We're really not sure where the time goes these days. A guy at work was getting all of these hugs and greetings and welcome backs so Nicole said, "was he on vacation?" No. Apparently he had been out for two months having surgery. Nicole could have sworn she saw him just a week ago!
Anyway, time is flying by now that we are stationary for a bit. Maybe it is just that we've become proficient at being less efficient. We'll call it relaxing.
In between our proficient relaxation we've done some going, seeing and doing that did not involve Home Depot (both of us work there now, by the way).
The Intracoastal beach near our place was experiencing a very low tide. Nicole spent time walking ankle deep and exploring the bottom which included a very large number of Hermit Crabs.
NOTE: The only camera available on this adventure was the one in the flip phone so due to low quality some photos may require interpretation or imagination.
Purplish spots are tiny hermits.
They were leaving a neat pattern of trails everywhere.
Great idea gone bad?
Not sure if he was out exploring and couldn't get back to the water in time or maybe he was trying to molt. It has been hot. He dehydrated right in his shell and looked as if he had been trying to climb out to safety.
Another left high and dry.
And some wet ones...
This one was a bit shy
but eventually made an appearance.
A flock of mostly Kildeer was hanging out.
There were other kinds of crabs too like tiny Horseshoe Crabs.
They were quite determined travelers.
Also they were quite small, covering only one and a half fingertips.
There were so many different kinds of shells and when turned
over to their non-algae side they were quite colorful.
Nicole kept searching though in hopes of finding an empty one to take home.
Eventually, she found one that passed every test she could think of to ensure that it was sans inhabitant. So, she put it in her bag of goodies and biked it on home. When she got home she opened up her bag and she had a new friend staring at her. The prized shell was not empty after all! Looks like we were about to break the no pets rule for a night.
We set up a temporary home for our new friend and put some of our shell collection in there with him. He was quite the character. Peeking out now and then only to slam his shell down if we got to close. When we weren't looking he would rearrange the shells in the tank and was always decorating.
Did you know that hermit crabs really aren't hermits? They are actually quite social and often live in colonies of up to 100 that sleep together. Some groups have even been observed forming 'vacancy chains' which are essentially lines in order of largest to smallest and then swapping shells all at the same time (for safety).
It was a lot of fun having Jeeves in the house but we knew he was better off where he came from. So, the next day he was returned whence he came. It was a happy scene as two smaller hermits jumped right up on top and greeted him by crawling all over him.
Early afternoon Morning Glory
We've got a routine. It involves relaxing in the morning and the evening and choosing to go out in the middle of the day. Not the best as the temperatures are steadily rising to full summer steam. But, it is what it is. So, our trips are short and full of sun and the heat that comes with it. But they are explorations regardless.
Here's some shots from a walk around our complex. We were actually headed to the beach but got sidetracked walking around our place instead.
What distracted us was a tree full of American Redstarts.
The females like this one and the males (like photo above) have splashes of color.
They often sit in such a way as to display those colors.
Sometimes they don't even have to try. The colors are just there.
This one is a decorator. He thought what this Bougainvillea needed was a splash of black and orange.
Since we do not regularly see them we assumed that the Redstarts were most likely passing through.
They had a friend and a lifer for us mixed in with them - the Black Throated Blue Warbler.
A super cool sighting when you can get your sights on them!
Other sightings on this walk were...
Downy Woodpeckers
Gulf Fritilary Butterfly
Hairy Funnels
Northern Parula
two Red-bellied Woodpeckers sharing a pole
White Peacock Butterfly
Brugmansia aka Angel's Trumpet Flowers
Resident Rabbit
Pretty
Plumeria
Fish Eagle bringing home the sushi
lots of tadpoles in the lake
As dusk approached a Yellow Crowned Night Heron followed us around.
We spotted some sizeable Magnolia flowers.
We were going to tell you about our visit to Possum Long Audubon Center just down the road from us but it seems we've probably already reached our photo quota for one post.
So, we'll just leave you with this....
