Twitchin' Again

I know it sounds nerdy but I have really gotten into bird watching lately. The trees by the house are always full of all kinds of birds and I can lose hours on a weekend just chasing them around  to get a photo or getting a good look to make sure I've properly ID'd them. I just love it - and when I'm twitchin' - I'm not thinking (or worrying) about anything else. It's my therapy :)

 

Meritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is an important US National Wildlife Refuge on the Atlantic coast of Florida about an hour East of Orlando. It is also a 'gateway site' for the Great Florida Birding Trail :). It occupies about 140,000 acres including the location of Kennedy Space Center. Since public access is controlled in various ways, the refuge is part of a very substantial area of relatively undisturbed wildlife habitat.

 

Now that beach season is here, we went over to look around at the weekend. Space X were preparing for a rocket launch the next day so we could see the launch set up in the distance...

 

And the birds were everywhere, including the endangered Florida Scrub Jay (which I saw but didn't manage a decent picture of :()...

 

I also got to see a nudist beach for the first time (which was quite interesting) but we opted for a more conservative spot to set up for the day. Mike gave up with the canopy...



 

And took to the water with surfer girl...

 

While I read a book :)

And took pictures of them fighting in the water!

 

And calling a truce...

 

We saw some interesting wildlife on the driving trail too, including a bobcat who was way too quick for me to get a photo of. This guy moved at more my pace...

 

The scenery is just so pretty...

 

Beach days are back :)