New Experiences

Up this morning and into the pool.  This is a habit I would like to be able to keep.   A beautiful egret came to visit the canal behind our house this morning,

 Judy made up a great lunch and we headed to Cedar Point Environmental Park which is located on the Lemon Bay in Charlotte County.   This park boasts 115 acres of pine flatwoods, scrub, mangrove swamps, salt marshes and wetlands.  We hiked all the trails with the exception of one that was closed due to the American Bald Eagles that were nesting in one area of the park.

Along the way we heard something crashing through the underbrush.  Up on a little hill this armadillo appeared.  He stood there and watched us for a minute before taking off again.

One of the trials took us out to the edge of Lemon Bay.  There was a dock at the end of this trail where we sat for a few minutes looking over the water and singing "Sitting by the Dock of the Bay"....:)

We headed back down the trail where we met a lady that was clipping berries off some vines.  She said the vines were invasive and the berries were toxic to the birds.  She told us that the berries were called Rosary Berries.  She said the story was that the Spaniards forced the natives to string these into rosarys.   The juices would get on the fingers and would poison the natives.  She said the local birds would not eat them but the migratory birds would and would die.

As we continued our walk we saw this interesting tree with huge pods hanging.  Not sure what kind of tree it is.

As we were walking near the closed trail we were watching for the eagle nests.  We were able to see one huge nest with a mother eagle sitting the nest.  She just watched us as we watched her.  Pretty awesome.

After our walk we had lunch at the park before heading up the gulf coast.  Along the way we saw people cleaning up the dead fish along the shore. These are a result of the red tide situation happening on the water.  Here is a definition of what this is.

"The term “red tide” is most often used to describe a particular type of harmful algal bloom common to the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and is also called “Florida red tide”. This type of bloom is caused by a species of dinoflagellate known as Karenia brevis, and these blooms occur almost annually along Florida waters. The density of these organisms during a bloom can exceed tens of millions of cells per liter of seawater, and often discolor the water a deep reddish-brown hue.

The most conspicuous effects of red tides are the associated wildlife moralities among marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals and other organisms. In the case of Florida red tides, these moralities are caused by exposure to a potent neurotoxin produced naturally by Karenia brevis, called brevetoxin."

There were literally hundreds of dead fish.  Not a very pretty sight and pretty smelly.  We could still feel the effect of the red tide on our breathing.  We were all coughing even in the car as we drove along.  We headed back to the house where Judy and I took the kayaks down the canal.

 Tom and John headed out on the bicycles for a ride.   When Judy and I returned we hopped into the pool for our second swim of the day.

 We read that there was an earthquake in the south shore of BC.  I checked with my cousin Sharon to be sure they were okay.  They live at Sechelt which is just north of Vancouver.  She reports that all is well.  Twyla sent us a text on Christmas Day that they were having a great time on the slopes over the holidays and no more broken bones.  Thank God for watching over my loved ones.

What a great day of new experiences.  I saw wild life that I have never seen before outside of a zoo and I paddled a kayak for the first time.   Things can't get much better than that.

Until next time - safe travels.