Favoritos de charmurr

On this day, after meeting a relative at CityWalk in Orlando, Florida, I took a detour east to Canaveral National Seashore then headed North to Anastasia State Park.

At CityWalk, a stranger described the weather as "getting ominous". I sat outside and listened to a choir perform "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"—as the music crescendoed, so did the clouds. A cool darkness rolled in and covered the sky, though bright white light still seeped through in patches. In the air, there was a power—undeniable, unexplained.

Various counties along Florida issued tornado warnings. I was grateful for my safe arrival to Canaveral. At the gate, Carlos was amused by my plan to photograph birds on such a day. The seashore looked like this. An hour and a half later, heavy rain pelted the car’s windshield with a loud force, which was my cue to leave.

I arrived to my next stop, Anastasia State Park, in the early evening, but well before sundown. There wasn’t a cloud in site. Steel blue skies and sunshine seemed mismatched with an intense wind. It swept light-colored sand from the dune back-and-forth across the darker sands of the vast, wide beach. The winding paths of uplifted sand looked like flowing rivers, ocean bound.

No Surf Scoters were bobbing around offshore, but plenty of human surfers. With a high wind gust of 31 mph recorded 3/4 mile inland, who knows what greater winds the ocean delivered. After about an hour, I headed to Duval County for dinner, before finally returning home.

• My favorite species of the day: Merlin.
• My favorite photo of the day: this Sanderling.

Cloudy on the Savannah River in Augusta, Georgia.

My favorite species of this trip was a Cliff Swallow.

With my bird’n dog, who wouldn’t chase a ball. I take that back—he has been known to chase a chicken or two.

Seen being cleaned by a barberfish and female Mexican hogfish—can't seem to find a record of this fish anywhere in Baja! It's not in the books for the area, fishbase or otherwise, nor are there any observations on iNaturalist of this fish in Mexico! Weird!!

Some of the camel thorns that once lived in 'Deadvlei' or 'Dooie Vlei', a white clay pan located near Sossusvlei, and surrounded by some of the largest sand dunes of the Namib Desert.
Long ago, the clay pan formed after rainfall, when the Tsauchab river flooded, creating temporary shallow pools which allowed the camel thorn trees to thrive.
Then the climate changed; the area became much drier, and sand dunes encroached on the pan, which blocked the river from the area. The camel thorns died; but they still stand there till today, as eyewitnesses to a once more fertile past.

Same individual. Duval County. This observation is for the white morph.

SEEN WITH:
Photo 18: Dark morph Reddish Egret on right; Snowy Egret on left (white morph Reddish Egret in center).

Photo 19: Dark morph Reddish Egret on right; White morph Reddish Egret on left.

Photo 20: White morph Reddish Egret on right; Snowy Egret on left.

For the Species Look-Alikes iNat project, see photos 18 and 20 to compare this white morph Reddish Egret to a Snowy Egret.