the corn fields to the west of the village,

but this year small flocks were feeding in many fields around the community and along Front Rd.

Some were flapping their wings and jumping.

It was a dull, grey day so not the greatest for photography but the new camera didn't do a bad job

Cranes dance for three primary reasons: 1. To find a mate; 2. To strengthen the bond between a mated pair; and 3. To express aggression or territoriality. 



We walked around the Port Rowan wetlands

hearing the cranes

in the fields around us


and overhead.

There are a lot of numbered Tree Swallow boxes in the area

and we read about the research being done on the relationship between climate change and nesting practices.

We usually see Swans when we come to take photos of the Cranes and realized we hadn't seen any this time.

So we drove back out along Front Rd and didn't see any. Drove out on to the causeway to Long Point and didn't see any. It wasn't until we walked the trail at Bird Studies that we found some.

Out in the Bay


around the patches of open water.


It was hard to tell, at this distance, if they were Tundra or Trumpeter Swans, as both have black legs and beaks. I suspect the two large dark birds at the waters edge are Bald Eagles, but, again, hard to identify at that distance.

Both our walks were just long enough to get cold and I think the camera was getting cold too as it was taking longer to focus. We hopped back in the car and home for a round of family phone calls and to cook Christmas dinner.

Sunday, 22 December 2024

Camera Saga

 I dropped my camera in the sea while in Florida. 2 and a half days in rice dried it but it was too corroded and didn't work. 

Last time I had to replace my camera it took a while to find something that works for me. I need it to be small (fit in a pocket), relatively light, simple to use (I tend to have it on automatic most of the time but also use sport mode, sunset, macro and panorama pretty regularly), have a good optical zoom and I need the photos to be good enough quality for the blog.

Initially I checked out Staples (where I got my last one), Walmart (the Staples guy suggested it) and Henry's (in Hamilton). Well, they don't make little "point and shoot" cameras any more. The phone cameras have replaced them. Unfortunately at the time I bought my phone I was not in need of a good camera so didn't pay the extra for it. So far my phone has taken photos that are fine for reference and WhatsApp but don't look good when uploaded on to the blog. Nicola has suggested that I need to learn more about it and it may be ok for my needs.

So I bought a very cheap camera from Walmart ($69) just to see what the quality was like. I am returning it tomorrow. It met some of the criteria - light, small - but none of the rest and had an annoying loud trill when it turned on and every time it took a picture. Picture quality was terrible and it had very few options. I really hadn't expected much and that is what I got.

I turned to Amazon and ordered a brand I had never heard of for $340. Rick then sent me info on a Kodak and a Canon, for considerably more money. I decided to see how the one I had ordered was before trying out one of them.

It arrived today. Its an Ordro. Came with 2 batteries, an SD card, sturdy shoulder strap and instruction book. I charged it up and have been trying it out.

It has a 12X Optical zoom

Handled shooting into the sun.


Ok with an inside shot

and another.

Lovely on the Macro setting.

Not really a lot of colour this evening but it picked up some on the Sunset setting.

Very little light but managed to get the geese landing on the lake on Auto setting.

I will continue to play with it and try and get better at using it. It does not meet all the criteria. It wont fit in my pants pocket as the battery area bumps out from the body of the camera, as does the lens. It is a bit slow to respond to the shutter. It has a flip out screen that will take some getting used to and no viewfinder (though I never put my eye up to the one I had on my last camera). I have a couple of weeks to get used to it before my next trip.

Thursday, 12 December 2024

Manatee Park

After checking the location, that it was open (there had been so much destruction we realized we couldn't take anything for granted) and that there were Manatee there, we set off again.

Selfie with a Manatee statue.

 Manatee Park is a seasonal location for viewing non-captive Florida manatees in Lee County.  Manatees visit the park in search of warm water during the cooler days in winter when the temperature in the Gulf of Mexico is below 68° F (20° C).  The warm water in the Manatee Park canal comes from the Florida Power and Light Power Plant across the street and is created as a byproduct of cooling off their equipment. From the website.
 

The park was free but we had to pay for parking. 

A woman at a table by the entrance told us that the best viewing was by the fishing pier, so that's where we headed.

 
The spillway from the power plant enters the river at the fishing pier


and the water was over 90 degrees. Manatee should be happy with that.

It wasn't easy to get pictures of them. Just their nostrils would break the surface and you would hear a little snort. Their back might show for a short period and then they would sink below the surface again.

We had seen that you could rent a kayak but we decided to go and see the situation before doing that. As we watched people kayaking on the river, one girl suddenly screamed and nearly tipped out of here canoe. She may have hit a Manatee with her paddle or one came up below her but I knew, there was no way I was getting Cyndy into a kayak after that. 

They could be seen as brown shadows in the water and sometimes you could see the scars from propellers slicing their back. We watched them surface, roll, wave flippers, flip their tails and eat at the mangroves lining the river. However catching any of that on our phones proved illusive.


We walked up the power plant slipway

There were a few more along there and we watched for a while. You can clearly see the battle scar on this one.

We walked back to the entrance past this huge Southern Live Oak.

Back to the entrance

where the woman at the table had some Manatee bones. She let us hold a cow rib and a Manatee rib. The Manatee's was about 4 times heavier, to help them sink to the bottom.

Really hungry we drove to a nearby Tiki Bar

and shared coconut shrimp and crab cakes

while admiring the huge boats and

watching the lift bridge.

 The next day was a lazy one as it rained and thunderstormed. Time to read a book and paint the house.

 Then today, my last day here..

another trip to the market. (Bought Key Lime Pie this time!)


Oops, no beach.

 Cyndy and I planned a beach day and searching for shark teeth in the sand. We loaded up the car with the requisite beach chairs, beach towels, sand sifters, bathing suits, books, sun hats.....you get the picture. However

when we got there, there was no beach, just huge piles of sand and a closed parking lot


with heavy machinery dealing with the sand that had obliterated the roads, shops and residences along "the key"

We drove along the, now cleared, road and could see the destruction of homes, businesses and flora. It was mind boggling and so sad. The area was hit by 2 hurricanes in October of this year, Helene and Milton, and experienced storm surge and flooding.

So, change of plans. We returned home and researched another excursion option. Manatee Park in Fort Myers...

Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Birding, Port Charlotte

 Monday Cyndy and I drove to a section of the Florida Birding Trail. We had a leisurely morning so were later than Cyndy likes to go and, as predicted, the birds were hiding from the heat. 

The trail itself was very pleasant, soft underfoot and flat (actually everything here is flat)

Warm, blue sky, soft breeze and very little birdsong. We saw Pelicans, Vultures (Turkey and Black) and Bald Eagles overhead and a couple of Palm Warblers.

The area had flooded during the last Hurricane and much of the ground was still wet, the undergrowth roughed up by wind and waves.

Least Sandpiper explored back and forth along the shore. Alone and unconcerned with us.

A larger victim of the hurricane

with a stern notice stuck to its hull. "Must be removed within 24 hours" as it is on public property. Its owner probably has no idea where it is.

After the walk we did some shopping and returned home for our usual afternoon routine. At the house Cyndy has put out bird feeders and filled the birdbath. The squirrels and racoons have enjoyed these but we have also seen  Ground and Mourning Doves, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Red Bellied Woodpeckers and have been waiting to see..

Painted Buntings. They arrived yesterday but are very nervous and fly away before we can get a phone focused. So this photo is one of Cyndy's from last year. The males are striking, they look like brightly coloured jewellery and the females are nondescript.

Speaking of bright I was surprised to see this here. Hooked and given to Cyndy in 2009 it has seen a couple of homes and traveled in their trailer. It is in surprisingly good shape for that amount of use and Cyndy says she has washed it, in the machine, on the gentle cycle!