Hup...two...three...four....

Mama Sandhill Crane appears to be calling cadence as she marches her new chick around a residential yard near Stuart, FL recently.

We believe the adult is mama because her partner made his disapproval quite evident about her giving her lessons in such close proximity to humans.

Typically, she appeared to ignore him.

Actually, this cavorting pair was about 50 feet away from us and my cellphone camera.  The photo was cropped rather severely...and, the birds are commonly seen in neighborhoods such as this.

In fact, Sue watched traffic grind to a halt on a very busy US Highway 1 near Vero Beach recently as a pair leisured their way safely across the road, completely ambivilent to the restrained urgency of the pesky humans.

BIG cactus

On the same outing featured in yesterday's blog we came across quite a few of these giants growing in a nature area generally north of Lake Wales, FL. These sub-tropical habitats are full of visual surprises.

US Air Force
Thunderbirds...

in a vertical, formation climb at the Tico Warbird 2017 Airshow in Titusville, FL, March 11.

This precision demonstration team is led by Lt. Col. Jason Heard who has more than 3,000 hours of flight experience, 788 of them in combat.

The 40th year airshow opened with the Tiger Aerobatic Team parachuting a giant US flag as the National Anthem hushed the patriotically attentive crowd.

Also featured were an aerial dog-fight between Snoopy and The Red Baron flying samples of their famous WW-I bi and tri-wing airplanes.  ...and a F4U Corsair ...and a P-51 Mustang; the latter two a couple of the finest warbirds ever designed in this writer's humble opinion.

You've seen a precision marching band explode into it's next formation.  Here's how it looks when the Thunderbirds start that process with flight at low-level and mind-blistering speed.

*            *            *

GEOCACHING POTPOURRI--

We heard our geocaching colleague groan as we exploded our own formation of bush-searching, geocaching style before she could get into position for the shot.  Naturally, we recreated it in the interest of artistic expression...and I immediately found the little cache container almost in front of my nose.

Moments later as we had paused for a rest-break along this caching walkway near downtown Lake Wales, FL we were treated to a visit from a friendly family of Sandhill Cranes.  That's mom and pop and two chicks (below) also enjoying a shady pause in their day.

On this caching outing Sue and I along with our caching friends GOC+me were guests of mutual

caching friends Bill and Diane near Kissimmee, FL for a three-day romp in their area which featured the Trek Ten Challenge of hides in local nature areas.  That challenge wound up at the Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, FL itself a featured vacation destination.

Another highlight of our visit was my achieving my 5,000th geocache find
which turned out to be a very specialized kind of caching event in which Bill and Greg specialize called "Whereigo" caches.

The three couples of us were together in southern OH two years ago for a bicycle/caching outing during which I celebrated find #3,000.

It is the vast array of cache types combined with the wide-ranging locations of the hides and the fellowship of enjoying the hobby with classy friends that make me truly thankful I discovered this activity just 5 years ago with Ohio local friends, Mark and Nancy.

WoooHooo!