The warm(er) weather and bright sunshine made for a beautiful visit to the beach. I think I have featured Blowing Rocks here before, but the colors were especially vivid this time around.





Some more from the zoo.











In other news, I have got a lot of travel coming up in the next few weeks so blogs may become (even more) sporadic. And, next weekend is the annual PhotoMarathon in Miami Beach, which should be a lot of fun.

Its hard to believe that this blog becomes three years old soon. Time has flown by in a truly scary way. Its fun to go back to old posts and see what I was doing this time last year, or the year before. So much has changed!

For the past few years we have visited the Miami Metrozoo around my birthday. It was a beautiful day and a welcome break from the hectic pace. And finally a chance to get out in the sun with temperatures in the 70's and blue skies. Wonderful.

I have plenty of photos to sort through but here is a random assortment to start with.

Yep I am edging ever closer to the dreaded 30... a terrifying prospect.

Last week I visited Green Cay for the first time in several months. Human "snowbirds" were flocking in incredible abundance, but I still had a nice time.

A small cotton rat crouching in a corner of the boardwalk went unnoticed by most passers by.


I had fun chasing this little pied-billed grebe. It would dive and I would scoot around and guess where it would pop up. It didn't seem bothered by me as it stayed pretty close to the boardwalk the entire time.


Lots of wintering waterfowl. A pair of blue-winged teal posed obligingly for me.




Still water.


Green winged teal and ever-present moorhen.


This is the same snag that I often end my Green Cay posts with. Usually a wood stork or anhinga is present, on this day there was a large flock of grackles.
A male boat-tailed grackle displaying.