April 7, 2006 - Lovers Key State Park - 2

We've shown a few of our native neighbors here.  Starting with an osprey that is yelling at us for no known reason, Slimy the alligator in his little fresh-water pond on Black Island, a couple of shots of a patient yellow crowned night heron (he never did fly away, just hopped up a limb or two), and the nose of our canoe as we go on a search for Heath's blue barrel.  More on the barrel shortly.

From these shots, you can see the validity of saving the mangroves from destruction by development.  By their intertwining roots and prop branches, not only do they secure the sand/mud/ground from being completely washed away during a storm, but they provide a critical habitat for a whole array of critters and other plants.  These happen to be red mangroves (thanks, Pam, for your excellent teaching) and some black mangroves as well, a bit further inland.

On the way to capture the barrel, Barb got an excellent shot of this Gumbo Limbo tree.  Locally called the Tourist Tree because its bark is always red and peeling ... just like the skin on many of the tourists here.

OK.  When Wilma came blasting through, she knocked out several of the floatation  barrels from under Heath's dock( he's the assistant manager of the park who, like several others on staff, lives in the park).  Nobody knew where it went, but occasionally somebody would spot it against the bank of one of the canals.  When Barb and I found it, we decided it would be great fun to "rescue" it.  Besides, a blue plastic barrel floating in the canal sort of damages the ambiance of the place you know.  So one day when the wind was calm, we pushed off in search of the barrel that nobody had seen for a couple of days.  Eventually, of course, we found it.  Lassoed it (plenty of barnacles on the bottom to keep the line from slipping much) and off we went.  We paddled like crazy and hardly made any headway because of the weight and awkwardness of the barrel.  It was so stupid I got to laughing and could hardly paddle at all.  Barb kept telling me to quit laughing and paddle, but I couldn't.

Now if there's only two of us in the canoe, and one of us can hardly paddle because he's laughing his head off, who do you suppose is taking all these pictures, eh?  Well, Barb couldn't resist the temptation to get a shot of a fairly new red mangrove doing its thing and, of course, our eventual destination.  That dock sticking out of the bushes straight ahead.  Heath's house roofline can be seen above the bushes to the left of the Lovers Key Resort.  That resort is beautiful, by the way, and room rates are not at all out of line with the "normal" rates for this area we're told.

Well, that's as far as we could take it.  It was about 1/2 full of water, and too heavy for us to haul up on the dock so we just secured it best we could and left it there.  We've heard that later a team of young healthy strong guys got things all put back together.  We've not been down there to check it out yet. 

On the way home, we spotted a couple of  ibises roosting way up high.  Obvious pecking order in evidence here, with the mature one up higher than the immature one (still has lots of dark feathers).

And after a hard day of paddling what's to do but try fishing the other side of the canal.  And as you can easily see, it was well worth the effort.  Too bad I had to put it back.  Can you believe it?  That's the third time I've had to release a black drum because it was over the 24" limit!  Black drum are a "slot" fish.  Has to be over 14" and less than 24" to be legal.  Fortunately, there's plenty of them in that 10" slot.

I'm holding the fish by what is known as a "lipper."  It lets me grab a fish by its lower jaw and hang on to it that way while I remove the hook, weigh and measure it, before releasing it.  This fish weighed just a little over 4 pounds and was fun to land on the ultra light tackle I use.  The main purpose of the lipper is so the fish and I won't damage each other.  By not handling it, the fish looses none of its protective slime and I don't get stabbed by any sharp spines anywhere.  Particularly useful with the catfish whose spines are poisonous.

We planted some trees and shrubs to cover up a couple of unneeded roads.  The little tractor with its big auger sure makes holes easily!  So easy as a matter of fact, that we ended up planting a total of 95 that week.  Darn near emptied our little nursery in the process.

Used the EZ-GO with its trailer to haul the plants out to the sites.  That reminds me.  I've got to go take an "after" shot.  This is "before" of one of the roads we planted.  

Finally I caught Randy, one of the rangers here, where I could see his face for the camera.  That's Meredith with his back to us.  The brother of Matt, the ranger that gave us the cast net class.  There was a party going on at neighbor Ron's place, and both these young men can party hardy.  Randy is an ex-restaurant manager and we swapped some stories about that industry.  He's also an excellent fisherman and a big help to those of us who wish we were.  We've got to try some of his suggestions for cooking them, too. 

Turned out to be a pretty nice fire for the party and, yes, Barb and I sat around it with the others for a while, so now we've done our annual "sit around the campfire" bit for the year.  I just cannot seem to understand the attraction for doing that.  When camping and you need the fire for cooking and getting warm, I can understand.  But just to have one for the sake of having one?  Nope, not this 'ol boy.  (Good to keep bugs away though.)

(

That egret was pretty proud of itself for being able to stay on the hood of Ron's truck and not slide off.  For a little while anyway.

Barb and I are suckers for Pam's beach walks.  We've been on at least two or three of them.  We always learn something new too.  Of course (and she'll probably kill me for this), if Pam ever broke her arm she couldn't talk about the way the mangroves send down roots and tolerate salt water.

The red bellied woodpecker must be nesting as we can see some fuzz there on the edge of its nest hole.

During the talk/walk, Park Manager Mike (on the left), a visiting ranger, Assistant Manager Heath, and Ranger Randy were talking about where to put the bird nesting "Keep Out" signs.  Or something.  I tried but failed to get a shot of them all looking at me, rather than just their backsides.

This was a birding walk led by Ranger Matt.  There weren't any birds to speak of that day (we can't seem to train the wildlife very well here), but Matt did a terrific job.  He's a wealth of park trivia, as well as other esoteric things.  Like which bird is the most popular state bird in the US and things like that.  He kept the interest of the group high even if all the birds we could see (all three or four of them) were at a distance.  Except for the little red bellied woodpecker, of course.  If they're home and you knock on the tree, they'll pop their head out to say hello.  We try not to do it very much, because we want them to have as normal a life as they can this close to the trail.

I tell you.  Turn that wife of mine loose with a camera, and you're going to get pictures of birds and flowers.  And if she's anywhere within walking distance of a beach with shells on it, you'll find her there, and her pockets will be full -- unless she happens to find a plastic shopping bag someplace!  But I've got to give her credit.  She's got an exceptional eye for the artistic part of photography, and I envy that.

Here she's shot a great blue heron, affectionately known as a "GBH" and a bunch (herd?  flock?) of ibises scrounging for food.  The last picture is of part of our butterfly garden here in the park.

Yup, lotsa pictures of the butterfly garden.  Nice place and really popular with visitors. 

That fisherman is over by the office/ranger station/fee booth.  Those Carolina Skiffs are a popular fishing boat around here.  Use the engine to get here and once in the canal use the trolling motor, keeping an eye out for manatees.  Those poor animals get all dinged up by everything.  We've never seen one without scars on its back.  Saw one today with straight line parallel marks that might have been made by a jet ski.  It's a wonder we have as many as we do considering the beating they take from boaters.  Most the time, the boaters aren't really to blame either as the manatees lay just below the surface, and you can't see them until you're almost on top of them.  Going slow helps, but even being careful can result in damage to one of these animals.

A pretty morning glory known as a moon morning glory and a school of mullet.  Mullet are funny fish.  They jump like crazy all the time it seems.  And they're supposedly vegetarians, but I heard a fisherman say that he can catch them using a very small hook with a tiny red worm on it for bait.  Might be a fish story, but if I ever find any tiny red worms, I'll give it a try.  Because they like to swim like this right near the surface, they're a favorite food of the osprey.  Whenever a vulture, pelican, or big heron flies over and its shadow crosses a line like this, the mullet scatter in all directions.  Looks like one of those "blossom" fireworks displays when they take off.  They regroup in short order and continue on their way as if nothing happened.  Strange fish.

For those of you with squeamish stomachs or if you're a PETA person, you may want to skip this next story....or two.  Except for that picture of a dolphin interrupting my fishing.  Barb sure is good at catching them coming up for air.  And while they are in the vicinity, us fishermen may as well haul in our gear and enjoy watching them.  They make the fish run for their lives, and nobody is interested in what the shrimp tastes like.

OK.  Barb faces the road in front of the RV when we're eating breakfast.  And this day (March 7) she gets all excited about seeing a snake out in the grass.  Only I knew it was no snake.  It was a 'possum tail.  And the stupid animal had gotten itself trapped in a pipe that is used as a marker for a water line.  And sure enough, that's what happened.  A quick look at the tail (the other thing you see is a foot), and you can understand why Barb thought it was a snake in the grass.

The idiot had damaged itself thrashing around in there, and wasn't going to see the light of another day, so Elmer agreed to help me put it out of its misery. 

I got a good grip on it with the pliers as I didn't want any bite marks to go with my fire ant welts or poison ivy blisters.

One whack from Elmer and the 'possum went to 'possum heaven, wherever that may be.  And then it failed the float test and got turned into crab food.

And if that wasn't enough excitement for one day........ See that crow watching up there?

Well, it was waiting to make its move on this poor little raccoon with the broken leg.  Barb found it while running around in the EZ-Go and called the park rangers to take care of it.  Since we have a real problem with an overpopulation of 'coons in the park, it too was quickly dispatched.  Tough day for wildlife.

Except for this stately GBH marching along the beach.

AHA!  So that's what this is all about.  There was another fishing rod, and this GBH was patrolling the area between them.  Barb couldn't hang around long enough to see what happens when the rod owner cranks in a fish, but we have our suspicions.  This bird is in full breeding plumage and is a fine specimen of the specie.

This lizard must have wanted a ride, but the bike was cable-locked to a tree.  Those kayakers are coming over to look at the manatees that are hanging out here at the unofficial "Manatee Viewing  Station."

Manatees hold a special place in our lives.  We seldom go anywhere near the canals without looking for them.  It really bothers us to see the scars on their backs, knowing that many are killed because of careless boaters, and some by careful boaters as well.  They have no particular fear of people or boats as you can see.  Wish they did!

Remember the "thrill a day" routine?  Well, today it was this big lizard hiding in our underskirt that is "parked" by hanging under the RV.

Can't remember if this was a keeper or not, but by the grin I'd guess it was (Black Drum).