Author: livingthedreamwithsallyandvic

Lol, love these opal pieces from Vic.

Vic in one of his 5 Christmas shirts

Here’s my Great White Egret flying over the water at Lake Apopka last week. The green at the eye is breeding plumage.

This is Vic fishing yesterday (catch and release) here at the campground. He caught 24.

This is me and Zoe doing our Christmas selfie.

Woke up to cool temps 64 this am. Hurray!!!! It’s been a long hot summer. On July 2 Vic fell down the steps right outside our camper and tore the tendons on his left knee. He’s been recovering from that ever since. He’s pretty much good to go now and soon we will be back to our birding adventures. Stay tuned for some bird photos 😊. Here’s a recent photo of Zoe, our Shih Tzu.

We were lucky enough to find Capt. Mike and took a 3 hour private boat tour off Marco Island in an area called Ten Thousand Islands. We asked for an emphasis on birding. Usually he does shelling tours and dolphin/manatee sightings but he did know a lot about birds. We enjoyed his company and I would love to go out again. We saw magnificent frigate, skimmers, shore birds and much more.

Capt Mike, Green Water Boat Tours

Skimmers

Magnificent Frigate

Godwit Terns.

First I got my hair done this morning.

Then flowers arrived from Holly Rider and Kelly Ball, my two awesome daughters. Woweee they are gorgeous!

And Vic gave me a beautiful tree of life necklace with a great card.

Sandhill Cranes mate for life. They begin their courtship as young adults by doing elaborate dances to attract a mate. They mate in early spring and lay 2 eggs. Colts will be up and about as soon as 8 hours after hatching. The colts remain with their parents about 10 months. We’ve recently had 2 sets of colts and now have 3 sets in different stages of development. Vic has been taking pictures of these birds for the past few months and has created a timeline. Dates are approximate. Nikon D850, Tamron 600 G2.

Adult

A nice juicy bug. Week old.

New colts, 4 weeks old.

11 weeks

14 weeks

18 weeks

Almost full grown, red is beginning to show on crown.

Vic doesn’t just grab a bouquet, he looks them all over and picks the freshest looking one. And the smell! So awesome to get flowers just because he’s glad I am with him. It’s not even my birthday! 😊