Blue skies, smiling at me, nothing but blue skies, do I see

You know that expression about how some people paddle with dark clouds over their heads, while others see only blue skies?

That was our experience on Friday.

Pat Rota paddles out under menacing clouds.

Sharon focuses on the light at the end of the tunnel of clouds.

Keith has no idea why we might be worried.

Note: We had carefully monitored the weather and tailored the location and duration of our paddle accordingly. No kayakers were injured in the making of this blog post.

Meet the Pandion Haliaetus Family of Mid-Bay Shores

Mid-Bay Shores, Maxwell-Gunter Rec Area — Niceville, Florida
Temps: Lo 52F / Hi 77F (11C / 25C)

Like yesterday morning, we woke up to a reading of 57F (14C) on the thermometer — just a few degrees higher than the day’s low at 6:00a. No al fresco breakfasting for the second day in a row! It didn’t take long for the day to warm up, however. By the time I set off on my 1.6 mile (2.5 km) beach walk, I was happy to have a gentle breeze to cool me off as the sun continued to raise the temperature.

Where was Mui while I was walking? At the dentist for his 6-month check-up. I think I got the better end of that deal ;-)

Red-breasted mergansers resting on a comfy bed of beach wrack.

My friend the great blue heron was nowhere to be found, but in addition to the mergansers, one of the green herons from a few days ago was at the boat canal to greet me. And just a few feet away, a mourning dove flew in to look for breakfast. Off to a good start!

Green Heron

Love the attractive blue eye-ring on the otherwise dull-colored mourning dove.

Once I reached the area fronting the campground, the birdlife dwindled. Not good for the camera, but great to keep the pace of my walk at exercise-level. Once I rounded White Point, my pace slowed again and the shutter clicking increased.

Comb Jelly (??) — anyone out there who can help with the ID?

I found one photo on the web that identified the above jelly as being infused with oil from the BP spill. Sounds unlikely to me. After all, considerable time has passed since that incident, but what do I know. It’s creatures like this — not to mention the one in the photo below — that keep me out of the water ;-) Actually, the shallows all along the beach were filled with hundreds of these jellies a few days ago. We asked a couple of guys who were fishing in waist-deep water at the time and they said they weren’t stung by them, so that was a good thing.

Sea Nettle – just look at the length of those tentacles.
The tentacles contain toxins used to paralyze and capture prey.
these jellyfish also cause painful stings to swimmers.

You definitely don’t want to be swimming with the sea nettle.

The Dragonfly is one of the insects nicknamed Mosquito Hawk.

OK, ready to play a game? It’s called find the great blue herons. I walked by the dead tree in the center photo of the collage, saw the obvious GBH, took a photo, and walked on. Then, I stopped and looked back, and from my new vantage point I saw another one. Perhaps I missed that GBH the first time because it was sleeping with its head tucked into its body. What do you get if you find both GBH? Nothing but the satisfaction of knowing that you are an observant individual ;-)

Can you find both herons in the tree in the middle of the collage?

Now for the best part of my day — and the title of this post. Avid birders will already know that I am referring to an osprey family. You might recall that I came across an osprey nest a few days ago and commented that I thought there was at least one chick in the nest because of the way mama osprey was bending her head down periodically as though to feed it. I was right, and I got to see the chick today. From what I have read, the eggs in an osprey clutch hatch about five days apart. So, I’ll keep an eye on the nest to see if another one (or two, or three) chicks hatch before we leave. But this one looks more than just a few days old to me, so it just might be the only one.

Meet the Osprey Family of Mid-Bay Shores.

Since my first sighting, I’ve learned enough about ospreys to be able to identify them accurately (I hope). The adult osprey on the branch is the male (white chest); and the adult in the nest is female (developing brown necklace on the chest). She’s larger than he is; that’s another indicator. Also, until the chick is six weeks old, the male does all the hunting. No need to introduce the chick — I don’t know the gender, so I’ll refer to it as junior.

I didn’t know if I was going to be privy to any osprey action, but I decided to wait around for a while. Rather than stand out in the open, I moved around to the other side of the nest and stood under the welcome shade of some trees. I wasn’t trying to hide from the osprey — impossible to do that since they have such keen eyesight. But by standing at a distance and under the trees, I was hoping to eliminate any stress they might feel from my presence.

(Apologies in advance for the clipped wings; not only was the movement sudden, but I didn’t have my DSLR camera with me.)

With mom and junior watching, papa suddenly takes off from his perch …

... drops into the nest for a second or two ...

… and takes off again for parts unknown.
Doesn’t it look like mom’s telling junior to be patient and dad will be back soon?

Mom and Junior staring me down.

The next half hour of my visit with the osprey family was uneventful. Junior would disappear into the depths of the nest, popping up like a jack-in-the-box every so often. Mom kept a keen eye on the goings on below her … and there was plenty of that. Mostly anglers driving up in their cars and carrying their stuff to the beach; a few people stopping by to eat lunch in their cars.

I didn’t see papa fly back and perch on a pine tree behind me. It was his high-pitched calls that alerted me to his presence. And then mom joined in. It sure sounded like they were carrying on a conversation and she was telling him to hold off returning to the nest because there were people around.

When I finally spotted papa, he was eating lunch.

At this point, I figured papa wasn’t going to return to the nest if I stuck around. Time for me to leave so that mom could get on with the business of feeding junior, who needs to gain strength in order to fledge when the time comes. Chicks take their first flight when they are seven to eight weeks old. I have no idea how old junior is, so not sure when that will happen. (Any avid birders out there have a guess as to junior’s age?)

My 1.6-mile walk took over two hours — about 1½ hours was spent with the osprey family. Standing the entire time, and worth every minute of it.

As I left, I spotted two red-headed woodpeckers fly in and perch on the same tree where the ospreys are nesting. One flew off right away, but I managed to capture a photo of the other one just before it disappeared into its nest hole. (If you look above the head of the bird in the photo to the right, you’ll see the small, round hole.)

I have to say that I am delighted with the way my PowerShot SX50 HS performed today. All of the osprey photos I shared were hand-held at full zoom. I cropped some in post-processing with no loss of quality. If anyone out there is considering this camera, I say “go for it.” Just remember that it has a shutter lag, so action shots can be hit or miss.

Later …

Why later? Because we lost power for about three hours tonight and I had to take a break from writing. It was time to exercise the genny anyway, so we weren’t overly concerned about being without shorepower. We ran the generator for about an hour, and then went on battery power for another two hours or so, with another short stint with the generator so Mui could run the microwave and make some popcorn to snack on while we watched a movie on TV. We were hoping the AGM batteries would perform well — and they did; there was no appreciable drain on the batteries. Boondocking here we come — but not right away ;-)

Over and out for today.

Relaxing singletrack ride

Wind was starting to kick up this morning. Decided to take a relaxing dirt ride at Manawa. Met Ryon and his sons, asked me about the Manawa trail. Gave them a tour of some of the trails - Both Sidewinders and Wood Chopper. After that, I headed out for my normal route. Construction equipment were removed what I was riding there.
Talked with one of the workers. One area of the trail is soft/muddy from the construction. They will be back in 2 weeks for more work. In the mean time, ride around the taped off area.
After my ride, I headed to the UP Museum to check out the Photo Contest. I don't know how to figure out what they want. True, art is subjective. but I don't know why some of the winners even placed! Some sure don't seen to depict their subject matter. Others look like they were categorized wrong. There were several much better photos ( in my opinion) than the "Best in Show".
I will have to take a hard look whether I want to enter next year.

The impostor!

Around 80km to the south of here is a dirt road climbing over a range that passes through Mt Jerusalem National Park. This climb is quite steep in places (particularly from the north side), so much so that for a long time I actually mistook it for the real Mt Jerusalem. Ironically, it was only after I discovered that it was a fake that I discovered many of the other attractions in the area. However, last Saturday was all about incorporating the ride as part of a circuit. For once it was a cool day -- at 24 degrees C it felt more like winter than summer, so I was going to make the most of it.

The rainforest of Urliup is now my regular start to most of the southern rides. It was once the regular ride home, until I was reminded that the climb over Tomewin to get home cuts out around 10km of suburbia. At the start or the finish, Urliup is still quite pleasant. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the rally last month hadn't torn the place to shreds. It was also interesting to see that someone obviously reads this blog because some tracks indicated someone HAD actually taken a road bike along the now very smooth dirt road. Interesting.


Further south, it looks like the local sugar cane farmers have taken to burning some of their crops for some reason. I'm not quite sure what this achieves, but I can only guess that sugar is a product that doesn't store very well, meaning there's no point having it on hand if you don't get a decent price for it immediately. The strong southerly wind that was around blew the smoke away fairly quickly regardless, and it was now time to start the series of climbs over Round Mountain and Cudgera Creek, to the next phase of the ride.

It seems as though my blog is making me something of a celebrity in these parts, and sometimes the recognition comes in the most out of the way places. This conversation informed me, among other things, that the dirt road over the Impostor would be in a treacherous condition due to the amount of dust around. Fortunately, a couple of rain showers eased that problem by the time I hit the climb. There really is something unbelievably beautiful about the Australian bush when it's wet. It's an intangible quality that really has to be experienced because it just can't be described.

The descent into Uki was notable for the dropping temperature in the rain -- now just 14 degrees C, which at this time of year is a little like snow on the Equator. At Uki I ran into group of hippies who were on a short (three day) bike tour of the Tweed Valley. One of them had broken a derailleur a few kilometres up the road, and had limped into the village. The nearest bike shop was in Murwillumbah, and that was closed. They were asking people in the village if anyone had an old bike from which they could salvage the part they needed. Last I heard they were heading for the Murwillumbah rubbish tip (wherever that is) to try to find an old bike there. Given that the ride back to Banora Point where they started is basically flat, they might as well have just ridden straight back.

For my part, I still had the final climb over Tomewin to navigate, and that was after a surprising headwind between Uki and Murwillumbah. What was surprising about this is that it required the wind to come from the North, when it had spent the rest of the day coming from the South quite strongly. Normal service was resumed just after Murwillumbah, so I'm not sure what the wind was on about here. Either way, it was forgotten with a clinical demolition of the Tomewin climb. While it wasn't my fastest time, it was still pretty good at the end of a ride of this length, and left me with plenty in reserve to mop up the last 30km from the top.
I finished the day with 180km, and still felt fine that the finish. Since returning from my tour, all I've wanted to do is ride. I thought motivation was supposed to go the other way after a tour, but I'm not complaining.

Jurassic Way 5 - Winwick to Sibbertoft

Winwick - Elkington - Welford - Sibbertoft

11 miles. With Marta. Fine, sunny, very warm. Dry conditions.

Winwick church - photograph taken at end of the walk! See time.

From the pond at Winwick we walked past the gateway to Winwick Hall, then turned left, through a field gate to the bridleway.

The gates and Winwick Hall.

The route was clearly marked until we had to turn off to the left towards Honey Hill. This sign was a little harder to find:

Hunt the way markers

The path to Honey Hill skirts the hillsides to begin with, through some fields - at one point there is a way marker near a wooden bridge - don't even bother trying to cross the bridge, the path continues round the field and on, alongside a golf course, which you eventually cross over.
The climb starts here and after crossing a field or two, you join a wide surfaced track past Honey Hill Farm and a field with horses - lovely views if you look back.

The third horse was just relaxing - above Honey Hill Farm.

The road flattens out, and you pass another large house before reaching the road between Welford and Cold Ashby. Turn left for a very short stretch, and the footpath leads off to the left, taking you down Honey Hill towards Elkington.

From the path down Honey Hill

The path was opened here in 1994

In Elkington, you turn right along the road, and follow it to the junction. On the noticeboard, this notice caught my eye - memories of times past, not I hope portents of times to come:

Keep to the left hand road (signposted to Yelverton) and after a short distance, you cross a canal bridge. Turn right here and follow the canal for about a mile, along and under the A14. Continue to bridge 31.

I haven't yet worked out what these 'living milestones' are for

At bridge 31 you leave the canal, cross the bridge and take the footpath on the left. At this time of year, the sign is half hidden in the hedge, but the path is clear.

Uphill to Hemplow Hills. On the following walk we saw a hare ahead of us on this path.

Part of West Hill Farm

The path through the woods is clear - a bit steep at the start. Once you emerge, go along beside a field where young trees are growing, and along a track past West Hill Farm, and these lodge buildings. Then it's over a stile by a remote controlled gate and along Hemplow Drive, past Hemplow Lodge Farm and childcare nursery. Continue along the drive until you reach the crossroads. Cross over and West End is the road leading into Welford village.

At this point we went to the pub at the Wharf, rather than following the official JW path, rejoining it on the Naseby Road, just past the fishermen's car park.

We walked along the path next to the reservoir, then across the causeway.

A less daunting causeway in summer time!

the path cuts across fields, through the bumps and hollows of the deserted mediaeval village of Old Sulby, through a field of cows, past some farms to a track where we turned right and followed the path through several fields - it is well marked.

Soon we arrived at Sibbertoft, where we followed the route round to the churchyard before returning to the car.

Sibbertoft church, photo taken before driving to Winwick - see time on clock!

Georgia History Begins in Savannah

Darcie and I spent Thursday night of last week at a B&B called The Azalea Inn in Savannah; wonderful place if you ever get the chance.
Originally booked as a 35th anniversary get-away for dear husband and myself, he said that if he's only going to be an hour away from home, he'd rather stay in his own bed. "Fine," says I. "I'll just take Darcie." And I did. I showed him.
We're learning Georgia History this year, so I thought this would be a great time and place to start.
Unfortunately, newly-turned-thirteen-year-old daughter doesn't like history. The travesty. I think she's adopted. I love history. Adore it even. Sigh....
So, my plan of attack was to walk through the historic district holding the shopping carrot over her; history first...shopping second. It pretty much worked.
This was the first time I've walked from one end of the historic district to the other. It's only about a mile one way. I do that all the time. But walking on uneven bricks and cobblestones, dodging traffic, taking endless photos, reading the map, etc. is pretty physically draining.
We just scratched the surface. Wait till she goes to Fort Jackson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Sumter, Fort Sunbury, etc. I may have to promise her unlimited use of my Visa!

Change of plans

This long weekend was supposed to be the long-planned (and long-delayed) tour of the Crows Nest region. However, a few timetabling issues from QR have put paid to that. In basic terms, to get a train to Caboolture on a public holiday (i.e. tomorrow) from the Gold Coast requires an hour sitting on a platform in Brisbane. I, for one, can think of far better things to do. As a consequence, that tour is being delayed until the Labour Day weekend (only a week later), the timetabling of which will require sitting on a platform at Central Station for just six minutes.
In it's place, I'm heading for the Border Ranges National Park, a vast expanse of mountainous rainforest to the north of Kyogle in NSW. I have visited this part of the world once before, quite a long time ago now, and have longed for a return. It's going to involve a couple of nights at the Kyogle Caravan park, and repeating the same ride twice in three days, but I can vary the Kyogle ride from this side of Murwillumbah. I may detour into Nimbin along the way, but probably won't as I've been there many times in the past. It will, however be the first time I've climbed the Nightcap range from this side, so that provides some interest.
All that is left now is for the Border Ranges to live up to it's hype, and for the Crows Nest tour to take place next time. Sounds like I've said that before.

Southern California Skies

A Kentia palm invokes thoughts of the tropics.