Navarre Beach Trip - Monday, August 31, 2020

After a busy day yesterday, we decided to take it easy this morning.  It was a perfect morning to enjoy coffee and breakfast leisurely on the balcony.  Because of COVID-19, our hotel didn't have their full hot breakfast but had breads and pastries, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, coffee and juice which was enough.  

Then we headed out to the beach.  I decided to try something a little different this time and not drag along my big DSLR camera, so the few photos I did take this morning are all from my iPhone.  

We walked about 1.5 miles down the beach, away from all the hustle and bustle of condos and hotels and found a quiet part of the beach where we could lay out.  We tried using the cheap umbrella we had just bought at the grocery store but within moments, the wind picked it up and took it down the beach.  If a kind gentleman hadn't stopped it, we never would have caught back up with it.

A black skimmer with a group of laughing gulls

A couple laughing gulls practicing social distancing

Here is a small crab that was playing peek-a-boo with my husband as he lay out.  So my husband named him Timmy and took a short video of him.  We kept seeing glimpses of larger crabs but never could get a photo of one.

Sandpipers

The Navarre Beach Fishing Pier - the longest fishing pier in Florida

Our hotel

With dew points in the upper 70s and highs in the 80s, mid day gets pretty oppressive outside so we took the chance to enjoy some down time in the room with plans to get back out to the pool or beach again when the sun was a lot lower in the sky.

We went back down to the beach during the golden hour, before sunset to try and get some more bird photos but a 76 degree dew point with a temperature of 83 degrees created some humidity issues with my lens that took a lot longer than normal to defog.  So I will end today's post here and enjoy the gulf breeze on our balcony as the last light of the day fades away.

Tomorrow we go home, but not before trying to figure out where all the pelicans hang out so I can photograph them.  So far I have only seen them flying in the sky at a distance.

Navarre Beach Trip - Tuesday, September 1, 2020

 We set the alarm early so we could be on the beach in time to catch the sunrise.  With a dew point of 79 degrees and a temperature of 82 degrees, I made sure to put my camera equipment on the balcony to acclimate while we got ready.  And even with doing that it took a while on the beach until the lens was fully defogged!

The clouds are what made this morning's sunrise especially beautiful.

Once the sun was up, we stuck around to photograph the birds and crabs in the beautiful golden light.

Laughing Gull

A tern - I think it is a Sandwich Tern

Brown Pelicans

Sandwich Tern - Just before he grabs a fish from the water

Great Blue Heron

Laughing Gull
Ready!

Set!

Go!

Wilson's Plover and a Sanderling

Wilson's Plover and a Sanderling

Wilson's Plover and a Sanderling

Wilson's Plover and a Sanderling

Little crabs like this one burrow in the sand.  You never know when one is going to pop up and say hi.

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Then we grabbed some breakfast and went back to the room to enjoy a leisurely breakfast on the balcony.  There wasn't as much of a breeze and the humidity was high but I still loved sipping a cup of coffee in the salty air near the gulf.

Before heading out of town and back home, we made one more stop at the Navarre Beach Marine Park which has some walkways out to the beach on the Sound side of the island.  Here the water is calmer and the beaches are less crowded.  I only encountered one family as I was walking along but discovered quite a few new species of birds (well new to me at least!).  

Willet

Greater Yellowlegs

Short-billed Dowitcher and a Greater Yellowlegs

Short-billed Dowitchers and a Great Yellowlegs

Short-billed Dowitches

Great Egret hiding in the grass reaching for something...

Reddish Egret (white morph)

Reddish Egret (white morph)

This might be a Solitary Sandpiper but I am not completely sure.

Great Blue Heron

Juvenile Black Skimmer

Juvenile Black Skimmer - practicing yoga?

Juvenile Black Skimmer

Laughing Gulls

I had hoped to photograph a pelican or two here but only saw one, flying over, after putting my camera away on my walk back to the restrooms.

It was so good to get away for a few days.  Unfortunately, now it is time to get back to reality.  I'll just have to starting dreaming of our next trip to the beach.