Sapelo Island, Part II

Finally!  Between changing platforms and just preparing more pictures (taking lots of time but I'm learning TONS about Photoshop, though I try to avoid heavily editing most pictures) it feels like it has taken forever to post something new.

So I feel like this should be subtitled the birds and dead sea creatures entry.  There are lots of bird pictures-and a few dead sea creatures, though not as many as I originally thought.  I guess when you take four pictures of the same jellyfish it seems like so many more!  Yes, I find nature fascinating-dead or alive-as some have the (dis)pleasure of knowing.  I am one of those few people who could actually stare at a jellyfish floating in a lab all day, observing its behavior and noting any changes.  And be excited about it!

But anyway...on to the pictures!  I'm pretty sure most of these came from our second day and only full day on the island.  They are pretty much just snapshot quality but there are a couple that are kind of cool.  We spent the morning on the southern end of the island where we visited the main beach, Nanny Goat Beach, and biked around the UGA research facility.  I actually think all of the following are from the morning.

Birds!

 

And I lied...the following picture was taken the morning of our last day but, hey, we're doing birds!  It's funny but since I've moved to PA where you see eagles semi-regularly (especially if you know where to look!), I've become almost complacent about seeing them.  It's always awesome but not as jaw-droppingly amazing as it was at first.  

In fact, when I was regularly Schutzhund training with Corvus, I developed my own "sport" superstition.  If I saw the 322 eagle in its tree on the way down, it would be a good day of training.  If it wasn't there, it wouldn't be such a good day. 

As with the first beach, Cabretta Beach, Nanny Goat Beach had its share of sea life washed ashore.  More horseshoe crabs, of course, as well as several species of jellyfish.  Here are a couple...though there was a really neat completely clear kind as well.  However, by the time I saw those I was starting to wonder what one would do with so many pictures of jellyfish.  Oh well.

We did encounter something new that neither of us thought to take a picture of!  It's called "sea pork" and is, scientifically, a globular colony of  tunicates (which are filter feeding organisms).  The ones we saw looked like egg-shaped purplish-black blobs that had the same texture as, say, Jello.  Look them up!

So the rest of the pictures are some random scenes from the south end of the island including Reynold's Plantation and the beach.

I found the plantation to be too touristy (aka there were actually people there!) so this is the only picture of it I have.  It's big, it's obnoxious, it's a plantation.  The pool is empty because apparently alligators find it provides excellent living conditions.  We didn't go inside but allegedly it is quite unique-Mr. Reynolds had things like a bowling alley in the basement and a circus-themed room for entertaining (creeeepy).  I totally get why people would have wanted an estate here, though.

You know, I love shrimp boats in action but it is usually so hard to get good pictures of them from shore.  I actually have a couple of decent pictures from a couple of years ago...I'll have to show them on a Throwback Thursday or something.  I can get good shrimp boat pics, really!

This sign was near the UGA facility where I photographed that rickety bridge in the pics above.  Okay, I get the do not feed, harass, or...throw at alligators?  Throw...?  Rocks?  Yourself?  It's like a Mad Lib!  Do not feed, harass, or throw______ (plural noun) at alligators.  

And apparently this is what I looked like the whole trip!  Haha!  Notice my strategically worn UGA backpack.  My thought was that if we ended up somewhere we weren't supposed to be this backpack, combined with me poking dead sea life with a stick, would make it seem like we belonged!  Fortunately, we didn't have to test this theory.

So I owe a Throwback Thursday post tomorrow but I'll probably keep it super short to focus more on the last Sapelo pics and moving on to Savannah!