Anyone visiting this blog anew (and, the crucial bit, reading more than half of a single post,) might conclude that I seem to be fond of numbered posts, which isn’t exactly true even when there are, honestly, quite a damn lot of them. And it hasn’t stopped yet – I mean, aside from the weekly Profiles posts and the occasional repeating topic like On Composition, I still have at least three others in the works. This is largely due to yet having too little to shoot where I can branch out a bit, so I’m maintaining content without a lot of current input. But take it from me, I feel bad about this, really, really bad, and will be correcting it soon. Like, you know, how Betelgeuse is going to go nova ‘soon.’ Sometime in the next half-million years or so…
I thought I had a topic that I could exploit a little here, since today is the 118th anniversary of the founding of the first National Wildlife Refuge, which would be Pelican Island NWR, near Sebastian, Florida. Now, I lived not a long ways from Pelican Island, but I don’t think I ever visited, and to my recollection stopped just short of the borders on at least two trips. This may have been due to not knowing it was the first until after I left Florida, and not being back on the east coast since, but either way, I have no photos to show.
Well, okay, none from that particular refuge. I have plenty from others, and a lot of them have already been featured herein, in non-numbered posts even (I think, anyway – I should probably check.) I toyed with the idea of doing a specific visit to a wildlife refuge today, but where I live in central NC, there are none within two hours drive, and I’ve got some other things planned for the day, so, no. You’ll just have to use your imagination, or make your own trip. Or, really, make a trip anytime you like, because who cares if the visit is on the anniversary or not? That’s the kind of meaningless shit we humans get up to. Like this:
This is a pair of roseate spoonbills (Platalea ajaja) spotted in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, possibly the only time I’ve photographed them. These were taken just three days before being down at Sebastian Inlet just north of Pelican Island NWR and not entering, because we can get even more meaningless if we try. But this is one of the species that prompted the creation of the National Wildlife Refuge system in the US, because they were hunted almost to extinction solely for their feathers, the meaningless fashion fad back then. Refuges were created as habitats and breeding grounds for species that were being hunted or crowded out by increasing populations and development. Too often now, such refuges are only created from land that’s too difficult/expensive to develop, and that largely seems to be the case in NC, where most of the refuges are coastal swampland. But hey, if they work, they work – better to encourage people not to be stupid, of course, but I have my doubts that we’re heading in the right direction in those regards.
I’m also going to use this space to announce that my 2,000th post is nigh (six away, I believe,) and I’ve been busy trying to complete something for that. Do you care? No, but I do, so you’re along for the ride. And you still have time to get me a gift, not that you’re obligated or anything, and far be it from me to bring up the stupendous effort and thought that goes into this site but, you know, if you have a spare Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro lens lying around…