Weekend of the big chill

(c) 2010 Lydia Hinshaw

Shivering terns on St. Petersburg Beach

Great blue heron squawks about the cold

Cold? What cold?

Snowy egret, left, and reddish egret feeding in the shallows

Departing our site in search of more gullible campers

TIERRA VERDE, FL -- On a weekend like the last one, you don't want a waterfront campsite.
When it's 50 degrees and the wind is coming off the water at 20 mph, you want to camp across the road, in the woods, so the trees can tame the breeze before it gets to you.
Oh, some folks go head to head with Mother Nature, and spend a lot of energy erecting and securing tarps to serve as windbreaks, but the view gets blocked along with the wind, plus there's a strong possibility the tarp will come loose and flap like a helicopter at 3 a.m., and this is an adventure you don't want.
We settled for the inland campsite at Fort De Soto and were glad we did. But it surely was a chilling experience. We got some use out of our 20-degree sleeping bags, and the little electric heater we acquired during one of our summers in Alaska.
We had a campfire in rented burn-barrel, and I managed to melt an oval-shaped spot on my hiking boots while trying to get my feet warm.
But enough of the hardships. We had spent six gloomy days at Fort De Soto over Christmas, when the overcast was thick as a comforter.
Last weekend more than made up for it. We were able to get a number of good pictures of the seabirds who are my favorite photo models, including a young bald eagle posing so close to the road that I all I had to do was punch the electric window button and raise the camera.
Back at the ranch Sunday afternoon, we had seven visitors. Mrs. Raccoon was training her brood of six to find food in a campground, which isn't difficult. Prince Charming had helped this project along Saturday evening by carelessly leaving a grilled sausage to cool on the picnic table while we dined in the Eurovan's salon.
This time we saw them coming. I grabbed a palm frond to shoo them off. The youngsters reacted in the same way kittens would -- they pounced on the frond, believing I was trying to play with them.
I finally convinced them to leave and they set out down the road to pester someone else.
They came back twice, but they got no more free meals from us.