The annual Christmas Bird Count was conducted on the island yesterday. The National Audubon Society has been conducting the national count for over 100 years. We volunteered to do the count in our neighborhood, which we have done for a few years.

First, we took a quick drive through Ding. The photos below made me glad that Ding wasn’t our territory to count!

This pic below reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book, Are You My Mother?

The osprey nest below is beside Wildlife Drive in Ding. I love the looks that an osprey can give.

These captions were easy to figure out!

The first one - “Ok. I’ll keep watch on her while you go for lunch.”

“Yep, I’ve got her in my sights. Go now!”

“Hurry! She’s pointing that long lens at you!”

“Lady, you need to move along before he comes back. Nothing to see here.”

We saw a wood stork standing in an area with lots of floating dead fish from the red tide. It’s so upsetting to see all the dead fish at Ding and on the beaches. I tried to crop out the dead fish from the pics with the wood stork. He would walk along, pushing the dead fish out of the way with his beak, looking for living creatures.

I can’t pass up a good spider web glinting in the sunlight.

Then, back to our neighborhood to do our part of the bird count. We rode our bikes this year, instead of walking. Just after leaving our house, we looked up to see 5 Magnificent Frigatebirds circling overhead, with their 7 foot wingspan. They always remind me of drawings of a pterodactyl. They are awe inspiring to watch. They were flying so low that I could only get 2 in the photo at once. The male has a red pouch under his neck. A female has a white patch under her neck and belly.

We went around the corner and saw an osprey in a nest behind a home. I was taking her picture, as she became agitated while watching something in the sky.

She started squawking and took flight while keeping an eye overhead.

At the same time, my husband said, “Hey, there are two eagles right over our heads!” That was what had the osprey so upset. By the time I could focus on the eagles, the adult eagle had moved away, but I got a few pics of the other one that was almost an adult. Their head and tail feathers turn white between the 4th and 5th year of age. If that is correct, this one must be very close to 5 years old.

The bald eagle has a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet.

We were almost home when we saw an American Kestrel at the top of a tall tree. The American Kestrel is North America’s smallest falcon at under a foot tall.

The breeze fluffed up his feathers.

We also saw a few pileated woodpeckers.

And another osprey in the nest behind our next door neighbor’s house.

In Florida, you can take an orchid plant out of its pot, place it on a tree and tie it to the tree with some florist wire. Then, it will adhere to the tree and grow like crazy. No dirt, no water, just watch it grow.

We were at the beach at sunset last night to see the almost conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. They won’t appear as one until Monday night. The clouds on the horizon created one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever photographed.

The sun made it below the horizon, then we waited for the sky to darken and the clouds to clear.

The clouds cleared away just in time for Jupiter and Saturn to show up. There’s nothing to give you perspective, though. I really didn’t think that one through. But, here’s the photo, anyway. I took the photo before it was completely dark, so there were no stars shining in the sky yet.

And, of course, I had to get a shot of the moon before leaving the beach.