Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Been off the grid so long I will try to catch up...Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge

is chock full of wading birds of all sorts...great place to visit...Im just going to run some photos I took ...

it was quite foggy as I got out early...

the fog makes for great sound enhancements tho...and a beautiful fog rainbow!!

  

a. avocets in the fog

Willet

Stilt Sandpiper Droop on bill 

Dunlin in foreground Semipalmated Sandpiper in rear...

black skimmers

lesser scaup

white ibis

Roseate Spoonbills

Greater Yellowlegs

glossy ibis

green heron

blue winged teal

black pointe drive

common moorhen

reddish egret

osprey

common loon

wood storks

mottled duck

manatee seen down the road from the wildlife drive

snowy egret

and lastly I liked this shot it has so much going on!!

max brewer bridge and the city of Titusville, FL in background in the mist..

Im behind as usual but my next stop is Big Cypress National Preserve!

Hope you are all doing well I'll catch up to your blogs when I have electricity..right now I have about one slither of battery left...

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

Photo Journaling along the Way--

I am behind on blog reading please forgive me for not getting around in "real" time.  Im running about 2 weeks behind with my own photojournal of my little life-work has been disrupting my free time...lol Imagine that!!


So to catch up last time I told you I was headed upstate to fetch Mom home and do some dog sitting and cut and fold Fat Quarters--used in quilting. (long story) The weather forecast was rain with Friday, March 4th, being the best day to go exploring so in spite of the damp weather  I forced  took Mom with me to see some of the waterfalls on my list from the Waterfall Hikes of SC by Thomas E King.  (the other 2 days were complete washouts...the sun came out as we packed the car to leave--grrr)

                                                                          Lower

Middle photo missing. 


Wildcat Falls Middle (Ive seen the lower and yet to see the upper sections of this series of falls--this one Mom cant go to see but I dragged sprinted up the hill to see the middle section and next time I pass by I plan to hike to the upper section) This is a short drop with a LONG slide down to the lower section. (p 278 of the guidebook) then we headed to Table Rock to see the Carrick Creek.



                
short Video 

 Carrick Creek Falls is perfect for Mom because its only 100 feet away from the parking lot!! (the reason I chose this one for this trip) This small waterfall is in Table Rock State Park one of 15 in this park..I have a long way to go to see them all...but as part of my ongoing goal of seeing as many as possible listed in the Waterfall Hikes of SC by Thomas E King--this visit to Carrick Creek falls means I can check off page 156 of the book. This is a 15 ft plunge falls.  It was drizzling rain so we had to deal with light showers..later it stopped raining , Carrick Creek is not a big fall but it sure is pretty!  Had some raindrops on my lens--

Mom Bundled up

the small falls is in a beautiful heavy forest setting with a nice wading pool for a hot day!



Then we took a drive west to Devils Fork State Park.  The main thing there is Lake Jocassee--its a boaters paradise and a birders paradise also..




Only today it was gloomy and raining and we had no boat so in between showers I grabbed some photos..of the beautiful mountain lake shoreline...

the clay was so red after the rain, when its dry its more of a bricky red or pink

thats a horned grebe swimming away from me--

kinda grainy as he didnt want to get close to me--wish they stayed for breeding plumage which is fantastic and I ve never seen!

I did see Common loons....they also kept their distance but I got a couple of fuzzy "I did see it" photos..not a new bird for me, but a surprise as I didnt realize they were here! They too wont breed here so I wont get to see that beautiful black head and white dots of the male in breeding plumage--

          

common loon-F the water is disturbed by the rain ---

I saw all these gulls out on a sand bar, too far away for ID's I just like the way they looked...



If I had to guess I'd say RingBill Gulls--So that was it for that weekend I just returned from another trip up there and I saw another great waterfall, saving that for my next post...

                                                       Peace