Cedar Key Sunday, March 9, 2014

Haven't gone through the pics to decide which one gets the coveted lead off spot, so I'll start with the photo I took to begin the day. Time stamp, 6:36 AM.  Or, 7:36, EDT.

Two shots from the balcony and I decided from the angle of the sunrise and my position, I should go outside.

 

 

 

Putting the sun behind the subject gives it a whole new look

 

 

Back on the balcony. I think if I was one room over, in my favorite unit, 331, I'd have an unobstructed sunrise.  But, its good to get outside. Speaking of which, after a hearty breakfast, I was on the water at 10:00

 Saw dolphins right away, but the only fish photo I got was in this cormorant's beak.

 

Yes, I know dolphins aren't fish. Poetic license.

Black skimmers and more on the sandbar at the entrance to the Number 2 Channel

 Which I was surprised to see.  Not the skimmers, the sandbar.  Two sources had high tide at 9:45.

If it was the high, it was not very.

 

 

 Linda Blair has nothing on this pelican's head spinning.

 Paddling past two clammers, on coming in, the other going out, I heard,  "Thought the high was at 10"   Even those who depend on the water for a living were surprised at how low it was.

 

 

 

 

 

 Distant white pelicans. Too shallow to get closer.  Had to settle for buffle head ducks.

For now

 

That's a white pelican. Poor pic posted for foreshadowing.  A few of them flew by,  I guessed where they were headed.

 The dwindling white pelican flock

Eagle at Scale Key

 The reason the bald eagle looks so small

I had never paddled the Number 3 Channel from near Scale Key to the Gulf.  From Gulf to the Number 3 Brdge and on to the Number 2 Channel once.  Several times cutting past the wreck, into the channel, than to the Number 3 Bridge and "home" 

I thought I may find the pelicans.

 My guess as to where the white pelicans were headed proved correct. Unless, this was a another group

Not sure if there was an eagle in the big nest on the Gulf side of Scale Key

  

 

 

Into the Number 2 Channel, because, like a box of chocolate....

First time I have seen white pelicans near the wreck

 Probably thought I was stalking them

 

 

Landed at noon.  Ate lunch, then bike to Sandy's Produce for dinner fixin's

 Got to Sandy's, did not have my wallet.  Although  a mention on Dave's Yak Tales has to be worth at least 50 bucks, I went back to get it.

Opportunity for more photos

I did not buy produce.  Clams, bay scallops, and a stick of butter

 Last pic from the bike, 3:13, first pic of the afternoon paddle, 3:27.   Not a bad transition.

 As often happens, I set out with no real destination in mind.  Thought about paddling to Snake Key, but it was sort of windy, so I paddled around Astena Otie Key

The crowded side of Astena Otie, an easy paddle from City Beach

Snake Key

I stayed with circumnavigating Astena Otie

Landed to try for a better view of the nest

Got a better view of things in the water, like this horseshoe crab, as I waded.

Shell in hand, empty.  Shell on sea bed, alive scuttling along, "legs" on the bottom.  Leaving a track, something I never thought about a shell doing

 No eagles, for the moment.

 Back in the yak

Eagle?

Has landed

As did I.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I began the paddle thinking, I'd go out, come back, eat and paddle again for sunset. That changed to paddle, eat, and bike for sunset. Finally I said, I'm out here,  the sky is clear, water calm, I'll stay out

Into the Number 2 Channel

 

 I was taking the photo of the ibis, planning to turn around for "my" white pelicans

When they took off

 

 

 

In the tiny cove at Old Fennimore Mill

Tiny, but bird packed.

Back crowned night herons. 

 

 

 

 Let the sunset begin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Landed at 7:45

Dinner served at 9