Why Are You Doing The 1000 Mile Challenge?

We have had a few new people join the 1000 mile challenge since New Years Day, and I am really excited about that. I was thinking the other day that I know my reasons for doing this, but really don't know anyone else's. So let's share here. Why are you doing the 1000 mile challenge? Answer here by replying to this post.

I'll start: I've always admired that David sets goals and challenges for himself. So two years ago, I decided I was going set a goal for myself to walk 500 miles in a year. I was so proud of myself when I completed my goal by mid-December. Last year, I decided to up it to 1000 miles walking. I made it to about 700, but had a lot of foot issues and had to switch to bike riding and rowing, which I never counted because I had specifically said I was going to walk it. Regardless, I was pretty proud of myself that I had hit 500 miles in the early autumn, and might have made it the full 1000 if I had counted all the rowing and bike riding. I realized that the problem with limiting to walking was that it's a repetitive exercise that puts a LOT of pressure on the feet. So this year, I decided to go for 1000 self powered miles, so I could count rowing and bike riding.

So, why did I choose traversing 1000 miles instead of, seeing a certain number of birds like David does? A few reasons. One is that I wanted this goal to be my own. I think in a marriage it is so easy to lose your identity. While it is nice to have shared goals (which we do) I wanted to have something that all mine. The other reason is that I've always wanted to do something physical. In high school I skipped gym most of my senior year and almost didn't graduate. Despite the fact that I cut gym for an entire year, I have always admired the people who could do physical stuff. Growing up in the Boston area I saw the Boston Marathon every year, and it was incomprehensible how someone could run 26 miles, but deep down inside I really admired people who could and wanted (and still want) to try it some day. I started with a 1/2, and I know I will do a full one of these days. Maybe for my 60th birthday I will even try to qualify and get a real number for the Boston Marathon! 

But in the mean time, I'm doing my 1000 miles self propelled.

What's your story?

Manatee Watch and Walk Along C-54 Canal

Had an awesome walk today with HFC David and, fresh off her stage run in Beauty and the Beast, the divine Ms. H. We began with the last manatee watch of the season. We only saw 2. Not sure if due to weather or to the die off. I'm hoping it can be attributed to the weather. After the manatee watch, we took a walk along the C-54 canal. It was a nice walk, weather was great. If you didn't GOYB, here is what you missed today (as always, click to enlarge):

I thought this stick looked like a lizard or alligator head or something. 

Heather found a piece of cardboard and decided to do a little red-neck sledding.
Here she is at the top of the berm.

Here she is 1/2 way down the berm.

And click here to see a video of her in live action!

In addition to manatees dying this year, we have lost may brown pelicans as well.
This is the first dead pelican we found today. 

This is the last sand hill scrub in Brevard county. A beautiful area.

This was a eagle who watched us from the other side of the canal.

This was bones from something.

Apparently some kind of fish. The bone on the far right was serrated. 

This was the second dead brown pelican we found.

In happier news, we found tons of gopher tortoise burrows. This is a
prickly pear, one of the tortoise's favorite noms.

Me and Heather looking diligently over our manatee watch paperwork.

An awesome end to an awesome day.

Be sure to watch our schedule and see what else we have coming up. It's a big world out there that you can't experience from your couch! Join us for the Treasure Coast Birding Festival next weekend where I'll be speaking Friday night and leading a trip with David on Saturday morning. Visit the festival web site for details.

Unofficial Event - Blue Cypress

While we were at the festival today, David mentioned to Dr. Baker from Pelican Island Audubon that he needed to survey Blue Cypress for the breeding bird atlas. It just so happens that Dr. Baker was doing a boat trip out there tonight and very kindly let David and I tag along. It was amazing! We went out of Middleton Fish Camp, rode out to the stick marsh, had an incredible dinner (including wine, brie, dessert... sorry, Alison, if you are reading this:-), then came back looking into a magnificent sun set. There were dozens of nesting ospreys. Here are the pictures, click to enlarge:

This is a female osprey. You can tell she is female cause the girls always wear a brown necklace. It is a fashion thing. 

This is a male osprey. Note he is not wearing a necklace, and is smaller than the female.

A female eating the lover offering from her boyfriend. I love the psychotic look in her eye.

Another female osprey.

Funny story here that explains why I am a terrible birder. See that little white dot on the horizon? Dr. Baker pointed out that it is the water tower less than a mile from my house. I have lived in Fellsmere for about 6-7 years now, and I swear I have never seen that water tower before ever. I think I might have a problem with observation. 

I'm not a good birder, but I can take a decent picture now and then. I really liked this one.

This is a red-shouldered hawk nomming on a lizard.

The exposure on this photo is awful, but it shows the contrast between the male (top, smaller,  no necklace) and the female (bottom, larger, wearing necklace.)

The classic view of a blue cypress sunset on our way back to shore. It's a rough job to live in Florida, but someone has to do it. Thanks to Dr. Baker for a fantastic evening!

Pelican Island

We had an awesome walk out at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge today. Joined by HFC David (who was the leader of the walk), and a group of terrific local birders, we saw a whole bunch of cool stuff. If you didn't GOYB and join us today, here's what you missed! (As always, click to enlarge.)

A very strange, LARGE bird flew
over us to welcome us to the
refuge. I'm really really glad he
didn't poop on my car. Or me.

It was a little chilly start to the day,
but the skies were crystal clear
and there were lots of duckies.

This is a White-cheeked Pintail duck. It was a lifer for me!

Gaillaridia, one of my favorite Florida wildflowers.

Some Green-wing Teal.

One of our neatest critters in FL.
This is an Antlion trap. There is an
antlion in the bottom of the hole
waiting for something crawl into the
hole and get trapped. This was the first
time I have ever seen a bug actually
fall in, it was very cool.

Me and Teddy Roosevelt at the festival after the bird walk.

Samson's Island

Had a terrific day out on Sampson's Island. As with last year's event, we had a great-horned owl with a baby, and some osprey getting ready to get down. If you didn't GOYB and join us today, here's what you missed:

 An oprey building it's nest. We didn't see them getting down, but there was a boy and a girl and I'm pretty sure they had some Marvin Gaye music queued up.

My favorite thing on Sampson's Island is the antlions. They are all over and very cool. I love pointing them out to folks who have never seen them before. Like me, they are always amazed at such a clever little critter!

Make sure you join us for a future walk. We have Pelican Island, Devil's Millhopper, and lots more cool stuff coming up! Remember,  you can look at my pictures on the internet, but you can only be truly one of the cool kids if you come out and play with us!

Grand Day Out at Lake Apopka Restoration Area

Had a great day at the Lake Apopka restoration area today. Led by Maria Zondervan, we saw 56 species including: red-bellied woodpecker, mockingbird, robin, bluebird, blue-grey gnatcatcher, cardinal, blue jay, palm warbler, pine warbler, american crow, king fisher, tree swallow, anhinga, bald eagle, savannah sparrow, red shouldered hawk, osprey, moorhen, great blue heron, great egret, red wing blackbird, mourning dove, coot, blue wing teal, widgeon, gadwall, ringneck duck, wood duck, tricolor heron, little blue heron, glossy ibis, pied bill grebe, boat tailed grackle, yellow rump warbler, sora, common yellowthroat, swamp sparrow, northern shoveler, phoebe, green heron, black vulture, snowy egret, limpkin, cattle egret, northern harrier, cooper's hawk, northern parula,  turkey vulture, snipe, sedge wren, kestral, northern flicker, barn owl, white eyed vireo, meadowlark, and barn swallow.

And, in pictures, if you didn't GOYB and join us, here's what you missed (click on photos to enlarge):

A magnificent red shouldered hawk.

A phoebe

A ton of gators! 

Really great looks at blue birds

The main reason for our visit - to see the results of
our owl box project! Some of our boxes are still in use
as evidenced here by 5 eggs in one of the
original boxes

There was a LOT of evidence of the owls living there,
including many bones from owl pellets. This was a
bittern skull.

We were theorizing how much some of this stuff had
to hurt going down, not to mention coming back up!

A close up of the bittern skull and neck.

The whole gang, minus me. From l-r:
Steve, Mary, Marilyn, Roy, Nickol, Audrey, Judith,
Phyliss, Mark, Lora, Matt, Maria, and Deborah.

The whole gang, minus Matt. From l-r:
Steve, Mary, Marilyn, Roy, Nickol, Audrey, Judith,
Phyliss, Mark, Lora, Dee, Maria, and Deborah.

Our fearless leader for today, Maria,  Land Manager for the
Lake Apopka Restoration Area from St. Johns Water
Management District.I and Space Coast Audubon
sincerely thank her for sharing her time and
knowledge with us today.

Lake Okechobee

I got out to see Lave Okechobee this weekend. HCF David and I braved the cold and wind and were rewarded with some nice looks at ospreys. If you didn't GOYB and join us, here's what you missed:

Poor David. While I have the never ending thrill of staring at a computer 10 hours a day, he is forced to be outside and look at stuff like this while he works. The poor, poor boy, I don't know how he survives this torture.

 Ok, enough sarcasm, here is an awesome picture of an osprey.

If I had gotten my camera up one second earlier, this photo would have made it on to my critter porn page. Apparently male ospreys don't spend a lot of time of foreplay or cuddling after.


Anyway, I didn't get a lot of pictures this week, but it was still pretty awesome to get out. Make sure you keep an eye on upcoming events. We will be joining Space Coast Audubon for a trip to Lake Apopka, we will be doing a road trip to Devils Millhopper, and much more. Remember, doing something is always better than doing nothing, so you might as well do stuff with us!