By Gary Lee
We’re on our way home now. We ducked a tornado warning in north Florida yesterday (4/25). The weather produced 10-foot waves to the west of there on Mobile Bay off Alabama.
It caused several sailboats to capsize and four people are still missing.
While coming over the Blue Ridge in Virginia on Route 77 today we pushed through some thick fog on the east side of the mountains.
The temperature sure has dropped from the near 90 degrees we had at Sanibel Island when we left two days ago.
Much of the talk on the radio has been about the big earthquake in Nepal that killed thousands in the capital city Katmandu.
Many climbers were trapped and killed on Mt. Everest by avalanches caused by the quake.
The tragedy took the headlines away from the volcano eruption in Chile that poured ash 50,000 feet in the air like a big mushroom cloud from an atom bomb.
I keep hearing about snow in the north country and the Rockies are still getting hammered.
I know many of the birds have made their track north and they will have to put up with it or die trying.
The bug eaters, such as swallows, have it the toughest.
They will switch their diet and eat berries, if they can find any remaining from last fall.
They can take a few days of cold, but a week or more will do them in.
The birding continued very slowly for the last week with only a few new birds showing up.
Most were flying north non-stop being pushed by a south wind.
I was the only one birding at the lighthouse one morning and caught sight of a Kentucky warbler that I had only seen a couple times before.
Another birder from Massa-chusetts came by and I told him where I had seen the bird. He went over there and found the bird which was a life bird for him.
I saw an ovenbird that day too.
A flock of indigo buntings that came in from the ocean added some color to the trees.
Since the alligator population has been cut down there seems to be a lot more turtles and snakes underfoot, which gave me the opportunity to look for and photograph a few other things.
Several frogs looking for snacks were seen under the lights around the condo at night.
These frogs could hang on the side of the building and hide in the big leaf plants waiting for bugs to fall in their laps.
They had the biggest eyes and suction cups on their feet that would take then anywhere.
I got some neat shots of them on the plant leaves.
Bird life on the beach picked up our last week though big waves kept them away a couple days.
The snowy plovers didn’t lose their nest even though the waves went on both sides of it up on the beach.
Some Wilson plovers came that last week and mixed with the sanderlings, ruddy turnstones and black-bellied plovers.
The Wilsons nest on these beaches and some were setting up territories.
One day I watched a battle between a couple of black-bellies.
One tried to chase the other away and a fight ensued.
They settled in the sand not a foot apart and jumped up into each other with feathers flying.
After a 10-minute battle and a few missing feathers the Wilsons were the winners.
There were many reports of bobcats in the Bailey Tract off Tarpon Bay Road, including a mother, two kittens and a bigger tom.
I set up two trail cameras in an area where they had been seen.
I got lots of pictures: a lawn mower going by, dog walkers, bikers, swamp rabbits and a coyote.
Then I got two shots of a big bobcat and two shots of a smaller bobcat.
The last five shots were taken at night.
One day at the beach we saw a bright red dirigible flying over toward Fort Meyers.
Another morning we saw a drone flying around the lighthouse, which kept the birds at bay for a while.
Just tonight (4/26) as I was looking west from the parking lot of our hotel over Route 81, I saw a big yellow hot air balloon drifting in front of a beautiful sunset.
Traffic was at a standstill on 81 as there was an accident up the highway.
Hope it is moving in the morning as we are northward bound.
North country happenings, snow and all…but that’s another story. See ya.