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| Cedar Waxwings on the truck drinking the beaded water after a shower. We had previously seen a flock of dozen of Waxwings in the tree near our trailer. |
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| Cedar Waxwings at Foscue Creek |
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| New Years Eve Banana Bread Cheesecake |
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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| Arriving on Dauphin Island after a chilly start of 15 degrees. It was so cold that when we tried to hook up the hitch was unable to close around the king pin because the grease was too stiff. Six attempts and still nothing. Bob had to hand manipulate the hitch teeth. |
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| Our new home for the week. It has a direct walkway from the camp to the beach and the Audubon Bird Sanctuary. |
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| Gulf coast beach off Dauphin Island. Unlike what some may think, Dauphin Island is not a misspelling of that smart, fast swimming mammal. I had to spell it several times to the Mail Service and explain that it is French for the Crown Prince, "the Dauphin". This beach probably had a wonderful view of the Gulf but now it is surrounded by deep drilling oil rigs. Tori and Dakota typically are very willing to wade into any creek, stream, lake, even puddle. Neither of them wanted anything to do with this beach. Decide for yourself. |
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| One Willet walking the beach. |
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| Two Willets in flight. They make noises when they fly which really freaked out the dogs. |
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| Brown pelican. |
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| We love to watch them skimming across the water. |
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| Two common Mergansers paddling. A little unusually for them to be in the Gulf but the Audubon Society has a wildlife refuge nearby which we can access from the campgrounds. They were fun to watch diving almost in sync. |
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| One Cormorant |
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| Car Ferry pulling in from Fort Morgan, our next destination. We were not in a car and it was 30 degrees without any real passenger space. We had waited until the 11am ferry so it would have a chance to warm up. So I ended up standing inside the doorway to the right of the pilings. No door but better than nothing. |
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| This armored truck-looking thing was actually a German-made recreational vehicle. |
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| My sort-of warm room. |
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| What do you call a group of Cormorants. A Sunning. Who thinks up those things? |
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| Bob takes such good action photos. |
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| Checking for fish. |
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| On the road to Fort Morgan which was named after General Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary War hero. The fort was used during that war, 1812, Civil, Spanish-American, WWI and WWII. |
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| This cannon is fired at artillery demonstrations during a historical reenactments |
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| Fourth (small) order of Fresnel lens was used in the lighthouse where Fort Morgan now stands was built in 1822 as the Mobile Point Lighthouse. In 1837, the Second (large) order lens was used in a seacoast light on Sand Island three miles out from Mobile Bay entrance. |
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| Fort Morgan is a double star shaped fort. This tunnel traverses the outer defenses of sloped earthen packed outer ring or glasic with heavy doors at each end. The grassy area between the outer and inner walls was a dry moat. |
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| The sally port entrance to the inner fort was dedicated to General Morgan in 1833. |
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| The stairs at the left is a double staircase similar to the one at the right corner. These corners contained the magazine needed to store the supply of gun powder. |
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| Gun placements along the west facing wall. |
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| Each corner of the inner walls had these stairs. There is another set where Bob is standing to take this photo. We didn't even try to use these. there is no railing on the outer steps and the rise is about 18-20 inches which makes it dangerous for those of us with bad knees. |
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| Lunch in the sunshine. Still chilly with a breeze blowing. I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, insulated jacket and wind breaker with a scarf. |
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| Door pin for the tunnel. We are on our way out to catch our ferry back to Dauphin Island. |
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| The ferry arrived right on time. After several attempts, the pilot had to back away from the jetty, turn completely around and use the rear ramp. The water level is so low the ramp would not lay flat enough for the cars to disembark. Fortunately there were only 4 cars because each one had to back towards the side of the ferry and turn around to finally drive off the ramp. This ferry is designed to carry about 15 cars in three lanes. |
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| Bufflehead |
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| Bridge from the mainland to Dauphin Island. It is 17,814 feet (about 3 miles) long with a clearance of 83 feet. |
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