February 25, 2006 - Lovers Key S.P., FL

I suppose that if we're going to keep taking pictures of the fun stuff we're doing, we'd better post them here, eh?  And the Road Abode (a 1999 Foretravel U320) is still for sale, and you can see it here.

All these were taken the same day.  To start with, Barb was out shelling at the south end of the island (Lovers Key) in the morning while I was probably trying to catch dinner.  And she came back with shells, and I probably caught dinner.  Those lumps in the mud are oyster shells, and that pier was originally a foot bridge leading out to the island from another island that you could drive to.  A hurricane took out part of the bridge, so they turned it into a pier where people can go fishing.  Another wonderful sunset, perhaps not as spectacular as those we've seen in Arizona, but still quite pleasant. 

There's this palm stump that is about 20 feet high, and it has a red-bellied woodpecker living in it.  Quite a sociable bird.  If you knock on its door, it'll come out and see who's there.  Barb knocked on its door with camera ready; when he poked his head out, she shot this photo.  Great fun!

As we're heading home, a quick look over our shoulder at the "foot bridge" to Lovers Key from Inner Key.  And then, once we're home, figured we may as well show off the fancy paint job on the fish cleaning station.  Doesn't look nearly so bad from the water now.

Then it's back to work, where Elmer and I are building a fence around the playground, and the next morning we must have had another minus tide, because Barb was out mucking around in the tidal flats looking for more shells.  And you can take her word for it, that mud is real sticky, and you don't want to stay put too long cause you keep sinking, then you can't get your boot out without using a hand to hold it on.  She knows, she tried it.

Some of the critters that are out there with her, and then a small flock of ibis are feeding.  Well, a small flock of ibis and one brave little snowy egret.  They hunt differently, and eat different things for the most part.  The ibis will use those curved bills to poke around in the mud and sand to find little critters to eat, while the snowy egret will wait until a fish the right size happens by, and then he'll grab it.  But as you can see, every once in a while he has to prove he has the right to hunt with the ibis.

Nearby are some brown pelicans, looking quite sedate and wise, and then a close-up of that brave little snowy egret among the ibis.

Remember that little red-bellied woodpecker in the palm stump?  Here's another one, just outside our window hunting bugs in the sea grape.  On the right is a cockle with "foot."  They bury themselves in the sand, no doubt for protection from hungry birds.  Always lots of them at low tide.

A small calico crab very much alive.  Then a larger crab, probably a blue crab.  Barb said this crab wasn't obviously a crab to her.  There was a point at the tip of what appeared to be a shell (like its nose--hello), so she stuck her finger under the nose a started to lift to see what it was.  About that time, that funny little thing in the forward part of the photo (like a claw!) came up to grab the intruder and she yelped and jumped back.  Then she saw that it was a live crab.  Ahhhhh!   Scared her good, and she left it alone.  Because of the mud, it's not always easy to make identifications, and the claw looks like it might be something totally unrelated to the big "lump" there.

Another kind of crab with fuzz on its back, and a cockle going someplace other than where it was.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why they move.  All the mud looks alike to me.

In the park, different Rangers have different walks, talks, and tours they give.  This is Brie on a Black Island Nature Trail bike tour.  She's explaining a bit about the different trees on this little hill.  We're actually about 35' above sea level here.  The highest point in the entire county.  The fellow who was developing this area for condos intentionally built it this high to make his development unique in some way.  He had plans to capitalize on Augustus Black, the pirate this island is named after, and had special plans for this hill, but I don't remember what it was.  Hard to imagine that not too long ago, in the late '70's, this was just a pile of sand and shells.  Now it's really a jungle again.

That's Elmer, my fence-building buddy behind me, and Ann, his wife behind him.  And then on the way home we stopped to see if we could spot any manatees, and Ann found a bottle in the canal.  Since one of her jobs is to pick up trash, she had to climb down and get it.  And since it took both hands to get back up, she gave the bottle a toss and Barb caught the bottle mid-air.  It's in that red circle.

I heard some great music while I was fishing behind the Road Abode, called the office to see what was up, and learned there was going to be a baptism at the beach.  Well, I'll tell you it didn't take us long to pack up and ride out to watch.  And of course, there's always something else to see on the way anywhere around here.  In this case it's the relatively newly planted sea oats (2 years old now) doing great, and a banded gull taking off.

Looks like the church is made up of mostly Hispanics, and the gulls are looking for handouts, but getting very little.  If you look carefully, you can see the fellow kneeling to plug in the keyboard standing there in the photo on the right.  They'd run a very long extension cord out to the beach from the Pavilion so they could have music for the baptism.

It wasn't exactly the kind of day they'd hoped for.  We'd been having a strong wind, and the surf was up real high, and the water was chilly besides.  The two guys in the surf were doing the baptizing, and the "usher" would let the next person know when to come out.

It looked like the new believer was asked to make a statement of faith, and then the two men would submerse him, and help him back up.  The surf would make it interesting as well.  We were standing far enough away to not interfere with the activities and couldn't have heard anything except for the music anyway.

Like I said, the surf made the occasion even more exciting.  There were six men and one woman that got baptized while we watched.  Everybody was met by someone who had towels, and they were escorted back to the restrooms to change into dry clothes.  It was a wonderful thing to watch, but then it was time to get back to fishing for our supper!

That's called a Black Drum.   And while this one was too big (yeah, they have "slots" for sizing down here.  Black Drum has to be at least 14" but not over 24") for dinner, it was still great fun to land.  They're pretty good fighters and real good eating.

Remember how the wind was blowing?  Well, it's not always blowing, and when it's not, the canals really give great reflections in the mornings.

And speaking of mornings, it's our morning to water the newly planted trees and shrubs.  One of the volunteer couples is planting the trees out of our little nursery, and they need to be watered twice a week.  And you can tell by my jacket, it's one of those really cold mornings.  Must have been way down in the low 60's!  HAHAHAHAHAHA

Well, if I don't tell the story, Barb for sure will.  That blue hose is connected to a small hydrant and I'm holding the other end so we can get water in the tank, and then go water the new trees.  Well, I was standing there watching the water level rise, and thought it was coming up a little slowly......... and then Barb hollered at me, and ran to shut the hydrant off.  Seems I'd forgotten to shut the outlet valve, and the water was draining out almost as fast as it was going in.  Sheese!

The routine is that one of us drives the truck, and the other one holds the hose up higher than the level of water in the tank to stop the flow.

One little tree already has some air plants growing on it, and some are shorter than Barb!

See what happens if you test the chain saw and the oil plug falls out?  Well, at least that boot won't squeak any.  After laughing at me, Barb went and got a rag and some kitty litter for me to clean up the mess.  I'm standing behind the shop and next to the storage sheds where everything from chainsaws, gasoline, diesel fuel, crafts, janitorial supplies, and maps of the park are kept.

A butterfly (and I hope Barb remembers it's name) (yup...White Peacock) and a butterfly-in-the-making.  The key to a good butterfly garden is to plant the kinds of plants these caterpillars like to eat.  In this case, it's a monarch larva.  The flowers don't make a great deal of difference, as the butterflies get nectar from all flowers.  They only lay their eggs on those plants their larva will eat, though.  Barb and I really enjoy the butterfly garden here in the park, and I suspect that if/when we have a home, we'll have a small butterfly garden ourselves.

And there's a mature monarch gathering nectar.  Another trip to the beach at sundown.

Barb is sick.  She's been infected by shelling.  Even when she comes out to see how my fishing is going, she'll climb down the bank to get a shell she sees, and here we are looking for a sunset worthy of some pictures, and she's gathering shells.  I love it!  We're at the north end of Lovers Key, and as you can see, it's the last area that will be cleaned up and the trash burned.

We'd heard rumors about some trails that Mark made as he pursued his task of removing exotic plants (non-native) from the park.  Mark is a "local" volunteer in that he doesn't live in the park in his RV, but is a "normal" working citizen in the local community.  One of about 125 volunteers here at Lovers Key.

Found this marker and, as requested, we didn't disturb it.  We're both amazed at the amount of cactus we find here on these barrier islands.  It's all over the place!

There were a number of ospreys in the area where Mark was clearing out exotics.  This one with the fish didn't leave, although it threatened to.  The males build the nests.  Sort of looks like it, too.  It's a wonder there are any that survive hurricanes, but many of them do.

We'd come to the end of Mark's trail, and decided to continue through the jungle to see if we could make it to the dog beach.  We've heard there's a way to do it, but we didn't find it.  Barb is holding a root from a red mangrove tree that is extending down toward the ground, but not there yet.  There's no trail here, just stumbling through the brush, climbing over roots, fallen trees, vines grabbing your legs.  After a half-hour of this, we gave up and went back.

Another osprey watching us walk under its nest tree, and a critter trail going off into the brush.  The ospreys have a high tolerance for human presence, and it's a good thing too, because humans and ospreys are all over the place down here.

The critters using that trail are those masked faced bandits.  Coons!  And, boy, look at those talons!  And beak!  I'm sure glad I'm not a fish! 

How in the world any chicks manage to survive being born in those nests is as amazing as the nests themselves.  And this osprey was kind enough to show us that, in fact, it only has four talons, three in front and one behind.  That's one of the reasons it can turn a fish it's caught around so the fish is going head first as the bird flies to its roost.  Great fun to watch them do that, and we've never seen a fish get dropped in the process.

I'm impressed by ospreys, can you tell?

This guy looks like he's saying, "So, you got a problem with this?"  Nope, not me, no sirree.   Morning glories at full bloom, and in the process of becoming full bloomed.

This nine-armed starfish was out of the water, but when Barb picked it up it was very active, so she put it down quickly.  I love the lines of this boat.  As you may know, we lived on our boat for a while in the Seattle area, and I've been involved in the boat building business a couple of times.  This boat has what I think are some of the most beautiful classic lines I've ever seen.  And what a wonderful boat for this area!  Ample cabin area (hopefully, air-conditioned) and a huge cockpit for entertaining and fishing.  True multi-purpose boat.  We used to call this style an Express Cruiser, and if anybody happens to know anything about it, I'd sure like to hear from you here.  It's built by Mainship and named "Beach to Beach."

Lots of  kayaks and canoes in the canal today; park manager's home in background.  On the way home from something one day, Barb wanted to stop and see if the manatees were grazing.  And sure enough, there was mama manatee and the twins.  One twin and mama are getting air in this shot, and.........

........then the other twin got some air.  And then mama went to grazing with her head stuck under the bank, while the babies just kind of hung out.  She'd occasionally change her body around to one side and then the other, giving the babies a touch with her tail.

Got a pretty good shot of mama here.  Wonder if she could see me any better than I could see her.  The glare on the water was such that when she was nursing them I couldn't get a decent shot.  Her teats are in her "armpit" area under her flippers, and it's pretty cool the way she seems to cuddle them while they're nursing.

Well, guess who went shelling........ and got in over her boot tops!  Ah, the agony of it all......

Thought I'd show off my cool camo paint job on the fish cleaning station.  Sure beats having that glaring white pipe visible for miles around.  And then one of the smallest exquisite little shells that Barb likes so much.

I don't share Barb's passion for the hobby, but I'll confess to liking some of these shells.  This one's called a Kings Crown, and it's a baby one.

And Barb says this is a Banded Tulip.  And here all my life I thought tulips were flowers.  Cute little rascal anyway.