February 20 - we woke up to another nice day although there was a cold wind blowing over the ocean. The perfect day to stay in and listen to the Sunday sermons and do some reading. I took a walk in the afternoon and did a little shelling but there wasn't much to be found. The weekends tend to be busy at the beach and everyone has the same thing in mind.
February 21 - today is a golf day. The forecast is calling for a beautiful day. It was a really interesting sunrise this morning. Quite dramatic with all the clouds. It changed by the minute and was amazing to watch.
We golfed at Long Bay today. The weather was really beautiful and we all enjoyed ourselves.
February 22 - today we are golfing at True Blue. Since the course is near Huntington Beach we all decided to go there for a while to enjoy the birds. Ralph and I left a little earlier and went to Murrell's Inlet for a stroll and also to photograph the Pelicans. I tried a new technique today (new for me) and used my flash to fill in the shadows. I'm pretty pleased with the results. The birds didn't seem to notice as I was quite a distance away and it still worked.
It was nice to see that the Mergansers were out in the pond. There was a pair swimming around doing their mating rituals. It was really quite interesting to watch. The male would swim all around the female going up and flapping its wings, then bobbing his head in the water, diving down and coming up and moving his head all around. For the longest while the female seemed uninterested. When he finally got her attention, she lay flat out across the water and waited for him to approach. Quite fascinating.
Afterwards we enjoyed a nice round of golf. We saw a really large alligator on one of the par 3's. With the nicer weather they are coming out and sunning themselves.
February 23 - we decided to go back to Huntington Beach again today. It's really foggy at the beach and it lasted all day. Huntington was a beautiful day. We stayed for about 4 hours. I saw this cormorant catch and eat a huge fish. It was quite something to see. The way to bird struggled with the fish and how he had to turn it head first to then swallow it down. Incredible!!
We also saw a couple of beautiful Tricoloured Herons. They were nestled with the Snowy Egrets. At first we thought they were young Night Shade Herons but realized that they were too colourful and their beaks were different so we looked them up when we got home.
February 24 - today we golfed at Tigers Eye. It was really nice out with lots of sun. The gators are definitely out enjoying the sun.
February 25 - we went back to Huntington Beach for a while today. With the nicer weather we are starting to see a different assortment of birds and they are becoming more frisky with each other. lt's fun to watch. I particularly enjoyed watching the pelicans fish today. I guess they were quite successful based on how often they had their mouths full of water and then letting it drain slowly. It's quite interesting as this is done with the head partially submerged. Once finished they lift their head and smack their beaks a few times as if to say "ahhhh that was delicious". Then they start looking again and once ready they take several hops and then dive into the water. I also noticed that they usually turn their neck sideways before going into the water. I wonder if that is to help reduce the strain when opening their mouth and moving forward. If you look closely, you can see the fish (it's pretty large) leaving an indentation in the gular of the bird. It's fun to watch.
While there we also saw this juvenile red shouldered hawk. Such a beautiful bird.We also spent some time looking for the birds and alligators along the south path. I can't think of a better way to spend the day.
February 26 - we had planned to go back to Huntington again this morning with the intention of photographing the sunrise. When we looked at the forecast they were calling for an overcast day so we figured we would go a little later. We arrived just after 7:00 am and it was pretty cold at the causeway so we went directly to the north end. I wanted to get a photo of the beautiful oak tree that was starting to get leaves. The oaks here are massive.
Most of the birds were in hiding except this Swan but it had no interest in swimming around. Keeping itself wrapped up tightly and trying to sleep was the best that it would do for us. Can't say that I blamed him.
We enjoyed our coffee trying to shelter from the strong cold wind that was blowing, hoping that maybe the Eagle would make an appearance. No luck so we headed to the walking path on the south end. I'm glad we did as we got to enjoy seeing a young Night Shade Heron. He/she was well hidden in the reeds. It really is amazing at how well their colouring protects them from predators.
It was another great week!!
