Pic(k) of the Week: Osprey in nest on light pole

The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. Ospreys construct their nests at the tops of dead trees, atop power poles, on manmade nesting platforms, and sometimes on buoys, chimneys, or other structures.

— U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (pdf)

Look up!

Call it "environmental irony" or (less humbly) "new topography": man-made elements intruding (?) in an image otherwise of natural beauty. But, if you do, you might see (and hear) ospreys in their nest, high overhead...on a light pole, in a supermarket parking lot, as I did in St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA, on 3 July 2021.

The osprey —or, more specifically, the western osprey (Pandion haliaetus), also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk— is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than two feet in length (60 cm) and six feet across the wings (180 cm). It is brown on the upper parts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.

— Wikipedia

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Pic(k) of the Week: Proto-aureate

Proto-aureate,

Yellow wildflower,

Half-fledged.

Trailhead Community Park, of the East Decatur Greenway, in Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 6 June 2021.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Dune fence down.

Dune fence down: desolation at/on St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA.

Photo taken on 30 June 2021.

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Pic(k) of the Week: OCA x2

Old Coast Ales is a production brewery (with taproom) that opened in 2017. It's located in St. Augustine ^*, Florida, USA, a few blocks southeast of the Bridge of Lions, a 100-year-old drawbridge that connects Anastasia Island to downtown St. Augustine.

We visited on 1 July 2021. Here are two draught beers we ordered (and enjoyed) in the brewery's taproom.

Left to right:

• Oh-8-Oh
  5.7% ABV (alcohol-by-volume)
  "Mildly bitter and balanced between malt and hop flavors, this pale ale features Sultana and Sabro Cryo hops."
  ---> Me: Yep. More like a classic pale ale's bitter and earthy than a latter day's fruity or cat-stinky. Had two.


• Empirical
  American IPA
  6.6 % ABV
  "Old skool American IPA with a solid malt backbone and a heavy hop of Amarillo, Simcoe, and Centennial hops."
  ---> Me: Yep. Bonus points for beauty.

Old Coast Ales is a production brewery: meaning that it does not have a kitchen as would a brewpub. But, 'not to worry.' Innately connected to the brewery is a taco eatery that was busy when we visited. After purchasing some fare (which we ate while pairing drinking our beers in the brewery), we understood why.

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Hop geeky

Hops —the female (and non-seed bearing) flowers of herb bines— are used by brewsters in beer:

• for their herbal/spicy/fruity flavors and aromas
• to add drying bitterness as a counterbalance to malt sweetness
• to lesser extents as beer-foam enhancers, beer shelf-life stabilizers, and anti-microbial agents.

There are many varieties of hops grown (such as Amarillo and Sultana, above), propagated for their flavor, aroma, bittering potential, farming yield, and resistance to agricultural disease.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Beer-Mobile? Ale, yeah!

Is it on the wrong side or the right side of the tracks? Either way, it's a beer-mobile, so...ale, yeah!

As seen in Decatur (Oakhurst), Georgia, USA.


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Independent Beer Run Day

Today, the [U.S.] Brewers Association encourages you to buy local beer. That's something I do regularly, but with these privisos, in this order:

• 1) Good beer first (beer whose flavor I like and which I respect, that is, well-made and/or created with human-first principles).
• 2) If the above is satisified, then from a brewery that is local to me (community, 50-mile radius, state, region, nation, in that order).
• 3) From a small and/or independent brewery...again, with human-first principles.
• 4) From a local and small and/or independent purveyor.
• 5) Bonus points for cool vibe and/or lack of pretension.
• 6) Cask-ale prepared well and served well, and created without extraneous cocoa-puffs and dingleberries. This is last on my list because if it were first, I'd go thirsty. In the U.S., non-polluted cask ale is in the red zone for extinction.

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