Bird season

Apparently, my wind indicators (see previous post) have been getting their Barry White on.  The north end of Huguenot beach has been shut down to vehicular traffic in order to protect the baby birdies that will be erupting soon on the beach.  And while I'm all for giving the new families a safe haven, it means no kites are allowed on a large section of the beach.  This section also happens to be the best place to build your kite and ride.  But since the Florida Audobon Society would apparently very much like to shut down all of Huguenot and leave it for the birds, we decided we would rejoice in the coming of new life and try to find a suitable kiting area elsewhere.

In all honesty, we may have made a mistake coming to Jax.  Only because we are now spoiled.  Huguenot has proved to be a most exceptional kiting beach.  You can drive right on the beach.  There is a large area on the north end where cars aren't allowed so you can be relatively safe in laying out your lines without having someone drive over them and wrapping them around their axles.  Since your car is nearby, you can lock all your belongings up safely.  Depending on the wind direction and tide, you can ride flat water or waves.  You can see, Huguenot has a lot going for it.  But today, we tried Atlantic Beach.  Hmm.

We left pretty late for the beach, about 6:00pm, so parking was pretty easy.  But since we couldn't see the beach from the road, we had no idea if the access point we picked would be crowded or not.  We got lucky since most beach goers were packing up and leaving as we were coming.  We quickly rigged Wilbur's kite up and launched it with no problems amid joggers, dogs and small children that would possibly not survive a kite crashing on to their heads.  Unfortunately, there was not really enough wind for Wilbur to be able to ride, so he slogged for a while and then called it quits.  But our voyage was fruitful nonetheless.  We discovered that the ground swell was stronger at Atlantic Beach (at least it was today), so light wind riding proved more difficult.  Having to pack our kites and other paraphernalia and hike them to the beach was not bad, but the thought of having to leave personal belongings on the beach still doesn't sit well with us.  And the leash law does not seem to be upheld at Atlantic Beach which means there will be opportunities for very sharp little doggy claws to puncture your mucho expensive kite.  Overall, Huguenot still wins by a country mile, birdie closures or not.

Wilbur trying hard to go somewhere.

Wilbur is flying a 17m C shaped Slingshot kite.  It is, in a word, big.  I abhor having to launch this for him.  

View of Jax Beach from Atlantic Beach.

Seaweed.  Everywhere.  

This lady looked so classy, I had to take her picture.

This is my dream house.  Really, can you believe this exists?  

I am very excited to see the new little birdies and begin educating them on how indicate the wind properly for me.  Until then, we will continue to kite in our most beloved place and give our birdies a wide berth.