Category: Travel

Guttenberg Idyl

I spent most of June on the river with my brother Mark. We had a great time and a visit from his son Austin. [Gallery]

There were lots of birds! To start we had this fellow right outside our front door for several mornings…

The Gray Catbird is related to Mockingbirds, and it shows!

The Turtles were on the march to lay their eggs…

There were several storms the first week, most with afternoon rainbows. Check out this HDR Panorama… [click to enlarge]

I went up to Pike’s Peak State Park for a walk in the woods. Very pleasant, few people, not many flowers, lots of ferns…


We had a family gathering for my Aunt Katherine’s 90th Birthday…

Mark, Austin and I ventured over to Glen Haven, Wisconsin to partake of Taco Night and a friendly game of billiards…

A pair of Red-Winged Blackbirds had a nest in one of our shrubs. The young birds were up and out about ten days after hatching. I couldn’t get real close because the momma bird was very upset with me (and rightfully so!).

⇐ click to enlarge


Dickcissel
Yellow Warbler
American Redstart

I saw Indigo Buntings and Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks three or four times when I was cycling on the backroads. Other birds included…

Austin and I went over to the Motor Mill and it was unexpectedly open for tours! We went from the basement to the attic. It is a very cool building!

I now have a much better idea of how it worked. They think there was a wooden dam and a flume wall that brought the water into the basement (lower right below the grass) where it turned three vertical turbines (two for the grindstones and one for everything else). This Diagram gives some sense of the complexity inside.

After our tour we took a pleasant bike ride on the Pony Hollow Trail and ran into this Eastern Bluebird family…

It was a great day! Even the rain held off until we were off the trail.

In Pursuit of Pitcher Plants 2017

We decided to take a week-end trip to the Panhandle to see if we could find Pitcher Plants. We were not disappointed! [Gallery] Here I am standing along Highway 65 in the Apalachicola National Forest…

 

Those are Trumpet-Leaf Pitcher Plants that grew and bloomed between pretty severe mowing and spraying (see below). Here’s a closeup of the flower and insect-trapping pitcher…

Next we drove to Wright Lake and took a long hike. We were surprised to see Lupines blooming under the pine trees…

 

There were many burned patches in various states of recovery. In one we found this interesting flower. It starts out all white and then “burns up” with purple (or perhaps the other way round?). Adapted to follow fire into cleared areas I think.

 

There were little clusters of pitcher plants here and there, and then we found this large group in a damp semi-open area…

The next day we went back for a second look along Highway 65 and bumped into Tim (not his real name) who is somewhat of an expert on carnivorous plants. He helped us find these beautiful Purple Pitcher Plant blooms…

Unfortunately whatever entity maintains that bit of highway is very aggressive with spraying herbicides to keep the growth down. There were dried up and dead pitcher plants in abundance. <frown> Tim said he had been coming to the area since 1971 and there used to be magnificent spring displays along this road. The flowers above were down in the bushes beyond the spraying.

After that we poked around a bit back in the woods but didn’t find any more pitchers. I did find another type of carnivorous plant, the Sundew…

There were thousands in a “borrow pit” area. No chlorophyll but lots of little hairs each with a drop of sticky glue. You can see the remains of a few ants if you look close. There was also this strange plant, I have no idea what it is…

 

Looks like a cross between a fern and a sundew!

A week later we visited Buck Island Pond and saw a third species, the Hooded Pitcher Plant…

There are more photos of a fourth species, the White-Top Pitcher Plant, I took in 2013 in a separate gallery.

 

Enjoy!

Everglades (Sail) Kayak Trip 2017

Everglades time again! This year I went for five days/four nights with my sister Diana Pray from LA. We did a lazy double figure eight route around northeastern Whitewater Bay and the Gulf. [Gallery] With the exception of a few distant motorboats we were completely alone for four days, quite remarkable!

 

The wind was southerly the entire trip, so the first day we started out sailing almost all the way to the Roberts River Chickee.

 

I brought along a 360° panoramic camera and took some impressive shots! Here we are on our own little planet.

 

The next day we took The Cut-Off over to the North River and ate lunch on the Watson River Chickee. Then we got lost in The Labyrinth on our way to the Shark River.

Surprisingly we ended up on what I call “Dad’s Creek” where my father and I dumped the canoe in 2005. This set us up for a very pleasant twilight excursion up stream to the Shark River Chickee.

The next day the water was like glass as we headed into one of the northern channels of the Shark River to set up our boomerang out to the Gulf of Mexico. [The river reverses flow twice a day, down with the outgoing tide and up with the high tide. So if you time it right you can ride the current both ways! I call the upstream flow the “Everglades Escalator!“]

This trip was remarkable for how many sea creatures we saw! We watched dolphins feeding/cavorting at least ten times, including their habit of laying on their side in the shallows and splashing fish onto the shore.

We saw a Manatee come up for air and then swim under us in the Labyrinth. But the highlight was returning up the Shark River where we were in the middle of a group of Sea Turtles (maybe ten!) who would popup randomly for air and be gone in a second. [It reminded me of whack-a-mole!] One actually ran into Diana’s kayak!! The heads were huge so I think the were Loggerheads.

We got back to the Watson River Chickee at dusk, promptly ate and went to bed. The next morning we were greeted by dolphins feeding a few feet away!

The next day was a leisurely float down the eastern side of Whitewater Bay.

We got to the Lane Bay Chickee well before dark and had some time to relax and swim. The breeze finally kept the bugs off <smile>.

 

The next day we worked our way down through the maze of Hells Bay.

Back on Whitewater Bay we encountered a 10-15 mph headwind. It was a bit of a slog but so much better than a canoe!

A quick return trip across Coot Bay finished our most excellent adventure!