Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 48F / Hi 69F (9C / 21C)
Our plan tonight was to go see the holiday cheer at the Jacksonville Zoo, but with rain in the forecast for the early evening, we decided to save the admission fee and go another night. Those plans may have been rained out, but our “let the day unfold” plans for the daylight hours made for a stellar day that started out with a pod of dolphins, continued with some unexpected and exciting wildlife sightings, and concluded with more dolphins.
The dolphins looked like they were playing, but they were probably feeding.
Since we have some exciting Christmas Day plans that will require a bit of driving, we decided to stay close to home today and explore the hood, so to speak. But first, Mui wanted to wash the toad, so the fun portion of our day didn’t start until 10:30a.
With Christmas Eve declared a holiday by President Obama, NS Mayport was fairly dead today. We took advantage of the fact that there would be little traffic on the roads to trike around and see what we could see, starting with a ride to the far side of the turning basin.
We first triked around the perimeter of the turning basin (blue line), then went for
a meandering ride around roads near the salt marsh (red line), and concluded
with a walk on the beach (green line).
The ride from the campground over to the far side of the turning basin was a little over 2.5 miles (4 km). With the roads empty of vehicular traffic it was a fun ride that gave us a close look at some of the ships that homeport here.
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The Phaeton is right across from where we’re standing on the far side of the turning basin;
in case you don’t believe me, I zoomed in for a close up.
The bow of the USS Hué City is decorated with a “welcome home” lei; this is the ship
that returned from deployment on Wednesday (post here); the two ships in the
top right photo are the Roosevelt [left] and the Gettysburg.
From here we retraced our path partway, and when we got to the intersection with Massey Avenue, we zigged onto Maine Street and headed towards the Main Gate. Our goal was to find the entrance to the salt marsh, but when it looked like the path I had spied was going to take us off base and into traffic, we zigged again to check out the SH60-B that stands not far from the entrance.
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According to the marker nearby, “The SH60-B aircraft was one of five prototypes used
to develop the Light Airborne Multi-Purpose Systems LAMPS Mark III between 1980 and
1984. The aircraft was delivered to the Navy in 1985 and used extensively until 1997,
accumulating over 13430.20 flight hours. … It was presented as a monument to the
significant role Mayport played in the development of the LAMPS system. The aircraft
was placed in this location on July 16, 2o11 to honor the men and women who
served in Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Enduring Freedom.”
Detail from the etching on the granite base of the marker.
We were about the head home when I suggested we check out a road that branches off Maine Street. It turns out that the road runs parallel to a ditch that attracts some of the wildlife from the salt marsh. Even the golf course on the other side of the road had its share of white birds — looked to be cattle egrets — foraging in the grass. An interesting feature of the road was all the “welcome home” signs alongside it — I’m guessing for the sailors who returned from deployment aboard USS Hué City.
Welcome home indeed!
Riding this road was a fortuitous decision. Why? Because we had some very exciting sightings along the way. The trikes allowed us to approach the wildlife slowly and quietly, which ensured some close encounters.
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Wood Stork — our first time seeing them in the wild.
Great Egret … as opposed to a …
… Snowy Egret
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Juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk
[correct me if I am wrong]
The most thrilling sighting of the day was purely happenstance. Had we not stopped to check out some egrets and a tri-colored heron fishing in a pond, we never would have seen the — drumroll please — BOBCAT sneaking out from the ditch and into the bushes. Unfortunately, he was moving fast, and was behind a locked gate in a no-trespassing zone, so we didn’t get to see the bobcat for long.
Blurry or not, this photo of the bobcat is a keeper. Yeah, I know; it looks like a
house cat, but you’ll just have to take my word that it isn’t.
Oh, and the "bobbed" tail is proof, too.
After glimpsing the bobcat, we headed back the way we came to go home. But first, I had to stop at a spot on Maine Street where there were seven wood storks aimlessly wandering. Don’t be fooled by the chain-link fence in the background, these guys were roaming free in an area between two fenced-in yards. They were tolerant of me photographing them for quite a while, but eventually they one by one flew off to parts unknown — my signal to re-join Mui for the ride back home.
North America’s only native stork, the Wood Stork is sometimes called ironhead
or flinthead in reference to its featherless, dark-skinned head.
We saw our share of ospreys throughout our ride. Our best sighting, though, was the one that was perched on a wire high above the intersection leading to the campground. I’m especially glad the temptation to click the shutter was strong and the camera was ready … and that we were on the opposite side of the road …
… when this osprey decided to answer the call of nature …
… Before taking off with a flurry of flapping wings.
You would think that four hours of riding around would have been enough for us. But after putting the trikes away, and enjoying a cup of tea (and some of Mui’s poğaças), we were inspired by the sun that finally showed its face to go for a walk on the beach.
It might not look it, but the tide is coming in … in a short two hours, the visible
strip of sand will all be under water.
We made the most of the two hours we had before high tide. I was good and kept the shutter clicking to a minimum so as not to take away from the exercise value of our brisk walk. Until, that is, a woman photographing the shorebirds asked me if I knew what they were. Of course, after having a nice chat with her, and her husband, I had to take a few photos of the birds, too.
Black Skimmers and Ring-Billed Gulls
Royal Terns … double the pleasure.
On that note, we retraced our steps back to beach access #1 and returned home — this time for good.
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Those who know me, know that I can’t pass a mural without clicking the shutter.
I’ll leave you with a message from the beach. I have no idea who the Jones family is, but we decided to add our names to the sentiment when we saw their note etched in the sand.
An ephemeral message that will be washed away by the incoming tide is
the only acceptable form of graffiti.
And on that note … enough words and photos for one post.
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