Purple Gallinule Archives

The Bird Jigsaw Puzzle Update

Brought to you by popular demand is my Jigsaw Puzzle update. The Bird Jigsaw Puzzle is proving to be a challenge. As you recall a few weeks ago I was excited to share that I had used my pictures to have 4 – 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles made up.

For photos I chose a mountain in Grand Teton National Park, A Sunflower with a butterfly, and a seal with a fish. The last photo I chose was of a Bird. A purple Gallinule to be exact taken in the Everglades.

I thought is would have a lot of detail to make the puzzle easier but my friends thought this would be the hardest of the 4.

Progress is slow But Steady

With my friend’s observations in mind I decided to tackle the bird first to see just how hard it was. Of course I’m a little rusty with jigsaw puzzles. I’ve had cats for over 20 years and during that time I gave up the puzzles. My cats were just too helpful. I hated little cat teeth-marks in the pieces. Needless to say things are moving a bit slower than I expected. I got the border done quickly but I’m running into trouble finding the inner bits on the corners. Still I don’t spend hours working it. Its more like 15 minutes here, a half hour there. I try to spend a little time on it every day but I’m not obsessive. After all, I’m in no hurry.

I’m getting lots of little combos so once I figure out where they go the puzzle will start to move faster.

The Felt Mat

I was complaining to my friend JR that the pieces were hard to identify against the wood grain of the table. He told me about the puzzle mats. I’d never heard of them. They aren’t expensive and they do make puzzle-ing easier. The pieces tend to stay in place once they are snapped together. According to the instructions on the box you can roll up the mat with the puzzle on it and it will keep the puzzles in place. The box included an inflatable cylinder around which you roll the felt with the puzzle. I haven’t tried rolling it up yet. I think I’ll wait until it’s finished before I try that.

The rain finally let up on Tuesday….sort of. It was still gray and overcast but I was scheduled for the Everglades tour. A big double Decker bus worked it’s way down Ocean Drive and stopped right in front of the Crescent Resort. My ride had arrived.

DSC_2213 copy

I climbed to the open air top deck but the ride was only to the ticket office. When it was my turn I was directed to a smaller van operated by “Luis”. When we finally headed out he had a full load. It was a good thing we were in the van too . The skies opened up and it began to pour!

DSC_2110 copy

Just before we reached Everglades Holiday Park the rain stopped. It was still very overcast but at least it wasn’t raining. Even if it started to rain again, the airboats at Holiday Park as covered.

DSC_2123 copy

Our pictures were taken as we stood inline and then it was time to board.

Holiday Park

I passed the time waiting getting a kick out of the local grackle. They were into everything!

DSC_2111 copy

After a brief safely talk we were on our way.

The first thing I spotted was an Anhinga, the “snake bird” of the Everglades. They call it that because of its long neck.

DSC_2112 copy

DSC_2116 copy

Next up were the cormorants perched on the warning sign.

DSC_2113 copy

With no sun, alligators were in short supply. We only saw one.

DSC_2117 copy

But we had fun with a family of Purple Gallinule.

DSC_2127 copy

These funny birds walk on top of the vegetation.

DSC_2124 copy

We had a whole family join us including a pretty young chick.

DSC_2130 copy

DSC_2128 copy

On the way back to the dock we spotted a huge iguana perched in the trees.

DSC_2137 copy

He was a beautiful specimen on the one hand, but kind of depressing on the other as this is an invasive species. Along with pythons they are wreaking havoc on the native animals of the Everglades.