On the Water
Today was beautiful in Southwest Florida. I was having a rough day. For a very long time every day was a rough day. Now some days are okay. But today wasn't one. I decided I needed to do something to take advantage of this amazing day and maybe it would help to get out.
So after doing the TV duty at the church this morning and cooking and eating another meal alone, I got the little jon boat ready to go and headed out to a little island not far from where I am living and working. My thought was to sit there by the channel in the river where all the boat traffic from the Fort Myers area to and from the Gulf passes by and just watch boats. A lot of the water around here is very shallow and boats must stay in the dredged channels. It ends up kinda like a boat freeway, absurdly crowded at times.
I saw a few million dollars worth of power boats, which did little for me, and some beautiful sailboats that I enjoyed seeing under way. But something quite magic happened. There was a “manatee zone, go slow” sign less than a hundred feet from where I was sitting with the usual osprey nest on top of it.
A couple of osprey showed up there soon after I did. One was acting a bit strange and at first I thought there was something wrong with it's wing. Then I realized these were young and today they were learning to fly. They would awkwardly flap their wings and climb on top of each other. One would get up on the back of the other, spread it's wings, and then raise it's feet and levitate up into the breeze. They did quite well once in the air but the takeoffs and landings were a little hairy. It seems the process has a bit in common with people learning to fly airplanes: It's mostly about the takeoff and landing. I had a front row seat to a great show. I tried to use my binoculars as a telephoto lens for my point and shoot camera. It didn't work very well but here's a photo anyway.
On the way home I saw a pair of eagles flying around and then landing in a tree. Sorry, no photo. The water got a bit rough at that point and my hands were busy driving the boat. Then I saw a few dolphins. They are very hard to photograph as they often appear for just a moment and then they're gone. Unless you're on a really big boat. Then you can sometimes get shots like this.
So after doing the TV duty at the church this morning and cooking and eating another meal alone, I got the little jon boat ready to go and headed out to a little island not far from where I am living and working. My thought was to sit there by the channel in the river where all the boat traffic from the Fort Myers area to and from the Gulf passes by and just watch boats. A lot of the water around here is very shallow and boats must stay in the dredged channels. It ends up kinda like a boat freeway, absurdly crowded at times.
I saw a few million dollars worth of power boats, which did little for me, and some beautiful sailboats that I enjoyed seeing under way. But something quite magic happened. There was a “manatee zone, go slow” sign less than a hundred feet from where I was sitting with the usual osprey nest on top of it.
A couple of osprey showed up there soon after I did. One was acting a bit strange and at first I thought there was something wrong with it's wing. Then I realized these were young and today they were learning to fly. They would awkwardly flap their wings and climb on top of each other. One would get up on the back of the other, spread it's wings, and then raise it's feet and levitate up into the breeze. They did quite well once in the air but the takeoffs and landings were a little hairy. It seems the process has a bit in common with people learning to fly airplanes: It's mostly about the takeoff and landing. I had a front row seat to a great show. I tried to use my binoculars as a telephoto lens for my point and shoot camera. It didn't work very well but here's a photo anyway.
On the way home I saw a pair of eagles flying around and then landing in a tree. Sorry, no photo. The water got a bit rough at that point and my hands were busy driving the boat. Then I saw a few dolphins. They are very hard to photograph as they often appear for just a moment and then they're gone. Unless you're on a really big boat. Then you can sometimes get shots like this. 
They like to play in the wakes of big boats.
So I got to see some beautiful stuff today. It helped pass the afternoon and took the edge off the ache in my chest.
posted by wingman at 10:34 PM
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