DIY PHOTOGRAPHY - USE A TOILET FLANGE FOR ELEVATED VIDEO WHILE KAYAKING

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Two of my favorite pastimes - kayaking and photography. Note that in the first video, the kayak is a Swifty - ultra stable and mine is yellow!

Looks like something I should look into. Maybe you should, too. It's too high to get your camera splashed.

A beautiful short film on kayaking by Sean Mullins called "Birthright"

BIRTHRIGHT from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.

Yesterday's paddle...

I am determined to practice self-therapy on my ailing arm by kayaking. So that's what I did yesterday. For four hours in perfect weather. I saw a baby alligator about three feet long, basking near the bridge, helped a young family of three get back to the fish camp when their motor
wouldn't start, visited the fisherman under his favorite cypress snag. He was catching fish - had three or four lines out. I tried to creep up on him for a picture - he was asleep.

The jetskiers were tearing up the swamp at the end of Econfina, but there were fewer boaters in quieter craft on Bear.

The weather was perfect. I got a little burned - but for the first time I wore a fishing cap to keep the sun from my eyes.

I'm getting good at sneaking up on sunning turtles. I am in love with the little dime-store turtles called red ears. I had one as a kid who met the fate of most from improper diet and lack of heat and vitamins. I remember the day I returned him to a little creek and watched the current take him downstream. I remember that vividly. Now I just love to see them on lilypads or stumps.

In the shade, mostly under trees, whirligig beetles are gathering, living their twirly lives
on the surface.

Damselflies are back, and the dragonflies are beginning to populate the air. I had seen a lemon yellow one last week but it flew before I had a chance to whip out my camera. Yesterday, one decided to hitch a ride on my shoulder for about a mile, and my flash card was full! Can you believe that? I've never seen them before. Had I fiddled with my camera and deleted some images so that I could photograph it, for sure it would have left. So I just enjoyed its company for a little while. I think it's Randy Emmitt who has a wonderful photo of many damsels in a row, mating on a stump. I am hoping to see that someday.

The alligators are finally grunting which means breeding season is here. Now I will be ever watchful.

The morning is cool and sunny,

without a cloud in the sky.

I haven't seen both Bald Eagles much this week - just one, once - and it flew over the swamp too far to catch with my camera. That flashing tail as they use it for a rudder, is unmistakable. The other day I had my little camera with me across the street and in flew a Great Blue Heron. The camouflage was great. Even his beak was the color of dead cattails. Then two fisherman came down the creek and it flew. I couldn't catch it decently.

Yesterday I was out on Bear Creek - just for a short paddle - in among the submerged cypress stumps and ghostly dead trees that were alive when the creek was dammed in the '60s. I startled another blue heron, picked up my camera in a waterproof case, sun in my eyes, snapped the shutter button and took a picture of... ME! I was so angry and embarrassed at myself.
(It's a funny photo, though.) Got some pretty shots.

When I headed up the canal for home, I heard the gator grunt. He lives here on this canal, and predictably, he was grunting from somewhere in the cattails and bulrushes to my left. He is always there. I have heard descriptions of what happens to the water around a grunting male.
It vibrates and sets the water to dancing. I want to see this someday.

And then I think of that sunning female who came off the bank as I was paddling last year and scared the bejesus out of me.

Kayaking is a wonderful way to exercise your upper body. I have pain in my arms, neck and shoulder from a rear end accident. When the pain won't stop, I take a short paddle. You don't have to dip the entire paddle into the water to move easily. I find it helps a lot, and works the same muscles that the physical therapists recommended I try to strengthen.

I saw the Red-shouldered hawk sitting in one of the silver snags from the water. I thought it was an owl. It called, sending his message over the water and it left for a large pine on the shore across the water. Almost immediately, another flew over my head. I saw them both on a branch in that pine. Reason to believe that soon there will be more.

March 1, 2008 - Paddling, meatball party, the flood and beavers...

Today is the first of the month. Time to make the meatballs for the party. We have one every month on the first. It's heartworm prevention day for the dogs.

I'll also be adding some photos of the flood and some from yesterday's paddle. I couldn't get all the way up Econfina to the lake, because two fisherman came back down as I was paddling up to tell me there was a "big log" they couldn't get over. I said, "No problem for me," since I really can get over a log, but it was a little chilly. Then I saw it. There is a pine tree that's been submerged or floating for a while - no branches, and it is securely wedged right across the creek. I have a feeling that maybe the flood or current didn't put it there. I think it's the work of beavers. I saw their chews just before the flood, and I wanted to check them out yesterday. They just want the lake to get bigger! I'm sure big, brawny guys in their boats will get out and move it. Had it traveled down the creek with the current, it would have moved parallel to the movement. Our county hates beavers, and will not use humane excluders when they try to dam.