I took a Trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida

I took a trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida for a series of concerts from my most favorite Music Group, Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone himself as Herman.

Herman's Hermits were my favorite group as kids in the 60's and I rediscovered Peter Noone at Epcot many years ago, performing in their "Flower Power Concert Series", I have been hooked ever since.

I am a card carrying member of the Peter Noone's fan Club Knows as Noonatics. I just spent 4 fun filled days at Busch Gardens with two nights of dinners with the Noonatics, and it was pure fun.


My Peter Noone Albums: Peter Noone Albums


Peter does 3 shows a day, they are about 45 minutes each, starting at 11:30am, that is early for a Rock and Roll Band, but we love it, we get to get in line to wait to get in and visit and hug and take pictures of each other, then we get to sit together inside the Stanleyville Theater and take more pictures get a 45 minute concert, and then re-PETE *R* TWO more times and take lots more pictures. Then start all over again, the next day. We also get in the autograph line and say Hi to Peter and have things signed.



I have another Album of Peter Noone Pictures at Noonatics.com
Peter Noone albums at Noonatics.com

I stayed at a friends and we did the beach the first day before the 4 days of concerts, then I stayed a day after and took a side trip to Disney World, it was only an extra 15 miles out of my way, it looks more than that on the map, but it is not.

FUN FUN FUN
--
Diane
Smile! It's contagious!

A day out with my mom and we headed to the beach

Last week I took my mom to appointments in the town south of us and we headed towards to beach after, our beaches are a little in disrepair from the hurricanes and north Easters we have had in the past 4 years, one of the nicest beaches is closed, the dunes had been ruined and the walk ways, and the parking lot, but we did find a few Beach's to stop at and one even had a ramp, I pushed my mom up the ramp in her wheel chair and down to the beach to see the gorgeous ocean, my current wall paper and title picture is from that day last week, February 10Th, 2009.




This is an island in the Indian River, between the main land and the island at the Ocean, a bunch of birds, looked like mostly Sea gulls hanging out. I am sure the island is only there for low tide, the inlet is just south of this area.



Another Bird I spotted in a tree on the River's edge, an Osprey, he was in a dead tree, I have never seen them before this year, and NOW I spot them all over our area, it is nice to know these big birds are making a come back.



There was also some Kite surfers in the water, this one was the closest to us.

Here is the rest of my pictures from that day. I just love the blue water and the blue sky together.
My pictures.

I am heading out of town for the rest of the week.

Diane

Wild Birds in my area of South Florida

I love to take pictures of birds, or any animals, I recently started filling up a bird feeding in my front yard, only problem is I am on the other side of a few bushes so branches get in the way and It is hard to focus my camera on the birds on the feeder.



This is a male Painted Bunting


a female Painted Bunting
I had never heard of a Painted Bunting till I saw these birds and looked them up, they are very small only about 5 inches.


Blue Jay


red-bellied Woodpecker


male Cardinal


Two Male Painted Buntings on the feeder.

I have also been lucky enough to be in the right place a few times and take pictures of Osprey's, they are huge birds in the same family as Eagles and Hawks.


I spotted this Osprey near my area.



This one seems mad that I stopped the car near him.

There are a few bald Eagle nests in my area, I was able to watch a live cam on the Internet last year of a bald Eagles nest that was probably 10-8 miles south of where I live, it was so neat, they hatched two eggs and grew up two baby's, then one of them received a tracking device, and we have been able to track her, Birdie, when they finally left the nest about May and traveled north, she was in Virginia for a while, then headed back to south Florida and has been around the area, give or take 60 miles, since about December. Young bald eagles are all black, no white head or tail for about 3 years.

I was in a Wal-mart parking lot last Friday, and a full grown Bald Eagle (white head and tail) was cruising on over head, just looking around and flew off to the south, that is the FIRST time I have witnessed such a thing, one time we were travel north to Disney World on the turnpike, and a full grown ball eagle was traveling south but my glimpse of him was minimum, I was driving could not see it, but it was grand.
The nest in our town is in Tesoro, a gated community, they were generous enough to pay for the web cam last year, but Tesoro is amongst the dying now, with our bad economy, and have filled bankruptcy, so no camera this year.
Nesting bald Eagles mate for life, they make the nest and both watch the eggs, then take turns feeding the baby's, then when the baby's are taught how to survive, they leave the area alone, and come back to nest again in December, I do not know if these two are back, no one is allowing the bird watching people on the property at this point, there is also 2 other nests in St. Lucie County where I live.
Birdie is still sending signals, and they post her places every month or so. Click to see the site.

This is her latest track.




Diane