Huricanes, Bird Watching and the first week after release.

When this comes out, it will have been one weeks since the release announcement for Treasure off the Coast on Amazon! It’s so very cool, fun, and nerve wracking to have a published book out in the world. It was incredibly, positively, humbling to see people I know react to the announcement on social media and share it with friends and family. If any of those people find their way here, they have my express gratitude!

I’m not half as good as I would like to be keeping up with people, and half again worse at appreciating the people I should, but it is encouraging, nay heartwarming, to get such a reception to the book announcement. (Enough so that I’ve unironically used the word: nay.)

Book launches are weird. It’s nice to know that I have other people to share that experience with!

But enough about the book! Go read it! (and review it if you like it, or critique it when you find the glaringly obvious spelling and grammar error that I didn’t notice)

This isn’t a blog about writing. (Except when it is.) There is enough promotion for the book on the website! And a blog maybe 1.5 people will read is not the appropriate place to thank those I need to (which is everyone.) So I will reserve those thanks for equally unread portions of the world, (like book prefaces and later blogs,) and hope that I can see some of those I need to thank in person.

Besides, there are bigger things happening this week: Hurricane Ian.

I, mostly, wont write about that here. The keys were fortunately spared the brunt of the impact this time. Which, unfortunately, means another region was hit hard. But this blog also isn’t the place to call people to action, or direct anyone to services for help, or to volunteer. You have the bounds of the internet, if these are your interests explore them. (Read: find more reliable sources for hurricane and hurricane relief info.)

If, however you want to read one dummy’s observations about a certain colony of birds, you’re in the right place.

I think some effects of hurricanes are obvious. And we are, rightfully, focused on the human impact. This is your opportunity to investigate those more reliable sources previously mentioned.

Once you are done. I wanted to write, briefly , about another impact of hurricanes as personally observed, and without too much depth.

The day after Ian had passed, dad pointed out a bird flying overhead. A frigate bird. You might recognize them as the shadows on the front cover of Treasure off the Coast. They are a pelagic bird (meaning they mostly stay out at sea,) which fish for food, or bully other sea birds into dropping their catches. They have massive wingspans compared to their bodies, and distinctive forked tails. The males have ridiculously red puffy chests.

I like them because they look like pterodactyls.

If you make it out to the Dry Tortugas, you will probably see them gliding overhead like kites. They like to nest on remote islands far from shore.

See where I’m going with this?

There is a colony nesting on Long Key in the Dry Tortugas. There is not, as far as I know, a colony on Big Pine Key. I rushed upstairs and saw that there wasn’t just one frigate bird. Not just two or three. The one dad had pointed out was trailing a flock of frigates in the sky. (Funny if you imagine the ships.) I counted somewhere between 20 and 50. (I’m lazy. I didn’t actually count.)

They were flocking west over highway 1.

While the Florida Keys were spared most of Ian’s worst effects, the Dry Tortugas were much nearer the eye of the storm. Blown east, or having fled, I believe that dad and I managed to catch the tail end of Dry Tortugas’s Fleet of Frigates on their return home.

There’s not a symbolic point to that story.

The Dry Tortugas is closed, for now, until they can assess the damage, and insure that it safe for visitors to return. However, it’s nice to know that at least some of it’s residents have returned.

I didn’t manage to catch a picture of the Frigate fleet (they were too far away) so you will have to settle for a grainy picture of their nesting island on Long Key. There’s also a sea turtle in this shot. It’s impossible to make out.

Look up a picture of frigate birds. The males ruby throats are funny. (I didn’t include one here, because I don’t have any.)