Saturday Night Hockey

What a night for a hockey game. Temperatures in high 70's, low humidity, a slight breeze. It doesn't get any better then this. We got downtown early for some dinner at Gilligan's, and to sit and relax outside to enjoy this picture perfect weather. This was our second game of our five-game pack, and we were looking forward to seeing one of our favorite teams, the Montreal Canadiens.

	1	2	3	T
MONTREAL CANADIENS	0	1	0	1
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING	1	1	1	3

After the game, met up with our friends Jodi and her boyfriend, and headed over to Dave Andreychuk's Bar & Grill for some drinks. While we were there, we met the captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tim Taylor and he was kind enough to autograph our tickets. All in all, a great night for hockey in Tampa Bay.

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Hemingway Cats Are In Trouble

One of the most disturbing things we learned while on vacation in Key West was the story about the trouble that the Hemingway cats are in, where they may have to be removed or caged at the Hemingway Home.

We have been to the Key West several times the past year, and each visit we spend at least two days at the home, for in our opinion, is the best attraction on the island. We recently spent a week on our annual Christmas vacation, and of that week, we spent two days at the Hemingway Home, and enjoyed it greatly.

We enjoyed spending our time at the home on each visit, and more importantly, spending the time with the Hemingway cats that roam the grounds. In all honesty, it's the cats that make the visit so enjoyable, and without them, it just won't be the same. All of the cats are very well taken care of, and look to be very happy, healthy and carefree despite the claims brought against them.

Here is a reprint from the Key West Citizen about the case brought against the Hemingway Home:

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Museum's Suit To Classify Cats Dismissed

KEY WEST - The 50 or so six-toed cats that wander lazily through the grounds of the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum are oblivious to the legal wranglings surrounding them, or to the complaint filed by a former museum volunteer that would have them caged or removed from the property.

On Monday, a federal judge dismissed the museum's lawsuit asking the court to declare whether the museum cats are a regulated entity, and are therefore subject to the Animal Welfare Act, which would require them to be caged.

"The act only applies to animals in commerce," said Cara Higgins, an attorney representing the museum. "These cats are not being sold or distributed, they live at the museum and they die at the museum. Some of them are 19 years old. This comes from one disgruntled former volunteer who was asked not to return, and who has cost the Hemingway Home and Museum tens of thousands of dollars."

Debra Schultz, former vice president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and a former volunteer at the Hemingway House, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2003, claiming the museum was violating the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates animals in commerce, Higgins said.

The USDA, after sending investigators to see the cats, subsequently filed a complaint against the museum that has spawned a legal dispute as to whether the cats fall under the federal act intended to protect animals.

"The judge did not rule that what the USDA is doing is correct," said Higgins, an attorney with Horan & Wallace, the Key West firm representing the museum. "We haven't even gotten to that issue yet. The judge just said that we are not allowed to sue the federal government. We weren't suing for money or damages, we just wanted an opinion about whether these cats are regulated."

Higgins also pointed out that Schultz was asked not to return to the museum because she was taking it upon herself to spay and neuter cats on the property.

"And she then took it upon herself to contact the federal government to come in and regulate the Hemingway House," Higgins said. "This is becoming more and more ridiculous. They're saying they're not going to be happy until the cats are caged or gone. These are local animals and the local government should regulate them, not the federal government."

Schultz could not be immediately reached for comment late Tuesday.

Attorneys for the museum have 30 days to file an appeal against the Monday ruling, but they still have to contend with the administrative complaint filed by the USDA, which will be heard by an administrative law judge.

In the meantime, Michael Morawski, one of the museum owners, said they are considering their options and the museum remains open for tours. The cats are free to move about the property — for now.
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This is a tragedy, and we hope that the cats will forever be associated with the home as Ernest Hemingway wanted. You can help by signing an online petition to let your voice be heard. Click here to sign the petition, or send an email of your support directly to the Hemingway Home at info@hemingwayhome.com, and thanks for your support. The kitties also thank you.

Bald Eagles

Last weekend, I took a drive to southern Pasco County to see if I could find a nesting pair of Bald Eagles that I heard about. The weather wasn't all that great, so I decided to give it another shot since the weather forecast called for no rain and blue skies. So I rolled out of bed at 7am to see what I could find.

When I got to the location, there they were. One was sitting in the huge nest, and the other sitting on the same snag as I saw him last weekend. I brought the big glass this time, so I was guaranteed a frame-filling shot of these beautiful birds. The weather however was once again the spoiler, as only briefly was the sun popped in and out of the clouds, and once in a while I was rewarded with blue skies.

In any case, this location looks to be a sure bet to get some incredible shots, both poses and action shots, now I will just have to wait for everything to come together.

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UPDATE: Blue skies, sunshine, warm temperatures were just what I was hoping for, and today it arrived. I headed back up to southern Pasco County bright and early, and I was able to get some real nice shots of the Eagles this time. When I got there, I didn't see either of the Eagles, but I knew at sometime they would come back. After a while, the female popped up from inside the nest, and then flew over to her favorite snag right in front of me.

She sat there for a while, then the male flew in with a fish to the nest. Then all of a sudden up pops a newborn chick. The male was eating the fish, but also feeding some to the chick and ducking down. I was confused, for why was he doing that I thought. Then, he moved, and I then saw another chick that was behind him that he was feeding. Wow, what a great sight, although it was over quickly, as the chicks returned back deeper into the nest.

Later in the morning, both the parents flew off, and returned to sit in the same tree not too far from the nest, so it was awesome to see them both side-by-side to gauge their size, since the female is larger then the male. All in all, it was a great day of watching Bald Eagles!

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Day Seven: The Shot Part Two

It was our final day of vacation, and we hoped to make every last second count. When we left Key West, it was raining, so it was looking like we weren't going to be able to stop anywhere for any last photo opportunities, but it really didn't matter, for we had a great time on our Christmas vacation.

When we got up past Marathon, the rain stopped, so when we reached Grassy Key, we stopped at the Dolphin Research Center to spend a few hours watching the many Dolphins they have at the center. When we arrived, we were informed that they just had three newborn Dolphins, all less then a month old. This was going to be awesome to see the little ones, and we hoped to at least get a photo or two of them. Little did I know that not only would I get a shot, I would get The Shot Part Two.

Just as I did a few weeks ago in the Everglades, I set my focus on a spot on the lagoon where the Dolphins were playing, and waited for the action. After a while, I was rewarded with another shot I could of only dreamed of, where the mommy Dolphin was "showing off" her new baby for the visitors, and was playing with her by bringing her to the surface right in front of us.

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Click Here To View The Shot
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We stayed a couple of hours at the Dolphin Research Center, and then made our way back to Shark Valley for the evening to find another amazing sight. Just down the path past the visitor center, we came across the largest Alligator in Shark Valley, a 14-foot male as he was sunning himself on the banks of the water. Then, not too much further on the other side of the path, we came upon a female Alligator that had just given birth to a couple of dozen babies, and they were piled up all over, even on top of each other.

We ended our vacation in the Everglades as we watched the sunset go behind the roosting birds that came back that night, and was a great ending to a great vacation. Time to plan for our next adventure for sure.

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Day Six: Color Explosion

For our last full day in the Florida Keys and Key West, and since it was going to rain all day, what better place to end the vacation then at the Key West Butterfly Conservatory. We made our way down to the Southernmost Point on Whitehead Street to spend the afternoon in an explosion of colors of the thousands of butterflies they have at the conservatory from all over the world.

Here is a tip for anyone who visits exhibits such as a Butterfly Conservatory: Place your camera gear outside at least an hour before going inside. I forgot that the conservatory was VERY humid, and since we ran the air conditioner at the hotel the night before, as soon as I took my camera into the exhibit, everything fogged up. It took over a half hour for the equipment to stabilize in the humid environment, and something I have ran into before on days when the humidity gets very high, especially during the summer months after our afternoon rains.

We spent a majority of the afternoon photographing and learning more about the numerous butterflies in the conservatory, and had a great time. After, we walked up to the Southernmost Point buoy, and then made our way down to the Audubon House to wait out the pouring rain that was going over the island.

We ended the day with dinner at Sloppy Joe's and a quick walk down Duval Street, and the colors from the neon on the wet pavement made for some very interesting colors down Duval Street. Going home tomorrow was going to be tough, for we had another awesome time in the Keys.

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Day Five: Little Paws

Today was going to be our rest & relax day, and what better place is there then the Hemingway House to play with the kitties. This time, we saw more then we saw a few days ago, and we had a blast. There was several very young black & white six-toed kitties that was just fascinated with us, and followed us everywhere we went on the property.

Since there was not a lot of visitors, we went out into the courtyard and just sat around, and all the curious kitties followed us, and we played with them for several hours, chasing acorns, leaves, string and just tumbling around. One was so curious with my camera, she stuck her face in the lens shade to get a closer look at me when I was taking her picture. She was always trying to paw my lens, and I got a few real great shots of her interacting with the camera.

We spent almost the entire day just exploring the grounds, and also got to know some of the tour guides as they told us stories about the history of the house, and how it has survived the numerous hurricanes over the years. It was a great way to rest and just enjoy the island life for a day, and something we looked forward to all week.

We ended the day with dinner at Sloppy Joe's and a quick walk down Duval Street, and before we went back to the hotel, we stopped by the Key West Aquarium to enjoy the numerous displays of tropical fish, sharks, stingrays and other creatures. It was a perfect ending to another perfect day.

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Christmas Hockey In The Bay

Going to a hockey game is awesome, but there is something strange when we go and it is still in the 70's outside, and most are wearing shorts and tee shirts. But hockey in Tampa Bay is just that (not that I am complaining or anything!).

	1	2	3	T
NEW YORK RANGERS	2	1	0	3
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING	0	0	4	4

Dan Boyle of the Tampa Bay Lightning had three goals and an assist during Tampa Bay's four-goal third period and the Lightning rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Rangers on Saturday night. It was the second time we have witnessed a hat-trick, with the first one was by Alexi Kovalev when he was with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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Wild Turkeys

A few months ago, we got a five-game ticket pack for the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey, and today was our first game of the set. We left a little earlier to have dinner downtown, and as we left, at the top of our street we spotted something we have never seen before, a pack of six Wild Turkeys.

The Wild Turkey is found throughout Florida and they prefer a mix of mature hardwood or pine forest with open areas like grasslands, pastures, or fields. In Florida, Wild Turkeys also nest in pine flatwoods with dense saw palmetto understory. Wild Turkeys are both excellent swimmers and fliers.

This was just another example of why Florida is amazing place, for I never expected to ever see one of these, much less a whole pack of them right outside our door. They just walked around, pecking for food, then walked across the street and disappeared into the dense woods. Simply amazing.

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Spoiled

One thing is for sure, if one loves wildlife, especially birding, then Florida is a nirvana. It almost makes one feel spoiled, but lucky at the same time. Today was a prime example, whereas I read about some Bald Eagles that nest in southern Pasco County, so I decided to get up early and see if I could spot them.

I honestly wasn't expecting to find them, much less be able to photograph them even if I did, for they are sometimes hard to find, and can be elusive. So with not very high expectations, I headed up to the Anclote River area, map in hand, to see what I could find.

Well, when I got to the area where they were spotted, there they were, and very close to the road. I was floored, for this was a great opportunity to photograph them in the wild, not too mention see first-hand one of the largest Eagle nest I have ever seen. Photos don't do it just just how massive this structure is.

The weather was completely overcast, so I knew getting real good photos were going to be a challenge, but I happily snapped away as they paid no mind to my presence. Then my luck changed, for about ten minutes the sun broke through the clouds and I was able to get some real nice shots, so I made sure to take advantage of this brief ray of sunshine.

After awhile, I went to Anclote River Park, and found an active nesting pair of Ospreys, and again even though I had grey skies, I managed to get some decent in-fligh shots as the pair came back and forth bringing nesting materials to ready it for this years offspring.

All-in-all it was a great morning, and this area will be heavily visited over the next several months as I found this area one heck of a great place to photograph.

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Day Four: Explorers

We have always wanted to check out the Middle Keys, and what a better time then now to explore them, so we set our course for Marathon for a closer look. As we drove up, we stopped at Deer Key to find the little Key Deer, and endangered species of deer that is only found here on this little island and nowhere else in the world. We have seen them numerous times over the past several days as we made our way up and down the Keys, but didn't see them during daylight.

Our first stop was Sombrero Key to see if we could find a small nesting community of Burrowing Owls, which after some trial and errors, we finally found the beach to where they were supposed to be. When we got to the beach, we learned they were removed when the park and beaches were created, which was somewhat of a disappointment, but wow, what a beautiful beach. We put it on our list of places to come back to in the summer to go swimming for sure, for it was a really nice beach.

Our next stop was the Sombrero Country Club and Golf Course, and we were promptly told to leave, for they were not interested in us taking photographs, and they were a bunch of stuck-up snobs. Let's just say I won't becoming a member anytime soon.

Since it wasn't looking promising of finding the little owls, we headed over to Crane Point Hammock to go hiking on the preserve. We didn't find much action, except for another Broad-wing Hawk who took off as soon as he saw us, but we did manage to spot Magnificent Frigatebirds, Osprey and one of Florida's larger spiders, the Banana Spider.

We made our way to the end of the trails, and stopped to have a snack as we looked out into the Gulf of Mexico, and we were bum-rushed by a couple dozen or so Sea Gulls who dove in to steal our food. It's amazing that you will see none of them as far as the eye can see, but as soon as you take out some food, they come out of nowhere. I got some nice in-flight shots of a few as they were coming in, so all was not lost.

We had one last stop to make, which was Key Colony Beach, and we found two Burrowing Owl nests, one on a Par 3 Golf course, and the other one right outside the Key Colony Police Station. We never did see them, as we stayed well after dark, but all in all, it was another great day, so much in fact, on the way home, we had to look up what day it was, for we totally have lost all sense of time and place, which is a good thing.

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Day Three: Bahia Honda

The night before, we were talking about what do today, and we wanted to go to our favorite key, and the best beaches in the Florida Keys, Bahia Honda State Park. When we woke up, I looked out the hotel window and saw hundreds and hundreds of Turkey Vultures flying over Key West, and I got some nice shots of some as the flew right over the top of our hotel. After the spectacle, we packed a lunch and our beach gear, and made the thirty mile road trip to the park for a day of fun and relaxation.

We got to the park right around lunchtime, so we had a picnic lunch with a front row view to the old Seven Mile Bridge. After lunch, we took a walk down by the water, and came across huge amounts of Coral Rock, and found a treasure trove of fossils exposed on the rocks. They were perfectly preserved from maybe hundreds or thousands of years ago when this entire area was once a part of the coral reefs in the keys. We even found all kinds of snails all over the rocks, and some of the coolest impressions of Brain Coral we have seen to date.

We then made our way over to the old bridge, and I found some very unique and interesting angles to photograph from. We followed a trail up to the top of the old portion of the bridge, and what a view it is from up there. 360-degrees of pure bliss of the islands and aqua-colored waters that surround the islands. We even saw large fish jumping in the channel, and a ton of Portuguese Man-o-Wars just floating by.

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Click Here For A Panoramic View Of Bahia Honda
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Even though I wasn't looking for birds on this trip, when the opportunities presents itself, I take full advantage of it, and I was able to photograph up close my first American Kestrel and Broad-wing Hawk around the old bridge. I just wished I had better weather and blue skies, but I'll take them any day.

As the night was rapidly approaching, the skies lit up some of the most intense reds, blues, purples and oranges I have seen while down in the Keys, and made for some awesome photo opportunities from the beach looking back at the bridge. It was a fitting end to another day in paradise.

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Day Two: Hemingway Kitties

For our second day, we agreed to head on over to our favorite place, the Hemingway House to see the kitties. Without a doubt this is our top choice of places to visit in Key West, for we usually spend all day at the home, playing with the kitties and enjoying the beautiful architecture and grounds at the home.

We made our way down Whitehead Street, and we stopped first across the street and toured the Key West Lighthouse. We didn't stay too long, but I did climb to the top and took in a panoramic view of the island, and what a view it is.

We made our way across the street to spend the rest of the day at the Hemingway House, and we just relaxed and had a great time. We saw many of the some fifty cats that live on the property, most of whom are Polydactyls, which means they have six toes, usually found on one of their front paws. Some cats even have been said to have as many as eight.

About an hour before nightfall, we headed down toward Mallory Square to have dinner at Sloppy Joe's, and while we were at the square, I came across one of the friendliest Pelicans I have ever seen. I started to take some photos of the many that were sitting around, and one just never moved. I was able to use my ultra-wideangle to get about two-inches away from him, and he just let me snap away. I sure attracted a crowd as I was lying on the ground right in front this Pelican. Everyone was amazed as I got some extreme close-ups.

Since it was getting late, we made our way up to Sloppy Joe's for dinner, and had my favorite, Chicken Fingers. After filling up on a ton of food, we finished up the day with a stroll up and down Duval Street, doing some window shopping and snapping night photos all along the way. It was a perfect way to end a very relaxing and carefree day in paradise.

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