Bougainvillea 3-6-12

The bougainvillea bushes are mammoth at the Sanibel Moorings.

 

Red bracts which are specialized leaves surround the miniature flowers.

 

The flowers have a pink tinge to the edge.

Flower and bud.

Jan and Jack 3-2-12

Jan's brother Jack came for a brief visit.

 

 

At the Lighthouse Pier.

 

Portraits at the Bech

The usual suspects showed up for the Beach party.
John and Joan Linden

Anne's mother Margaret.

Anne and Jerry Shea

Mary and Dave Miller

Egg Case Chain of the Lightning Whelk 3-2-12

The egg case chain of the lightning whelk (Busycon sinistrum) is the most common egg chain on the beach and can measure up to four feet in length. The female whelk may spend more than a week laying it and attaches it to a pebble or shell buried in the sand. The egg chain may bear 50 to 180 cases and each case may hold from 20 to 200 embryos which will then go on to produce more lightning
whelks.

Beach Concert 3-2-12

C.W. Mundy, artist and bango player and his group played a Friday night beech concert.

 

Even the pelicans gathered to listen.

 

Orchids 3-2-12

Orchids thrive at this time of the year.

 

 

Hibiscus 3-2-12

Hibiscus grow bountifully at the Moorings in exotic colors.

Osprey on Sanibel Island 3-1-12

This osprey (Pandion heliaetus) is sitting just outside our deck at the Sanibel Moorings making quite a racket. Osprey are also called sea hawks, fish eagles and fish hawks. Pandion was a mythical Greek King of Athens who was transformed into an eagle. We see them at this time of the year with huge fish in their beaks

flying back to the nest.

 

This osprey is on a nest in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. (An elderly ladyat the Ding told me that they didn't have any picnic tables there because they were arefuge not a park.)

There was a medieval belief that fish surrendered to the osprey by turning belly up.

For instance, Shakespeare wrote:

             I think he'll be to Rome

             As is the osprey to the

               fish, who takes it

             By sovereignty of nature.

                    Coriolanus IV.V.

New Lens: Canon 100mm Macro 2-2-12

These are images of "Happy Bears" or "Six Footed Bears" taken from my collection of Inuit walrus ivory carvings with my new lens.

NEW BOOK : The Blog of Don Sessions 2011 2-1-12

Happy New Year,
I have published The Blog of Don Sessions 2011 which contains the best of the Flower for the Day
submissions from last year. It also contains 50th Wedding anniversary images and other family fun.
If you would like a copy it is less expensive to purchase it from me as the Blurb Bookstore does not
have as good a discount as I get.
It is snowing this morning and we are starting to pack for a Sanibel Island trip.
Don
http://donsessions.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-of-don-sessions-2011.html