Big Pink birds, eagles, and a clam relatively cool day in the Tolomato River

Thursday and 747.4 miles to go. Still in Florida, defrosting the fridge right now, waiting for ice to melt so I thought i would write this blog.

We woke to blessed silence, that is natures silence, a gray day with the promise of rain especially out in the Atlantic. We had talked about going out through the St. Augustine cut, but the big blob of yellow and orange on the radar was discouraging. Besides there were those big pink birds to watch. We pulled up anchor at 8 AM the first opening of the Bridge of Lions in Saint Augustine for daily traffic is at 8:30. We hung around a little waiting giving me time to take photos of the remembered skyline. On the way back down I am sure we will hook on to a mooring ball for awhile.

Through the bridge and out into the inlet with the tide going out, we were making up for lost time. The around the corner and back into low grass marshlands. It is surprising how green this grass is. The birds love low tide. We even had white pelicans. This stretch was a little trying on Tom, several places we would have 16' of water then it would poof be down to 6' or less. We bumped once but intrepid ICW people that we are we kept on going. We did hear a Tow Boat call where someone else was calling for help.... they found a soft spot and their propulsion was a little iffy.... made us chuckle

So now I am defrosting the freezer cleaning the fridge. Tomorrow hopefully we will have a car and get some fenders ( to replace the run away one from Fort Pierce) and add on some stores. Looks like our weather window is Sunday to Wednesday, so I hope the next blog is from another state.

early morning marsh calm

big pink birds

All spoonbills have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side. The moment any small aquatic creature touches the inside of the bill—an insect, crustacean, or tiny fish—it is snapped shut. Spoonbills generally prefer fresh water to salt but are found in both environments. They need to feed many hours each day.

Spoonbills are monogamous, but, so far as is known, only for one season at a time. Most species nest in trees or reed beds, often with ibises or herons. The male gathers nesting material—mostly sticks and reeds, sometimes taken from an old nest—the female weaves it into a large, shallow bowl or platform which varies in its shape and structural integrity according to species.

St. Augustine is a city in Northeast Florida and the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement and port in the continental United States. The county seat of St. Johns County, it is part of Florida's First Coast region and the Jacksonville metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 12,975. Th…

The Bridge of Lions is a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. A pair of Medici lions made of marble guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927 across Matanzas Bay. The lions were removed in February 2005 and returned in March 2011.

there be rain on the horizon Captain

Ft St. Augustine

Could not tell if this was a derelict fishing trawler, bird perch,
????

Storms in front of us and to the east. But what a sky

The roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) (sometimes placed in its own genus Ajaja) is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbillfamily, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in South America mostly east of the Andes, and in coastal regions of the Caribbean,Central America, Mexico, the Gulf Coast of the United States ^[2]^[3] and on central Florida's Atlantic coast^[4] Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge adjoined with NASA Kennedy Space Center.

The American white pelican rivals the Trumpeter Swan as the longest bird native to North America. Both very large and plump, it has an overall length is about 50–70 in (130–180 cm), courtesy of the huge beak which measures 11.3–15.2 in (290–390 mm) in males and 10.3–14.2 in (260–360 mm) in females. It has a wingspan of about 95–120 in (240–300 cm).^[3] The species also has the second largest average wingspan of any North American bird, after the California Condor.