It Feels Like Winter … Almost

Sunday, 30 December
Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 36F / Hi 50F (2C /10C)

The wind-chill won the battle today!  The mercury indicated a high of 50F (10C) this afternoon, but I’m here to tell you that it sure didn’t feel that way.  At least there was no rain … and we’re grateful that we’re not in the path of any of the snow that has been plaguing other parts of the country.

Haven’t been doing much of anything blog-worthy these past few days.  After our early morning “mouse debacle” on Friday, we stayed close to home, going to the beach to enjoy an al fresco snack and the sunshine.  Mui was expecting a phone call, so after checking out the water temp — shiver me cold — he returned home; I stayed on to stroll the length of the beach.

Heavy rain was in the forecast for Saturday.  And that’s what we got.  We had some strong downpours that cleared up mid-day, but by then the wind had picked up, gusting to 30 mph (48 kph).  No problem; we used the day to go to the NS Mayport barbershop to get our first haircuts on the road.  Afterwards, we went grocery shopping at the commissary — stocking up for the move to our next campground in a few days.

Running errands filled up our morning today.  We considered going for an afternoon walk at the nearby marsh, but the thought of doing so bundled up in layers wasn’t attractive.  Instead, we stayed home and started our pre-departure prep; we’ll finish up tomorrow so that we can pull out early on Tuesday.

Just because we didn’t do anything exciting or different doesn’t mean that the camera did not see action.

This gull brought lunch to us at our campsite on Friday.
(2nd winter laughing gull … I think; correct me if I am wrong)

Scenes from the beach on 29 December …

Our osprey friend was perched on the power line as usual; but this time there was
another osprey that it was keeping an eye on … his mate, perhaps?

This ring-billed gull politely watched from a distance as we ate our snack on the beach.

We found this shell on the beach at low tide.  Its occupant  had plowed a path for
itself (top right), but had come to a standstill.  Mui poured some water over it, and
when it started moving again (top left; tongue-like thing peeking out from under the
shell), he carried it off to the water to give it a fighting chance to live another day.

The sanderlings were fluffed up and hunkered down to keep warm.

Have to stop and check out sea shells that catch my eye.

I’m stumped by this bird …
consensus is that this is a young Forster’s Tern.

Forster’s Tern

There’s a story with these black skimmers.  Top to bottom: seemingly preparing to dive
into the oncoming wave, the skimmer let the wave carry it out to another skimmer that
was already bathing in the cold Atlantic waters.

Black skimmers are hard to photograph because their eyes blend in with their dark head
feathers; this time I managed to get enough of a glint to show the eye — barely.

Scenes from our campsite on 30 December …

I mentioned that we canceled our plans to go to the marsh because of the cold temp and wind … well, the marsh came to our site instead.

I didn’t know if the flock of ibis that showed up at our site would tolerate my
presence, so I took a picture through the windshield (left) before I went outside,
crossed the street, and took a group shot.

Obviously these ibis can’t read road signs!

It turns out that the ibis are very tolerant of my presence, but I am not pushing my luck.

Left: that’s not a third leg that the ibis in the foreground has grown!
Right: This ibis was bigger than the other birds in the flock …

… could it have been mom?  When she started to move away, the other birds quickly followed.

And to wrap up today — an osprey in flight provides our …

… the end moment!