Crystal River and Completed Arrows

I finally finished constructing the arrows that I'm planning to use for the Traditional Bowhunters shoot and other 3-D shoots on Sorondil-Telcontar (my Chek-Mate recurve). The points were rather fun to put on, aside from my fear of setting the place on fire because of residual methyl-ethyl-ketone fumes. It took a fair amount of effort to make sure they didn't come off while they were cooling down and I got a small cutting board dedicated for the very purpose of making sure the points stayed on until the bond between the point and shaft was set. All in all, I think these arrows should fly fairly nicely -- I spin-tested them again after adding the points and they were still spinning nicely, indicating good balance and straightness. The real test, of course, will be when I shoot them in the morning at the range.



This was a golden-hooded night heron that I got to approach when I was hiking out at Crystal River and ran into a group from the Audoubon society that was doing diversity and abundance censuses in the area. The camera really didn't do this bird justice because when the light strikes the head feathers at the right angle, it looks iridescent gold, even in the immature ones.



At the Withalacoochee River, I had an up-close and personal encounter with a pelican with the help of a family that was out fishing. I've never seen a pelican that close before and I was tempted to approach it, but with my luck, I'd probably get attacked or worse. The family actually offered it a fish they had caught and it was pretty aggressive about taking the fish, so I decided to play it safe, although pelicans don't have any obviously dangerous attacks like parrots. Of all birds, I have to honestly admit that I'm most afraid of getting into a fight with a parrot because for their size, they can do some serious damage with their beaks. I know someone who lost a finger to a cockatoo once and I know another person who had to go to the ER to get their nose fixed after a cockatiel (a fairly small, docile member of the parrot family) took a good bite out of it.

All in all, it was worth the trip out to Ingliss/Yankeetown/Crystal River to do a bit of exploring! Next time, I'm going to be better prepared with more food and water so I can take some of the more exciting hikes.