Winter Beach

The Fuzz was looking through some of the stuff from last year and came upon this shot of a nearly deserted beach last winter.

So from the archives…

A Winter Beach

Osprey

During his time out on Topsail Island, The Fuzz got a chance to see types of birds that we don't have here in the Carolina Piedmont.  One of such was the Osprey.

Now "Ospreys" were mentioned in a previous post.

But this was a whole different thing.

One afternoon The Fuzz was out and about with a bike and a book.  To be truthful, as nice as Topsail Beach is, there are not really a lot of places to hang out in the off season.

This day Our Fuzz had rode over to one of the public access sites on the sound.  As he was reading he became aware of a fairly large bird that wasn't a gull landing on a nearby piling.  Alas, uncharacteristically, he had no camera with him.  But he did have his binoculars!

And he spent a good while watching this obvious raptor finishing off it's dinner.

Back at the hotel, he looked it up in the "Bird Book" and found that it was the namesake of that unique aircraft.

But then sometime later he had returned to this same bench - this time with a camera.

And although he certainly didn't expect it...

Look who was back!

At first he had not noticed it.

But as he watched the activity there in the bird world, he saw what had their attention.

It seems that everyone wanted a piece of the action.

But they weren't gonna get it.

Some of the disappointed ones were these Fish Crows.

The Fuzz had seen these guys around but didn't know exactly what there were.  They reminded him so much of "normal" crows, but they were just too small and sounded just a little different.

But in the "Bird Book" he saw why.

They were crows... sorta.

But this post is about Ospreys!

None of these moochers seemed to bother our raptor.

He just went about his business of dinner.

And then took off!

Of course he took the rest of his dinner with him.

Looks like his neighbors will have to live with disappointment this time.

And The Fuzz watched as he crossed over...

...And went back to his home in the marsh.

That kinda made the day for The Fuzz.

And this time he got the pix too!

 

And The Fuzz thinks you might like to see these "Fun Facts" below.

 

 

Some "Cool Facts" from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology  

 

Cool Facts (Ospreys)...

  "Ospreys are unusual among hawks in possessing a reversible outer toe that allows them to grasp with two toes in front and two behind. Barbed pads on the soles of the birds' feet help them grip slippery fish. When flying with prey, an Osprey lines up its catch head first for less wind resistance."

"Ospreys are excellent anglers. Over several studies, Ospreys caught fish on at least 1 in every 4 dives, with success rates sometimes as high as 70 percent. The average time they spent hunting before making a catch was about 12 minutes—something to think about next time you throw your line in the water."

 

Cool Facts (Fish Crows)...

"Fish Crows are inveterate nest-robbers, raiding the nests of many kinds of waterbirds and songbirds, as well as finding and digging up the eggs of turtles. They also harass and steal food from crows, gulls, ibis, and Ospreys."

Morning Flight

Morning Flight at Topsail Beach

The Plus Side of Rain

While The Fuzz and His Sweetie have been happy with the weather during their stay on the island, it might have been a little disappointing to folks who only had the weekends available.

That was when most of the rain occurred.

The streets were pretty much deserted.

But once the rain had passed The Fuzz was back out for his morning stroll.

And rain does have it's plus side.

There were some remnants of the rain in puddles on the ground.

The Fuzz hasn't given up on his quest to photograph the Moon yet.

Here he found a reflection of it in this rain water.

In fact those puddles were a great photo opportunity.

And here's a look at this Topsail Beach Icon.

 

Tomorrow is the end of the month, and the end of this stay at the beach.

The "off season" certainly has it's good points.

Maybe The Fuzz will be back again next year.

That would be nice.

Two Towers

Actually this post has nothing to do with the Lord of the Rings or anything of that sort.
But still, towers.

When we got here to Topsail Beach there were a couple of these towers, right next to each other.
So...

One evening The Fuzz was out and about, and chanced to meet some of the town workers.

He remarked that there had been a lot of activity lately in the area behind the fire department/town hall.

This was also the location of these 2 towers.

They told him that they were preparing to remove one of them.

It seems that tower "B" was only temporary, which explains the apparent redundancy.

In fact a crew was coming to work on it in the morning.

The Fuzz chatted a bit and it was pretty much agreed that none of them had any desire to climb up there themselves.

The Fuzz didn't think much more about it.

The next morning, while The Fuzz was out for his morning walk, he saw a crane arriving.

Then as he and His Sweetie were on their way out for a trip over to the Big City, they saw this out of the window.

Then, she drew his attention to the fact that there was a man on top of the tower!

Now this was something one does not see every day.

(Unless I suppose one is in the business)

Naturally at this point The Fuzz grabbed his camera and went out looking for a better vantage point.

And then he realized the man on the top was not alone. 

There was a second guy below him, halfway up.

He worked his way up and around.

And hung up his bucket of tools...

Then went up to join his partner.

It was a long way up.
As interesting as this was, The Fuzz and His Sweetie did have a sort of schedule for the day...

And these guys seemed to have things in hand.
So they left them to their work.

By the time they got back that evening, Tower "B" was gone.

The next morning the crew was out there bright and early finishing up the job.

But this time they got to stay on the ground.

They were even taking up the base that was under the tower...

Loading it up...

And carrying it off.
Later, The Fuzz watched as the crew headed  on out of town.

 
  

  

Night Shot

The Fuzz has been attempting to make a picture of the Moon for a while.

He has not been satisfied with the results.

Take this one for example.

In a way it's not so bad.

But this was taken over the pier in the afternoon!

So the other night, when the moon was full, he made another attempt.

His Sweetie had wanted to have a look from the beach where there wouldn't be so much light pollution from the town.  So The Fuzz went along and brought his camera.

And again, things just didn't work out.

But he did get this nice pix of the pier in the moonlight.

And if you are inclined toward silly poems...

Here's a link to a recycled one.

Or just keep reading

⇓

A Trend ?

While here on the island, The Fuzz and His Sweetie had made a deal on bicycle rentals for their stay.

And as The Fuzz was feelin' a bit restless, and the day was so pretty, he decided to ride up toward the end of the island.

Actually, not quite the end- but the end of the road in this case.

There's a little beach there on the sound side for folks to enjoy.

While he was sitting on the bench watching some fisherpersons...

He saw these guys over across the water.

He figured they were doing a bit of fishing.

Then his attention was drawn away to other things.

It's no surprise to both regular followers of Kinda Fuzzy that The Fuzz has a thing for attempting to photograph birdies.

And here were a few.

But he wasn't quite sure what they were.

So he tried to zoom in just a bit more.

It wasn't until he booted up the computer that he could finally make them out.

Meanwhile on the other side...

The "fishermen" had landed.

And then he noticed the tripod.

Looks like the "Fishermen" were not fishing-

Or men!

Apparently, The Fuzz was not the only one loose with a camera this morning. 

Could this be a trend?

 

Another Fine Morning

Well, it's another fine morning out here on Topsail Island.

The Fuzz made it out for his usual Morning Beach Walk.

It has been a little colder these last few mornings, but that's fine.  After all, it is still March.

Later he and His Sweetie are planning to go over to the Big City to take in a movie and have dinner.

And so...

It looks like that's pretty much all for this post.

Things What Goes Up

The Fuzz may be a long way from his Home in the Woods these days, but Topsail Island is still part of The Old North State.

And even if some yankees might want to dispute the matter North Carolina is...

"First in Flight"

It even says so on our tags!

And those two Yankee Boys went to a lot of trouble just to get here so they could work on their little project.

And while Topsail is not Kitty Hawk, there are still plenty of things flying around out here.

Like these guys.

And they are good at it.

But just off the northern end of the island are the Marines at Camp Lejeune.

And they are pretty good at this flying stuff too.

You see their choppers all the time.

Sometimes you can even get a look at these odd fellows.

The V-22 Osprey.

In fact there's all kinda stuff up there these days.

A few days ago around sunset,  The Fuzz's Sweetie called him to the window.

What now?

Looks like flying can be a bit simpler than what the Marines were doing.

Kinda looks like fun!

And then he flew off into the sunset.

See...

The Fuzz did manage to sneek in a pix of the sunset after all!

And then a couple of mornings ago, whilst Our Fuzz was out for his morning...

This strange thing.

There was a guy out there flying this Drone...

...First one The Fuzz has ever seen.

Looks like high tech has hit the beach.

 Well be that as it may...

The Fuzz still likes to watch these guys.

They make it look so easy.