Author: livingthedreamwithsallyandvic

First drought. Then the rainy season and Hurricane/ Tropical storm Elsa. Finally something pretty to photograph in between rain squalls.

Celebrating yesterday at Shore, an open air restaurant on the water, reminded me of The Wharf in Alexandria.

Sally with Zoe

We are staying the weekend with Holly and Andy in Bradenton. Birding this morning at Lake Morton and tonight we went to Coquina Beach.

Same trip … these are Vic’s swans.

Ducks do it… I thought I was getting a duck having lunch so I was clicking away. Turned out they were mating. Oops

We met my sister Holly at Lake Morton yesterday for a photography opportunity. There are black swans, white swans, wood ducks and other birds. We wanted a picture of the rare black necked swan but he was in a steel mesh container in the water along with his mate and babies. Two other sets of swans and babies were there in their own section. The swans are there for safekeeping and someone cares for them. We also saw a pair of black swans on a nest, a baby red shouldered hawk in a nest in a tree, baby gallinules and some creatures hiding in a thick mass of water Lillies.

The wood ducks look so perfect, almost like a decoy. This one is totally real I assure you. Vic really got a good image with a reflection.

It amazes us what we see just riding around our campground /resort. The men in the woodworking shop have made birdhouses over the years and attached them to trees so randomly we’ll see little birds using them for houses, mostly blue birds. Yesterday we came across one such birdhouse that looked empty but I could hear a woodpecker pecking away at the tree it was nailed to. The woodpecker stuck his head out just long enough for me to get the shot before he flew away. Then the blue bird came back with a look as if to say about time you got out of My House !

The first (mine) is a Halloween Pennant.

The second (Victor’s) is a Blue Dasher.

This is a gorgeous butterfly, and perched on lantana it’s just plain spectacular. Victor was out on the golf cart riding around the resort when he saw this butterfly. Even on a phone screen it’s beautiful but I hope you can look at it on a larger screen.