SOS Walk at Goodwin

We had another fabulous walk out at Goodwin Wildlife Management Area today. Perfect weather, and lots of critters! If you didn't GOYB today, here is what you missed:

We were welcomed in to the park by this little guy. Ok, he wasn't little at all, and we weren't so much "welcomed" as "threatened". It was one of the biggest gators I've ever seen, we were guessing maybe 11 or 12 feet. Luckily he was across the ditch from us, I would have hated to have to trip Heather and run.

Another big gator. This one was actually a little smaller than the first, but was in a better position for having his picture taken. Lookit them teeth!

 I am pretty sure this is the same hawk we've seen the last few times out. Very pretty, light breast.

Serious question to any wildlife experts reading this - Do butterflies do the nasty? Cause the last few times we've been out there it certainly looks like that is what they are doing. We actually saw a few flying together last week (and when I mean "together" I mean "together" in the boom-chicka-wah-wah way.)

We found this skull of a rodent of some kind, but not sure what. Need to check the skull ID guide on this one.

 More deer, dear.

The first gator we saw had turned a bit when we came back. Make sure you click on this picture to enlarge it to check out his teeth. Then consider how close we were to him when I took this picture the next time you try to say me and Heather are not bad ass!

It's amazing that critters this cute can be so unbelievable destructive. And tasty.

There you have it, another amazing day outside. Make sure you join us for an up coming walk. Remember, you can only see pictures of stuff on my web site, but you can only pee your pants at the site of a massive hungry-looking aligator 20 feet away from you if you GOYB and come with us!

Event Update: South Brevard CBC

We participated in the South Brevard CBC again this year. HFC David was on my team. Not sure what our species count was, but the total for all teams was 154, 150 of which were countable. If you didn't GOYB, here is just a small smattering of what you missed (it was a great day for birding, not so much for photography):

The first thing we came upon was a herd of deer when it was still pretty dark.

 HFC David, cleverly blending in with the background. I don't think the birds were fooled.

An eagle's nest, although we couldn't tell whether or not it was occupied, and I wasn't up for climbing the tree to check it out.

 A Black and White warbler.

 A Florida Scrub Jay. Notice his ankle bracelets. Not sure what he did, perhaps FWI?

 Just a mocker, but I liked the pose.

Although I was the compiler for this count, that does not mean I am a good birder. I should know, but have no idea what these two are. Maybe butter butts?

Anyway, it was a fun 10 hours of birding. Hope you can join us next year. Remember, you can look at pictures of birds and stuff online, but you can only truly experience nature if you GOYB!

First SOS of 2012

We did our first SOS walk of 2012 today. Technically, it was an FOS (Four on Sunday). We stopped to look at so many cool things that we had to turn back early in order to get back before dark. If you didn't GOYB today, here is what you missed:

David thought he saw a Cinnamon Teal. Heather took this pic of use looking for it.

This was really weird. It was an otter, who appeared to be chasing a butterfly.  We watched him chase it around for quire a while. Odd, but insanely cute.

 This is David's favorite butterfly, the Red Admiral.

Another view of the Red Admiral. He is even prettier with his wings closed.

A Red-shouldered Hawk looking dramatic.

A Viceroy. We saw a zillion butterflies today.

A Southern White.

 A White Peacock.

A White-tailed deer.

Don't know why, but this was my favorite picture of the day. I think I just really loved the color. This is my favorite time of day to shoot when everything is bathed in that warm yellow light. I didn't edit the color in this at all, everything was just bright and perfect.

By the time we got back to the parking lot, the good light had dissipated and I was still unable to get a good shot of the owls who are nesting there. This was better than the last time we saw them, but still not great.

Thanks to Heather and HFC David for joining me today. For those of you who didn't GOYB, I ask you, when was the last time you saw an otter play with a butterfly? I'm guessing that would be never. You can see the picture here, but you can only experience it if you GOYB and join us!

Goals for 2012

Since I started this blog, I've put my goals for the year out here for the world to see which helps to keep me honest. So here are my goals for 2012:

• Fitness Goals:
• Heather and I decided we would walk 750 miles this year. Then, just before midnight last night, in an alcohol-fueled burst of enthusiasm, we decided to up it to 1000 miles. This is gonna be harder than 500!
• Stop using the fact that I work out as a free pass to eat crap. I've been using MyFitnessPal to track my eating habits, and I want to continue to do this. My name is Deederange on there if you want to add me as a friend, we can try to keep each other on track:-)
• Burpees for Boobies - I need to get the details, but basically this is a charity thing wherein you do one burpee today, 2 tomorrow, etc till the last day of the year, which means 366 burpees next new years eve.
• Art and Music Goals
• Finish Timmy and start book
• Continue to write songs for and expand the VBB presentation. Look for other places to share it. 
• Home Goals:
• Build fence, work towards native yard certification
• Get new car
• Personal Goals:
• Find a way to practice time management. This is the goal upon which all others are dependent this year. Last year I did great with my fitness goals, but it was at the expense of my art and music goals. There are 24 hours in a day, and I need to start using all of them instead of squandering so many.
• Related: Delete all but 5 bookmarks, and limit junk-food internet time to at max 1/2 hour a day. I've been great about curtailing TV, but my internet usage is way out of control.   
• Continue seeking out bee people. I think this will always be one of my main goals. There are a lot of us out there, we need to find each other.

Ok, that should keep me busy for a while. Feel free to reply to this post if you have set goals this year, we can work to keep each other on track!

2011 Goals Revisited

Ok, lets see how I did with my goals from 2011:

• Walk 500 miles - Done! In fact, I actually did 510! Woo hoo!
• Last year, I made an effort to reserve only one night a week on which I would eat crap for dinner. This year, I resolve to, instead of once per week, only eat crap AFTER I have walked 25 miles. After I eat crap, the count starts back at 1.  - Failed on this one. I did go sugar free for about 2 months though. Still need to work on my eating habits though. 
• Get onto Alison (my awesome trainer's) Success Stories board. - Alison named me one of the boot camp all stars for one of the sessions, that is good enough for me!
• Short term goals continued over from last year:
• Continue seeking out bee people. This was the most important one last year, and is still the most important this year. I've found one or two, but you can never have enough.  - Accomplished, and I still want to continue with this one.
• Finish Timmy and start book. - Failed. Art fell by the wayside this year. I devoted a lot of time to music and fitness but the real reason is just bad time management.
• Get new tattoo - Done! This is one of the things I did just for me and it felt awesome.
• Learn a song on the banjo and post a video to YouTube - Accomplished in spirit. This was another goal just for me. The point here was to get back into music and do something with it. I don't have the equipment for making a video, but I have learned how to play the banjo and as a Christmas gift, performed 3 songs for some friends. And, I will also be doing more with this in the near future.
• Toilet train the cats. (I don't kid myself. I realize I have very little control over this one.) - Failed. I'm thinking it's time to take this one off the list. Maggie uses the toilet when she wants to, the boys will never learn. Oh well. 
• Add something new to the long term goals list.  http://deemotivation.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-years-resolutions.html - Fail. For some reason I didn't really think that much about the long term future this year. I think my short term goals for health and fitness presided, but I also know they are directly related to my current long term goals.
• And finally, I decided that my main resolution this year is that no matter how high the cliff, this year I will hurl myself off of it with complete abandon. I might crash and burn or I might learn to fly, but either option is better than clinging to the same cliff for 46 years and being sad cause nothing ever changes. - Fail. On the one hand, I did new stuff this year and did not turn down any opportunities for new and fun things. On the other hand, even the new stuff (boot camp, learning banjo, canoe race, 1/2 marathon) wasn't outside of my comfort zone, which was really the point of this one. Might be a win here though in the fact that it's harder to find  stuff outside my comfort zone. Maybe that is just something that comes with age, it doesn't feel like it's something I've worked on. 

Now to write the goals for 2012...

Event Update: Cocoa Christmas Count

A very long, but awesome day out birding. I was surprised that at the end we had only walked about 3-4 miles. As our count area is so large, we did a lot of driving. The species count for the whole thing (that is, all teams) was 161, not sure how many my team specifically had. If you didn't GOYB today, here's what you missed:

My team, Lora, Matt, and David. It was dark when we started. They all had about 20 species before dawn, but I can't hear for jack, so didn't get my first species till the sun came up.

 This was the biggest herd of white Ibis I've ever seen. I think David estimated it to be around 1,500. This picture just shows the start of the stream of them. (Click to enlarge, it's pretty impressive.)

Part of the herd of Ibis flew right overhead.

 A red-shouldered hawk in silhouette.  On the one hand, this was by FAR the warmest, sunniest count we've had in years, which was great. On the other hand, it was awful for photography. I only got a few good shots off the entire day.

 A common yellow throat. This is one of my favorite warblers. The picture doesn't do him justice, he is actually very pretty.

 A sparrow, but I don't recall what kind.

 An Anhinga at the district headquarters. Our part of the count circle is pretty urban, but we still find lots of cool stuff.

 A butterbutt at the district headquarters.

 A gator came out to say hi to us at the last stop before lunch.

I'm gonna get yelled at, but I can't remember this guy's name... some kinda warbler or maybe a sparrow.

 Red-bellied Woodpecker.  He was a strange guy, he kept hanging upside down from tree branches like a nuthatch.

 An immature white Ibis. I know you are, but what am I? Neener-neener.

 Lora, Matt and David at our last stop.

Me and David at our last stop.

A magnificent sunset to cap off a great day of birding.

Please join me on January 2 for the South Brevard count! We still need volunteers for that one. It's a long day, but the work is vitally important to bird conservation.

And remember, you can see cool stuff like this on TV or the Internet, but you can never really experience it unless you GOYB!

500!

I made it to 500 miles last night! I realize that I could not have made it without:

• My Garmin sports watch. It was nice to track the progress.
• My iPod. Can't do nothing without music.
• Music, specifically Volbeat, Mike Doughty, Fleet Foxes and the million other tunes I've listed to over 500 miles.
• All the great people (Michael, Linda, Donna, Dave) that I have met at the gym who notice if I'm not there (fortunately that is infrequently:-))
• Alison - It's so nice to have someone cheering me on, and it will always mean the world to me that she came down to cheer me on as I crossed the finish line at my first 1/2 marathon!
• HFC David - He has called me every morning to remind me to go to the gym, he comes out on some DeeMotivation events, and he believed that I could do this.
• Heather - My daily dose of sunshine and spirit! She has come out on almost every DeeMotivation event, the SOS walks were her idea, and she has thrown my own obnoxious words back at me when I need to hear them most. 

Here are the pictures from last night:

Taking the official last step of my 500 miles.

Me and HFC David celebrating at DQ after.
Yes, DQ, I never said I was perfect!

If I can do this, ANYONE can! Heather and I already have plans for 750 next year, a thousand after. We start January 1. Onward we go. Join us!