Payneful Doctor Visit

Yesterday was my semiannual regular checkup day with my perky dermatologist.
Pretty normal visit, but this time she did slice off a bit of me to send away for a closer look-see.
I was in and out of there in about 30 minutes. This skin doctor and my child's pediatrician are about the only doctors I have ever had that do not make you wait forever in a waiting room.
God bless 'em.

So, the check-up wasn't really painful at all, nor was it long, and before I knew it, I was sitting in Burger King sipping a pretty good coffee and checking my email ... and of course, Pure Florida.

I didn't stay long in the realm of the King since it was a chilly (freezing) morning and I was free for the day. There were a few other appointments on the docket, but the morning was mine.

I pondered a few options and then headed for the Alachua Sink portion of Payne's Prairie State Preserve.

A few minutes later, I was walking out on to the prairie, expecting to find sunning alligators, but there were none. It was such a cold morning that the water was warmer than the air (heat capacity!) and the few visible gators had only their snorkels exposed.
Pictures of that later.

There were birds though ... lots and lots of birds.
Herons, egrets, hawks,anhingas,sparrows, warblers, ducks, coots, gallinules, ibis,vultures, bitterns, cranes ...

Ahhh, C-R-A-N-E-S!!



The honking crane soundtrack was audible anywhere you walked on the elevated dikes that jut into the prairie. They were everywhere ... to my left, to my right, and flying overhead.



And ... I seemed to be the only person in the park, save for a crew of state prisoners renovating the observation tower far off in the distance.
What sweet duty that must be compared to being in the jail or picking up roadside trash.

The closest flock of cranes were still a hundred yards away and just inside a thicket of dead brush ... not invisible, not very visible, but somewhere in between.

Oh well, we take what we can get with critter photos.
I blasted a bunch of megapixies for just a few shareable photos, but every once in a while I managed to stop time in an acceptable way.

I like this trio.

Yes, it could be sharper and brighter, but I was pivoting and tracking with the little Sony's zoom maximized.

I was very glad I had thought to attach my monopod ... really makes a difference when you are zooming in, and it's easy to carry and maneuver, unlike a tripod.

As you might imagine, I spent a lot of time near this flock of sandhills. Every so often a group would lift off and cross over me, or an incoming group would circle and flare, flaps down, for a landing with the bush birds.

I'm not sure what the food source was in there, but they seemed to be actively feeding.

The pair below flew up out of the sandhill bush flock and flew over the dike to my left.

They were strikingly different from the sandhills and I had time to get one shot off before they slipped out of sight.

Whoopers.

Are those not whoopers?

Did I luck out or what?

Just the day before, I was listening to an NPR (local) interview with an ultralight pilot who is leading a flock of ten whoopers on the annual migration flight from Wisconsin to Chassowhitzka NWR, just south of PF.

And the next day, I get to SEE whoopers!

Sara N. Dipity, I love you.