V-Day, Anniversary, New Washer, Gators, Birds and THE DESTROYER

 

It has been since before the Hurricanes that I had seen the Gator at the pond at the Library.  Well...it is still there, and a little bigger than the last time I saw it.

Saw this guy who had fish bits to feed them...reminded me of the fishermen in Alaska who tossed fish bits out of their boats and the Eagles would catch them mid-flight and soar off.  Here (above) about a dozen pelicans gather around this lone fisherman.

 Of course, our little girl is always looking out to see what is going on.

One day I see this crane on a barge with two non-survivors of the hurricane.  

    

A few days later THE DESTROYER, ummm, barge had moved over to the other side of the boat ramp, and chewed up and removed boat rubbish to this garbage/rubbish for disposal. On its way over it must have swung by and got that boat that was run aground that I showed in my last blog and got it back into the water, or loaded onto a boat trailer...either way, it is gone.

Although I only got a picture of one Juvenile Eagle, there are two, and boy do they grow fast.  Google AI (artificial intelligence) says, "A young eagle, or eaglet, typically takes around 10-12 weeks after hatching before it can fly, a process called fledging, where a bird leaves the nest and takes its first flight; this involves a period of practicing on branches near the nest before fully taking to the air."  Well, I have seen other photos and clips of these two Fledging Eagles sitting on the nest flapping their wings, but nothing yet of actual flight...but that is coming real soon.

  

Of course, we always have a healthy population of Osprey around.  This nest has at least two, if not three, birds in it, as I can here them chirping when mom and dad are out looking for food.  I thought in the one picture had captured them bringing a fish to the nest, but it was nest repair material, or perhaps bugs in the Spanish Moss it has in its claws.

This is our Fisher & Paykel washer, with the dryer sitting to the left.  On Friday (10 days ago or so) Marcia was doing a load of rags/towels and the washer would not empty the water out.  Called a repair company that had fixed it before, and they said they would be out first thing Monday morning...which they did.  Bad news, the pump is no longer available as a OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and although cheap (his words) pumps are available on Amazon and other places, his company will not allow the repairmen put any parts in that are not OEM.  The washer has been good to us, it is around 20 years old, so we decided to replace it.  I had asked the repair man, a real nice man who even Indy liked, what type of washer he would get and without hesitation he said, "Speed Queen...they just don't breakdown."

 DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH A WASHER IS NOW DAYS????  Well, the low end, on sale, are about $500-$600.  The Speed Queen's are running $1,000-$1,600, depending on model.  GULP.  Bit the bullet, went to Famous Tate's, and got the middle level Speed Queen for just over $1,300 including taxes, delivery, and taking old one away, and a 5 year guarantee.  Saturday (4 days ago, 8 days after the breakdown) it was delivered.  Glad I didn't have my ICE t-shirt on or it never would have made it through the front door.  Because we did not need inlet hoses, they would not hook up washer with the old hose, but they did allow me, reluctantly, to attach the hose before he pushed it in.  I offered him $10 to screw on the two hose lines...no go...go figure...forget that tip!  Yes, that is how rude he/they were, AND, the dryer exhaust hose came loose and blew warm damp air into the condo as Marcia washed clothes yesterday.  Good news, our neighbor Mary had her two boys coming out, and today John was nice enough (and young and thin enough) to get it hooked up for us.  Now, as long as that dryer does not break, we are in good shape for years.  If the dryer needs to be replaced, we are in deep crap because finding a top loading dryer (easier for Marcia to use) will be a hard thing to do.

Yesterday we celebrated our 14th Anniversary!  Around 150,000 miles in a RV.  About 1,400 loads of laundry.  Over 5,000 dinners, same for breakfast, 50% less for lunches which we don't eat each day.  Oh, the list goes on and on...but we made it through the big unlucky "13" years, and headed for number 15!  For V-Day (valentines) we had a leg of lamb, and still have some left overs in the freezer of that...so we decided to have something we don't have very often...PIZZA!  My guess is that of those 5,000 dinners, maybe 100 of them included Pizza!

 

Florida's Winter is Over?

 

While west Florida had 5-6 inches of snow just a few days ago, it appears that Florida's Winter is just about over.  We woke up to 35 degrees this morning...Pensacola awoke to 30 degrees.  They nearly got up to 60 degrees, we got up to 64 degrees.  Look at the blue skies over our home area!  

The White Ibis were just eating it up!

That brown bird is a young White Ibis...the brown feathers will drop off, and will be replaced with white feathers...probably by summer.

The Great White Egret, or Great White Heron, is also a frequent visitor to the Library Pond.  There were 5 or 6 when Indy and I arrived, but all but one flew away immediately.  An Osprey flew through too...I have seen them quickly fly into the water, and take a fish out and fly away.  Very common thing in Florida...and now and then, you will see a fish out in the middle of the street, parking lot, lawns as every now and then they have a premature dropping of their fish.  That is when the Seagulls and Black Birds fight over the remains.

So, what got me to dig out the camera, charge up the batteries, and write another blog just days from my last blog???

Well...maybe it is this guy...could it be?  Is it??  I have not seen one in our area for a couple of years now... 

             

      YES it is...an American Bald Eagle!  And if there is one...

There is probably a nest...and this time of year, if there is a nest...

There is probably one in the nest.  Both male and female bald eagles stay in the nest to incubate and care for their eggs and young. But the female usually spends more time at the nest than the male.  My guess is, since the one out of the nest was not hunting, there are probably eggs in the nest...but it is probably time to hatch here real soon.  

As I have been taking Indy on her potty/exercise drives, I have seen many people, some with those HUGE LONG CAMERAS, taking pictures of the nest below.  I never saw any birds, but I knew there was something there.  And by the size of the nest, I figured it was an Eagle.

    

This Osprey Nest is a familiar sight in our area.  The female is very likely to be the one that stays in the nest while the male is out "fishing".  Sound familiar???  At least they don't need the newest and best fishing boat to "do their thing"!

She came out, spread her wings a few times, and sat perched looking around.  In this picture above she was staring right at me, her back is to the gulf (Gulf of America!!!!), causing the feathers on her head to stand up just a bit.  Again, did you all notice that blue sky we had today???

Here is a better picture of the boat that run aground during Hurricane Helene. 

This is what our week is going to look like.  Pretty soon we will be complaining about the heat and humidity again.