Needed to try out the Christmas tri-pod and it was supposed to rain here so we headed to the coast to St. Marks. It was not a St. Mark's day (cold, clear and windy) but it has been overcast and so gloomy for days, we needed to get out. The gators were out, pretending they were sunning. We saw four big ones, each one over six feet long. Two were together, which is rather unusual to see.
This last big boy looked like some folks will look on New Year's Day.
I said they were "pretending" to sun, because the fog was blowing in off the water with increasing density while we were there. That low light gave me the perfect chance to try the tri-pod.
The above picture shows the ghost forest. It was until fairly recently, a pine forest. One of our hurricanes pushed a wall of bay water through the dike system and all the way up to these trees. Apparently, pine trees don't deal with salt intrusion very well and this has become a large stand of mostly dead trees. The gloom of the fog was apropos.
A spider web was beautifully bejeweled with water droplets from the fog.
The large thistle rosette nearby had no such adornment but its radial symmetry was eye-catching.
It is actually a good thing this nest was empty since the leaves were gone from its bush, leaving it quite exposed for all the world to see. There are those who can identify birds' nests. I can only tell an eagle's nest from a hummingbird's nest and neither made this one. A marsh wren may be a decent guess. At any rate, we shall hope that the owners will return to their summer home in a couple of months for days less foggy than today.
1 comment:
Nice pictures!
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