Winter Escape! Day #5: Wildlife

Today, Monday, at Hilton Head Island, the high was 66 degrees, the humidity was 97%, pure fog in the morning, misty the rest of the day.  Peggy chatted with her son back in Lexington, Kentucky: there was a layer of ice covered by 3 inches of snow with temperature in the twenties. (Boo Hoo!) 

In the morning, I borrowed Peggy's bike and had an invigorating ride on the trails.  Everywhere are signs, as below.

Who, in their right mind, would attempt this!!

There are bridges over the marshes on the trails.

While biking, I saw an egret, for the first time, in the wild.  It stood still long enough for me to snap a photo.

It isn't visible in this photo, but the egret has very long black legs - perfect for marsh walking.

Not far down the trail from the lone egret was this trio of turtles with their heads poking up, motionless, on a log.

In the afternoon, Peggy and I took a long walk on the beach.  Four or five dolphins were playing and jumping close to the shore.  I tried to snatch a photo of the dolphins, but they were too quick.  On the sand was an actual, live Sand Dollar.  It was light brown, soft.  I wondered what to do with it and Peggy counseled, "It looks live. Toss it back into the water."  So I did. Four pelicans were flying close to the water for a very long time.  Pelicans are everywhere near the water on this island.

These are the pelicans that were entertaining us.  The waves again were very slow and low today.

To the left of this seagull is a trio of sanderlings.  They are very, very quick!  It was the first time I had seen sanderlings.  Their long skinny beaks resemble the probiscus of the mosquito.

We walked until we reached the swings area, off the beach.  The old-fashioned porch swings were all occupied but we decided to avail ourselves of the rocking chairs and wait till someone left a swing vacant.  Some folks were just sitting in the swings and reading.  We felt we would like to put signs on the swings, "You Swing or You Leave!"  Finally, we sharked out a swing and enjoyed ourselves - swinging!  By the time we reached home, we felt the need to sit a spell!

Tonight, we're planning a quiet night of pizza and watching a rented video, "Captain Phillips."