Our life in the Lark: The Resort and the Ducks

Our new parking spot is Topsail Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Fl. The Gregory E. Moore RV Resort. (Nobody has mentioned who Greg Moore is or was??)

This location was chosen as a new destination with white sand gulf beach and was billed as a “resort”. Seems that term has multiple meanings as, yes there is a pool, no it is not heated. Yes, there are shuffle board courts. Yes, there is a real “laundry”…but most washers/dryers don’t work. Yes, there is a camp store, if you need a few sad desperate supplies. (You would’t because the park is 1/2 mile from several commercial strips. )

Maybe the lure was the extra cost per night to stay? More expensive, more “exclusive”: think not. Certainly more civilized than we are used to. More 35-45 foot Class A’s are here than I have ever seen in one place. The park is well landscaped with fresh water ponds and great biking hard surface trails. We also did 10 miles of outside the park bike trail; it was going forever when we turned around for home. 3/4 mile to the beach with a “tram” ride..whoopee.

Even as we pulled into Topsail, I knew Ed was grimacing. Just my luck and great picking, the site is the best waterfront in the park. That helped as we backed into a beautiful pond view literally 20 feet in front of our Lark.

I saw my opportunity as Ed killed the motor. Look, dear “ducks” in the pond, grab your camera.

And ducks we had. Ring-necked Ducks…more later on the species, but one duck we have never been able to photograph with much success. They are very shy, stay well off shore and we had 6 males and several females within 100 feet of the Lark. Ed has been sneaking up on them ever since. Hundreds of pictures to get the perfect few.

A Ring-necked Duck is a medium-sized diving duck. This duck has a very distinct blue bill with a white ring around around and edging the bill. Did they call it a Blue-billed or Blue-Ring Billed Duck. No they did not. If you are very close up, you will see a cinnamon ring around it’s neck. Since you never get up close that is a really tough ring to see. Sorry, all of you Ornithologists from Cornel University, a guy must have named this one…how could one not see that Blue-Bill?

Aside from being named totally incorrectly we now have our best Ring-necked Duck pictures ever. Posted here for your enjoyment.