Wildlife on the Island

I've been spending a few minutes every few days to see if I can capture some of the wildlife on Jekyll with my camera. This has been marginally successful. Squirrels abound here in the campground, and you'd think that they would be an easy mark. But they seem to be somewhat camera shy, and my longest lens (450 mm) is just barely long enough. Plus, then tend to hang around int eh shadows and move a lot, making exposure difficult. I got a lot of pictures of squirrel tails leaving the scene. And they absolutely refuse to smile. But I managed to get this one.

Seagulls abound on the island, too, but not in the campground. I caught these two sea rats waiting in a parking lot for a handout. I'm not sure why a seagull would prefer soaking his webbed feet in a puddle, rather than dry grounds, and he's not talking. Unfortunately, for me, seagulls have their pictures taken way too often, so unless I capture one with a fishing pole, or using a laptop, it will be a fairly ordinary picture. Still, it's practice.



Raccoons are also plentiful here, not as plentiful as squirrels or seagulls, but they are regular daily visitors. This one didn't realize that Thumper was lurking under our motorhome and got a little too close. When he was alarmed by the barking and snarling teeth chasing him into the road (cut short by Thumper's leash reaching it's full extension) he scrambled up a tree. Six feet up a tree seemed pretty safe, until I showed up with my camera and blinding light to further confound a quiet night of carousing in the campground. Funny, the more pictures I took, the farther up the tree he scrambled.

There's a lot of cardinals in the campground. There's a "bird sanctuary", a portion of the campground where feeders have been hung for the birds. They tend to be skittish, and the mirror flop on my camera tends to keep them alert. But if I stay far enough away, I can get a few images of them hopping on the ground.

There's other wildlife here besides us. I'll keep trying to sneak up on them and get a few snapshots.

Through the Holidays

Lunch in the RV

The holidays are long over. As Craig Ferguson would say, "I know!" But I've either been having too much fun or too busy to write to my blog readers. So, here we go again.

On December 19th we drove from Jekyll to Naples, FL, about 450 miles, all in one hop. We stopped for a long lunch, and I got a short nap, but it was still over 8 hours on the road. We had a reservation at a pricey campground there, a first for us as we have driveway camped until now. But I think it worked better for us and everybody else.

One of the first tasks we had to attend to was getting our dog Thumper to the vet. She was dragging her right rear leg, and the vet diagnosed this as a disc problem. She go steroids and muscle relaxants, and now she is using the leg, but dragging her claws some. I have to help her into the motorhome, and she's nowhere as active, but still likes lots of petting and dog treats.

Naples is the home of Consuelo's sisters and their families. We invited all of them out to see our newer motorhome, and one day we hosted lunch.

Flo playing cards

Of course, we had a couple visits with my aunt Flo, who snowbirds with friends from Wilbraham, Massachusetts, my old stomping grounds. No matter how hard we try, she always beats us at the card game. It's a little depressing.

We had Christmas dinner at Jen and Gabe's town house, which represents a generational shift. There was too much illness going on at Consuelo's sisters homes to do the event. We had to bring our own food (I baked a turkey), chairs and tables, but we had a wonderful time. Jen and Gabe will be getting married in April, and we'll return down there for the wedding.

Titi's 85th Birthday Cake

After Christmas, we convoyed across Florida to Delray Beach, and celebrated Consuelo's Aunt Titi's 85th birthday. Consuelo got to see some of her family who live in the Miami area, which she doesn't get to do very often. She got caught up with Titi and Lolo, as well as their kids and grandkids, and he uncle and cousins. She also got a chance to see her stepmother Sara. I was there, but focused on the football games, which turned out to be a big disappointment.

Consuelo, Uncle Nono, Maria, Carmen

We stayed overnight in Delray Beach, then headed out the next morning to head back to Jekyll. Driving to Delray cut about 80 miles out of the trip back, so it was more manageable.

And we got back to the Jekyll Campground 3 days ahead of our reservation, once again upsetting the campground manager. It's our favorite trick, because we like it here so much.

We've now been back here over 2 weeks. We're getting rain today, which means indoor activities, like blogging.