Snapshots from the beach

Looking back through photos I took last week makes me realize how many wildlife encounters can happen without doing much more than biking, rowing and walking back and forth from the house to the car.

My bike rides either took me along the ocean at low tide or through nearby beachside neighborhoods. At the beach, the waves were wild this past week.

Crash!

And sunrises were as different as they were beautiful!

And while birds at the beach were plentiful, I didn't take many pictures of them this time.

A sandpiper seeking an early morning snack

A flock of brown pelicans flying overhead

I may not have taken many pictures of birds by the ocean but I snapped off quite a few shots of herons and ibises when I rowed down the canal on the west end of our property.

 

 

Biking through residential neighborhoods also yielded some exciting surprises. On several mornings I found myself frequently stopping to photograph interesting things along the way.

In the backyard of one house in Silver Sands I saw a hawk perched on the tip of a topless palm tree.
 

Another day I pulled over to photograph a pileated woodpecker hammering away on a utility pole.

But not all my pictures were of wildlife.  On the same street where I saw the woodpecker I noticed a creative entry display that I just had to photograph.

As well a stone wall punctuated by bromeliads and aloes

And then there was there was the encounter I had with a snake as I was walking down the pathway from our house to the car.

If you've been reading my posts for a while you probably know that I'm a fan of snakes and so I was delighted to notice this slender rat snake basking in a ray of sun in my 'chair' garden.

Despite the cool, windy weather, the beach once again rewarded us with gifts aplenty. Wildlife, flora, beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the lagoon. Happy days.