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zackiedawg

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About Me

  • Location
    Boca Raton, Florida
  • Interests
    Cruising, boating, driving, computers, hockey, photography
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Holland America, Royal Caribbean
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Europe, Canada, Alaska

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. I promised I'd be back around these boards again. Can't guarantee it'll be on a regular or weekly basis yet as still dealing with a lot with bills, estate, legal, taxes, etc. But I'll try when I get a break to post some stuff, including the wildlife and birding outings The following were from Saturday, March 2: Black and white warbler: Black-necked stilt: Cattle egret, beginning to take on its breeding plumage colors: Great blue heron in flight: Gorgeous male wood duck in full breeding plumage: The female wood duck is less ornate, but still pretty: Male least bittern: Male common yellowthroat:
  2. I still exist, people! I didn't shun the boards or anything - just been crazy busy dealing with all the paperwork and attorneys and filing and bills from my parents' deaths and trying to keep up with work and everything else. It's amazing how many things you have to change - the obvious things like property and utility bills are one thing - but transferring insurance, online accounts, credit cards, shopping accounts, subscriptions, and so on - it seems every month 5 more things pop up. I did get the chance to take a little break from it all last weekend - took a 4 day trip to Disney World just to decompress, meet up with a few friends, and not think about all the stuff to deal with at home for a spell. A few pics from the trip: Japan pavilion in Epcot on a beautiful day: Epcot is under construction - has been for the past 2 years and still another year to go - the latest section to open is the central hub area, which is like a park setting with lots of seating, trees, lighting, and garden tiers: The village of Harambe, in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom park - another beautiful day: Male lion, resting up on the kopi (rock), watching over his domain: This lowland gorilla walked right up to the edge of the moat and stared directly at me - very intensely...I think he felt I was a challenger to his alpha superiority - I didn't think I looked quite that hairy and threatening, but I am a big guy: If there was any doubt that he was challenging me, the next shot proves it - he leapt in the air, hammering his chest loudly and grunting at me: And then stared me down again threateningly...so I backed off and let him know he's the alpha in this area: The busses at Disney can run late from your resort sometimes, you can just miss one pulling out before you get there, and they can sometimes get full - lots of challenges getting the bus to the parks. But this was one of the stranger difficulties getting to the bus - a large male turkey displaying himself for his lady was standing right in the middle of the parking lot on the way to the bus stop - when I tried to pass, he'd run at me and challenge. What was it with all the animals thinking I'm challenging their manhood?: The last night, I ate over at Disney Springs, then walked back around the lake at dusk to my villa at Saratoga Springs - on one final lovely evening: (I'm going to try to pop in here more often - but it'll still be choppy as I am still working out all the legal stuff, the probate filing, etc. which will likely stretch through the year).
  3. Thank you all kindly for the check in...I had been absent here for quite a while - and in general online. Most of the summer I haven't been able to get too much time to pop onto the boards as my stepfather had been in declining health and I was helping my mother take care of him as she couldn't pick him up or move him herself. He passed away in mid-August, and I was just trying to get things back to normal and back on track - planning cruises, etc - when my mother suffered a medical emergency and has been herself in the hospital the past 2 1/2 weeks - so now having to deal with that. So I'm still around - and eventually will get back on the boards again, but just a lot going on with family now and that plus work has kept me busy or otherwise occupied. I do still try to get out to the wetlands on a weekend day to catch a break from all this...and did make it up to Disney a few times, so I do still have photos to share...here are a few just to catch up a bit: A favorite from a summer trip to Disney - a lightning storm in the evening taken from my hotel balcony: And from the same balcony, late that AM, a SpaceX rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, along with the rising crescent moon: And some wetlands wildlife - a least bittern: And a pied-billed grebe adult with her chick close by: :
  4. Woah! What happened? Hope all is OK with you. Glad to hear the sentiment 'life goes on'. All the best wishes sent your way.
  5. Well no real big easter connection for my shots - managed to get out on Friday and Saturday for some shooting, and here's what I got: A female painted bunting...think of it as a substitute for a painted easter egg: The largest woodpecker in N. America - a male pileated woodpecker. It lays eggs?: Closeup of a native Floridian - the green anole lizard. He's kind of candy-colored: A banded water snake, deciding which way to go. Well, there was a snake in the Bible, going back to the garden of Eden...not quite Easter-related: Eastern screech owl female, trying to nap. Don't ask me why, but "Easter owls" are actually a thing!: Chicks are always part of Easter - eggs hatch and fluffy bird chicks come out. Here are some freshly hatched green herons, just a few days old:
  6. Many thanks on the photos. You might come to appreciate gators a little more when you see their nests hatching. For a cold-blooded reptile that looks like a brainless dinosaur, they are some of the best parents in the animal world. The mother nearly starves guarding her nest for 2 months, on alert for 24 hours a day...then as they start making their little 'ribbit' noises in the egg, she'll start helping dig them up, load the babies in her mouth as they hatch, bring them down to the water, then spend weeks with them swimming around her, climbing up on her back, and trying to keep an eye on them. Baby gators have an amazing number of predators and their odds of survival are tiny - as eggs, the snakes, raccoons, coyotes, etc will dig them up, when they hatch, they're eaten by egrets, herons, osprey, snakes, hawks, and turtles. They have to grow up fast - and out of a batch of 30-40 eggs, 10-15 might make it to hatching, and 2-3 may survive to adulthood. It's why I don't quite mind as much when alligators eat egrets, herons, and turtles...because they lost untold brothers and sisters to them - it's a fair turn of nature that the prey eventually turns the tables and becomes the predator! BTW - alligators are a lot less aggressive than crocodiles. I love all reptiles and I am comfortable being close to alligators, but even I'd exercise a lot of caution around the big salt water crocs of India, Africa, and Australia!
  7. Saturday April 1st was a wetlands day again for me - it's getting sticky hot again around here with temps at 89 degrees and humidity hovering in the 80% range, with off-and-on rainshowers throughout the day (this is pretty much what it's going to be like for the next 7 months - but hotter!). Fortunately it's also pool weather, so after the wetlands visits, I can jump in the pool and cool off. Here's what I got: A male painted bunting, one of our more colorful little birds: A raccoon doing a little clean-up scavenging - no, it didn't kill the moorhen who's feathers and bits were littering the levee -a hawk had done that deed. But the raccoon decided to see if there were any meaty leftovers the hawk didn't want - like the head and legs that the hawk always leaves behind: A usually elusive bird lurking deep in the reeds - I've had a few shots of them over the past few threads - this one unusually had walked right up on the levee in the open - a Wilson's snipe: Like last week's thread, it's still the time of hatchlings and chicks all over the wetlands. This time, I heard a bunch of peeping, and saw a boat tailed grackle fly into a nearby tree, then fly out again - threading my lens through the leaves, I was able to sneak a long-zoom peek at a grackle chick: This ugly/cute/so ugly it's cute thing is a wood stork chick. I didn't need any fancy angles to get a shot of it - the nest is hanging directly over the walkway, enough that you have to walk AROUND the nest to avoid bumping into it. The wood stork parent, and the chicks inside the nest, are very non-chalant about people 2 feet away staring at them - they just stare right back!: This marsh rabbit doesn't mind wandering around in shallow water to get at all the tasty greenery to eat: In last week's thread I shared some shots of tricolored herons hatching from the egg. Well, here they are a week later - two of the siblings chilling together:
  8. I assume the dates got copied wrong in the initial post - this should be Mar 20 - 26th, correct? I checked and week 11 was 13-19, so I'm going with some shots taken on the 25th around the local wetlands: It's the time of hatchlings everywhere now - all those nesting birds that have been sitting patiently on their eggs have paid off, and the wetlands are filled with thousands of chicks EVERYWHERE! All kinds of species have hatched, or are hatching. There are other things too - here's a mix: A great egret chick, just a few days old: Tricolored heron chicks, just an hour or so after popping out of their eggs: A wood stork, using its wing to shelter its new chicks from the hot sun: An alligator, enjoying the hot sunny day up on an island: A very rare sighting in my area - a lovely swallow-tailed kite passing overhead. We may get one week a year when they're passing through, so I'm lucky if I get a shot of one every 4-5 years: A reddish-morph eastern screech owl hanging out in the pine forest, on a palm tree. Looks like it might be choosing a spot to nest: A pied-billed grebe cruising past:
  9. When I get around to processing my wildlife photos from this past weekend, I may have more to add here. But for now, I was still on my last night at Disney World on 3/13, and took a few evening shots around my resort villa... Paddlefish restaurant, at Disney Springs, as viewed from Saratoga Springs resort: I only had my 18-135mm lens on, but spotted this osprey with its large fish catch flying over the Disney Springs entertainment area: People taking an evening spin in an Amphicar in the lake by Disney Springs: This limpkin was feeding along the shore of the lake right in front of my villa - and didn't seem to mind me standing there 15 feet away - he waded in the water, grabbed a clam, walked up on shore to eat it, and did this over and over - at least 10 clams as I watched: The Rainforest Cafe erupting in the early evening:
  10. Took me a while to get through the photos from my vacation to Disney, as when I got back I was playing catchup at work and going through photos. Finally got them up - the following shots were taken on 3/10 - 3/12 around Disney World... Raglan Road bar and restaurant at Disney Springs, blue hour handheld: Wilderness Lodge resort pool area and hotel: Main Street train station: Cinderella's Castle: The trains had been gone for a few years - first the pandemic, then construction of the Tron Lightcycle ride which extended right over the tracks...finally, the trains have resumed operations: Sunset over Bay Lake, with Magic Kingdom on the right and the Grand Floridian Resort straight ahead...taken from the Top of the World lounge deck at Bay Lake Tower, handheld: Nighttime view across to the Contemporary Resort, from the Bay Lake Tower roof deck, handheld: Nighttime view of Magic Kingdom from the roof deck of the Bay Lake Tower, handheld: Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival is being held, and the parks are filled with flowers, trees, and topiaries of Disney characters and movies, like this one of the Lion King: All the flowers also means butterflies - like this buckeye: Or this swallowtail: Sun setting behind the France pavilion:
  11. I'm late in posting for this photo week - I was out on both Friday and Saturday in the wetlands as I had 3 friends in from up north, down here to see the wildlife. I took Friday off of work and took them out to 3 different wetlands in the area - two were down here last year from New York and New Jersey and liked it so much they came back again, and another friend from Maryland joined this year. Took a bit of time to sort the photos, and then I've been busy this week trying to make a hole for a 5-day weekend vacation to Disney starting tomorrow. Here are some of the highlights of the 2-day wildlife photo weekend with guests: First big surprise was this bird, who was around from October through January, then had disappeared most of last month - it's a rare sighting and I had bemoaned that they probably wouldn't get a chance to see one as it had disappeared. But lucky they were, as that very Friday was the first day the chuck-will's-widow was spotted again at the wetlands - and just 8 feet away!: The tricolored herons have all started their nests - most have laid their eggs now: A brown basilisk lizard up on a tree stump, watching us: A very upset snowy egret - it had just chased off another bird from its territory, and was still a little riled up: The beautiful male green winged teal, down here for winter: And the American wigeon, another wintering duck hanging around down here: And a more rare sight, but a nice one - the male lesser scaup was hanging around the western ponds - they are a winter bird for us, but I can go years between sightings: Among North American ducks, one of the most stunning to see is the male wood duck in its full breeding colors: A nice closeup of a juvenile Egyptian goose, resting on the levee - I had to shoot over the shoulder of a very protective poppa goose who faced off with me to make sure I wasn't going to get any closer to his family: The elegant lesser yellowlegs, walking along the levee next to the pond: Cattle egret flying past, with its beautiful breeding plumage: Double-crested cormorant flying this way just before sunset: Tricolored heron approaching head-on - also all colored up in its breeding plumage: A wood stork at sunset, arriving back to its nest with a nice big stick:
  12. Another round of the Florida wetlands for me - we're right in the middle of 'BIF-palooza' - that time of year that stretches around the beginning of March to mid-April. At the end of each day, from around 4:30pm to sunset, there are so many birds in the air that you would hit one if you randomly tossed a ball up in the air...they fly way high up in the sky to right down on the water, and often buzz so close to you that they'll rustle your hair with the draft off their wings, and occasionally even whomp you on the head with the tip of a wing. They range from 10-inch wingspans of grackles to 6-7 foot wingspans of wood storks and great blue herons. Glossy ibis flying past while looking for a spot to land: Great egret feeling like it's going to bump into my lens - I had my 10-400mm lens pulled all the way back to 138mm: A boat-tailed grackle flying past me: The wood storks are hefty birds with big wings - so they are confident that they can haul back some pretty big bits of lumber for their nests. Sometimes they overestimate what they can easily haul - this one was having trouble getting enough altitude, so his giant branch was bouncing across the surface of the water as he flew: A tricolored heron flying low over the water in its breeding colors: Another look at a tricolored heron flying close by, showing the blue bill, red eye, and red legs of their breeding plumage: A great blue heron flying my way: A pair of black-bellied whistling ducks buzzing off:
  13. That road is the one that runs through Lancaster and the high desert, right? So this is the 'back' side of the San Gabriels...Baldy to the left background? Didn't make it up there too often - once or twice when I lived out there. I more often went east to Joshua Tree and had a relative in Phelan. Another wetlands weekend for me - with the extended holiday weekend, I headed out on Saturday and Sunday, and then let Monday be my errand/shopping/relax day. A female red-winged blackbird (aka: prey) chasing a red-shouldered hawk (aka: predator) in a mixed up alternate universe: The plain dull cattle egrets are getting quite pretty as they turn up their breeding colors and plumage: Closeup of Mr. Alligator: Few birds put on quite the show that great egrets do for mating season. Fanning out their aigrette feathers, tarting up their faces with green lores, and then doing these intricate dance moves raising and dropping their necks and bodies: A zebrawing butterfly: Very close up with a great blue heron, too busy watching for fish to care about me standing 8 feet away: Common gallinule, aka moorhen, stretching: Boat-tailed grackle flying close-by: Wood stork flying home:
  14. Well let's compare your Ohio temps to my Florida temps. Today is a very moderate 81, but by Friday we're forecast for 89 degrees! I wish I had your temps. For this warmer weekend, here's the wetlands selection I encountered: A Wilson's snipe looking around the wetlands: A grey catbird sneaking around the shadowy forest: Another wetland park this time...but also populated with Wilson's snipe! This one was just 10 feet away hiding under a pond apple tree: Shooting towards the low afternoon sun, I liked the backlight effect with this great blue heron: And just a few feet away, also backlit, was this green iguana up in a small pond apple tree: A basilisk lizard who had just run across the water and climbed up on this low limb: It's busy nest-building time for many birds here - this male anhinga was on a hardware store run with some new cypress limbs for his nest: A great egret flying past: And a great blue heron flying by in the clear blue sky: Big bird with a small stick - wood stork bringing back a little bit of cypress to patch a hole in his nest:
  15. Honestly, the great blue herons are probably the leaders in the big fish department - I've seen wood storks get pretty good ones, and anhingas will spear decent sized ones - but no bird quite matches what the GBHs will pick up. And honestly, I've never seen one give up because it was too big! They either swallow it in a physics-defying act that makes you gag when you watch - or they walk it to the shore where they can lay it down in dry ground and then raise their head high and strike down with their bills with almighty force, over and over, until the fish is cleaved in two...then eat each half. Glad some knew who Mr. Bill was. And even have him! Every fish I've ever seen get speared by a bird has that expression on its face. And I don't blame them either.
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