Feathered Friends

It's spring migration time, which is very exciting here in Florida . . . all sorts of pretty, interesting migrators come through the state, including stops in my backyard along the way. I haven't seen the painted buntings or indigo buntings in a couple seasons now, unfortunately. But still, between the usual moochers and the passers-by, backyard birding is pretty awesome!

Palm Warblers like S Florida, like human snow birds do . . . I see just a few, very briefly as they migrate far north for summer. I was very lucky to catch this fellow in a natural setting!

Common year-round in W and E states (excluding Florida), I rarely see house finches, but it seems a scraggler shows up each year at this time. Above is the purple male, below is the female.

American Goldfinches pass through very briefly, in groups . . .

A female red-winged blackbird seems to show up both during winter and spring migration. I've seen a male most winters, very briefly, as well.

E Bluebirds are here year-round, and have become regular visitors to my mealworm feeder . . .

 A female downy woodpecker, being photo-bombed by a mourning dove. The male appears too; one or the other comes to the block of suet. Supposedly here year-round, but I only see them in spring / early summer.

Carolina Wren amongst the bottlebrush blossoms that the squirrels have broken off and discarded from the tree . . . the wrens are here year-round. They like to flit around low to the ground, but do come to my feeders for the mealworm.

This is NOT a normal sight, ha! White ibises in a pine tree in a neighbor's yard. When we get a lot of rain and puddles form in front and back yards, they come around foraging for live grub in the grass and muck. This little flock did come down to our yard. Ibises do pass through on foot once in awhile, again, after rainfall (below) . . .

Shell Yea!

I'm happy to report that my Beach Therapy yesterday morning went very well . . . I had the shell hot-spots to myself (first dibs!) and it was a pretty good beach-combing day . . .

Just before the sun rises above the horizon . . .

Early on, I found this really nice lightning whelk! It's pretty rare for me to find one this size in such good condition and with such nice coloring . . .

I found a handful of shark's eyes; there seems to be a good amount of goldens lately . . .also not a common thing at "my" beach . . .

Just before 7:10 a.m., the sun rose . . .

I found this lettered olive (L) and calico scallop (R) together . . .

But this beauty was definitely the nicest olive for the day . . .

I think I've said this before, but I do love the triangular shape of the Southern surfclam shell!

There were a handful of white baby's ears too . . .

. . . this was the nicest shark's eye in the day's bunch . . .
It was buried upside down and barely showing, a lucky find . . .

A nice Salle's auger . . .

A very unusually pale shark's eye . . .

The Atlantic giant cockle is common at this beach, but I still enjoy finding them . . .

A jingle (oyster) shell (L) and a white Atlantic semele

Another pretty pear whelk apex! Boy if only I could find a whole one, ha!

Oranges . . .

I just realized that there's an orange theme going on with this set of photos . . . taken earlier in March during my bi-monthly beach therapy. I like to go when sunrise is at low tide . . .

Before the sun actually rises on the horizon . . .

. . . And the actual sunrise . . .

An orange scallop! Very rare color to find at "my" beach . . . whether it's orange naturally, or from being buried in sediment awhile . . .

Another angel wing . . .

Sometimes I find really cool patterns in the sand ~ these are flat-topped ripples, made by the tide.

A calico scallop . . .

Lots of nice jingle shells this day (a type of oyster) . . .

I doubt I'll ever find a whole, good-sized pear whelk at this beach; it's very rare to even find tiny juvenile ones . . . but I still like to collect the apexes.

Brrrr Beach Therapy

We're actually having a Spring season here in NE Florida, and I'm not complaining! Even if it was only 42 degrees on the beach Friday morning . . . isn't that why they invented layering?! There were a few other shellers on the beach too.

Seeing the sunrise never gets old, and makes it worth braving the chilly morning . . .

This lightning whelk was a bit rough, and I left it . . .

Have I mentioned that I'm always excited to find a calico scallop? They're like snowflakes; no two are alike! (And on the Gulf coast, there are several species and colors.)

Now this lightning whelk, I did keep . . .

A speckled crab carapace . . . Yes, I do collect crab carapaces!

A shark's eye with a striped acorn barnacle attached . . .

A well-worn knobbed whelk . . .

It's pretty rare to find a horse conch on Florida's E (Atlantic) coast; I was lucky enough to find a whole one a few years ago. This is the largest piece of one I've ever found. Even pieces are rare.

A small piece of green sea glass . . .

I was wondering if I'd see the wintering bald eagle that likes this post near the Matanzas Inlet Bridge . . . it wasn't there when I walked by into the Inlet, but when I came back and was standing right there looking over some shell hash, who should come along but ! This is the 3rd year I've seen baldie.

This shark's eye has suffered some shell "bioerosion" . . . scattered perforations like this were likely made by a boring sponge. These sponges partially acid-digest living and dead shells and invade them as living space. (From Florida's Living Beaches)

This royal sea star is probably deceased ~ the purple body and orange marginal plates are faded ~ but I put it back in the ocean anyway.

An angel wing . . . fairly common, esp. on the Intracoastal side, but hard to find a whole one.

Definitely my favorite find of the day! A "perfect" heart shape made out of an oyster shell.

I have a large collection of shell apex pieces, like this shark's eye . . . some day I'll make something crafty with some of them!

Another calico scallop shell . . . this pattern reminds me of a lace-edged skirt.

A second piece of small green sea glass . . .

A lettered olive . . . I usually find at least one . . . I did find a really shiny one but it was occupied so I put it back in the waves . . .

I think this is an Atlantic bay scallop; I'll have to count the ribs to be sure . . . they have 17-18 ribs, the calico scallop has 19-21 ribs.

. . . And a 3rd piece of sea glass, this one brown.

Most of the shark's eyes I find have a blue "eye", but this pretty golden shell has an orange eye.

Heading back towards my car, the Croc sandals came off and I was able to enjoy some bare-feet-on-sand-and-sea time . . . crucial for mental rejuvenation!