May 16, 2007 - Lovers Key

Well, as promised in the last update, here's more pictures of that huge Lightening Whelk egg casing Barb found on the beach at Ft. DeSoto County Park.  Those smaller egg casings are the usual size so you can see the cause for excitement.  In the last shot, the one with the quarter peeking , is a close up of some Tulip Shell egg casings.  From what we can learn, it's unusual to find Tulip egg casings, so this is an even better find than we thought.

In the container are the shells that came out of the Tulip shell casings.  By themselves, the egg casings are fun to find, and sort of interesting, but from a shell collectors standpoint, they're of little if any value.  But to a shell crafter, the value lies in the very tiny shells in those cases.  Apparently they're coveted for the building of shell flowers.

Barb's current "workbench."  Pretty obvious why we're so looking forward to having a house, eh?  She takes her dark green apron, stretches it over one of our small tables, and bends over sitting in that patio chair.  Not shown are the tiny embroidery scissors she uses to cut the casings open with.  You can see the containers for the shells (the one in the upper right is the one to the left of the yellow container on the table), the tweezers to pick them up with, and a magnifying glass to actually be able to do all that!  She's spent hours sitting there cutting the cases open and picking up the shells and filling tiny bottles with the different kinds of (seems to me) almost microscopic shells.  She's an amazing woman in many respects.

And some Roseate Spoonbills!  To hear her tell it, they never molt, and never ever drop even a single pretty pink feather where she can find it for her collection.

This osprey was imitating a cormorant, with his wings stretched out to dry.  We thought it was pretty interesting as we'd never seen that behavior before.  By the time Barb dug the camera out of her bag, he'd quit stretching them so far.  Later that same evening I saw several ospreys standing in the surf (it was breaking at about their knees!) and stopped to watch to see what they were doing.  Then they started taking a bath!  Splashing, shaking, ducking their heads under, more splashing and shaking.  Then they took off to perch on a limb and dry off.  Yup, the "thrill a day" program is still on, even after all this time.

Sun on its way down on a smoky day.  Lots of fires in the area.

Some oyster catchers, or oyster crackers, depending on where you see them.  New to the beach, and we're not sure if they're migrating through or here to nest.  Time will tell (later . . . yes, they are nesting for the first time on this beach! Yea!).  As you can see, the sun is about gone for today....... we really appreciate the way the beach is ever changing, the clouds are always different, and each sunset and sunrise is special.

Well, this was sad.  Our first Loggerhead turtle and she's dead.  Killed probably by an accident with a boat, but managed to haul herself this far up the beach.  The tide was going out, so she probably never really did get far enough into the beach to release eggs.  Since they're an endangered species, the rangers had to take measurements of all kinds of things, including its GPS location.  We hope our next sighting of a Loggerhead is a happier occasion.  Rangers Robert (standing) and Mike did the work, Barb took lots of pictures for the authorities, and I held a flashlight and the other end of the tape measure.

Running a "beach patrol" is always great fun in the EZ-GOs.  When we can, we'll avoid disturbing the birds, but sometimes when the tide is in and there's no option, we do give the birds some exercise.  Different species will hang around together, but they seem to have differing fright levels.  Some take off as soon as they see us, and at the other extreme it's almost as if they're daring us to run over them.  We slow down to a crawl, and it's still fun to watch them scatter.  What seems strange to us is that they'll usually fly in the direction we're going, either north or south, and then land up ahead of us, only to take flight again when we catch up with them.  We keep telling them to park themselves behind us, but they don't listen well.

Naw, we're not on one of our nature trails.  We've left the park for another excursion.  This time to the Naples Zoo.  It's a pretty old zoo, so most all the animals are in cages which is sort of sad, but at least we can get some close-up looks at them.  These two shots are through a pretty thick glass so people can see the cats without the fence in the way.

These cats (there's three of them here) were born in captivity and are from a strain of cats in Texas.  The Florida Panther is actually a bit smaller than these cats, but typically has all the same markings and characteristics.  All the Florida panthers in the wild, something less than 100 I think, carry radio collars and are tracked pretty carefully.  While we've seen a bear in the wild (not at the park), we've never even seen any cat sign.  Very elusive animal.

One of the cat's caregivers is explaining all about them to this group of well behaved 5th graders.  She's got some meat (beef) that she uses as treats so the cats will come over to the fence and let the kids see them up close.  She takes one of these nice kabobs, slides it up to the end of the plastic stick, secures it there and.....

...feeds it to a patiently waiting cat.  There are two brothers and a sister in there, the sister has been spayed so there's no fighting between the males and no chance for a gene pool deficiency to show up in the strain.  Any breeding is well controlled to keep the cats from having defects.  The cat with its paws on the fence won't get a treat because it's behaving in a manner that isn't acceptable to the caregiver.

Out of disgust for not being given this treat either (see the paw on the fence?) the cat bites the fence, and the kids are impressed with its teeth.

At one time, these Cougars, Panthers, Pumas, Mountain Lions (and some other names - all the same cat) were plentiful throughout the Americas.  Today the population is stable, but quite reduced.  As you probably know, I've spent a lot of time outdoors hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing ever since I was a boy.  One time when I was a pre-teen, maybe even 9 or 10, my family was visiting an uncle and aunt who had a home in the Santa Cruz mountains.  They had no electricity other than what was supplied by a generator that they didn't like to run.  They had cattle, horses, pigs, goats, and everything else that went with fair sized ranch.  One of the reasons I like to visit them was that they had a prime trout stream running through the property and I love to fish.  On this particular visit, I noticed some cougar (that's what us California guys call the cats) tracks, and it scared me enough that I quit fishing and high-tailed it for the house.   Uncle Will assured me I had nothing to fear.  If the cat did try to eat me, all I'd have to do is stick my arm way down its throat, grab its tail and pull real hard.  That way the cat would get turned inside out and be running the other direction.  I didn't buy it for a second, and several nights later as I was sleeping in my sleeping bag over by the burned out stump, I heard what I thought was a woman screaming.  I knew it was the cat, and I thought I was a goner, but fear kept me in my sleeping bag.  Next morning, everybody was talking about the cat, and Uncle Will and my dad took off to check the cattle to see if any had been killed.  They came back home after finding nothing awry.

Another favorite California cat story comes from my older brother Ken, and he has the pictures to prove it.  He'd gone with a friend who had some hunting dogs, and they were supposedly going to see if the dogs could tree any raccoons.  Don't remember if they did or not, but as they were trying to load the dogs back up and go home, the dogs kept going over to the culvert that ran under the road, and carrying on something terrible.  After finally getting the dogs loaded, brother Ken laid down on the road, stuck his camera down into the culvert and took a picture.  He and his friend figured there must be something in that culvert, because the dogs weren't going into it, but sure were carrying on around it.  Sure enough, when the film was developed, my brother got a great shot of the face of the cat as it was crouched there in the culvert.  Not sure he'd have been brave enough to take that picture if he'd known for sure there was a cat in there.

Last piece of meat, and the big guy didn't get it.  Passive one standing on the ground did.

A boat ride! (Barb's waving.)  How cool is that, eh?  We're off to see the primates.  Monkeys, Apes, and Lemurs.  They live on some islands here in the zoo.

I should note that these kids (5th graders) were some of the best behaved kids we've been around.  There was a lot of them and plenty of parents/teachers/aids to go around, and they were broken into several groups, but it was a joy to be around kids being kids, and yet no discipline issues at all.

Now, if you think I'm going to tell you what specie each of these animals are, you're nuts.  The young woman driving the boat did a great job telling us all about them, and would turn the boat around so people on both sides could see what there was to see.  A good time was had by all.  That big guy in the igloo sort of house was curled up inside, and the young woman told us to be patient, as he'd come out in just a bit because he liked to get his picture taken.  Sure enough, out he came.  They sure had some colorful animals there, and these pictures are of only a few because it's tough to get pictures from a moving boat when the subjects are running around like bunch of monkeys.

One of the features of this zoo is a garden of exotic plants dating back to the 1920's when a fellow started it all.  Those blue flowers aren't part of the wild cotton, they just grew there from nearby.  Very colorful plants, many we'd never seen before.

An interesting air plant, and a great shot of a strangler fig (native to Florida).  You can see the canopy of the fig tree quite clearly, and the palm it's living on as well.  Eventually, the fig canopy will limit the sunlight the palm can get, and it will die, leaving the fig standing there with what looks like a hollow trunk, because the dead palm will fall out of the grasp of the fig as it decays.

Lots of pretty flowers........and a really ugly Toucan.

So now the Toucan isn't so ugly after all, eh?  Maybe.

When I was living in Hawaii, we called this big hunk of vegetation "breadfruit," but I don't know what the Floridians call it.

Those of you who fuss with photography know how very difficult it is to take a decent picture of something black.  For years I've shot lousy pictures of black Labrador dogs, and even a few black bears, and this noisy Boat-tailed Grackle was just a quick snap, with little care given to much, including composition as you can see by me chopping the end off it's tail.  And yet, here we are looking at a bird so black it's almost blue when it's in the sunshine, and the bluish tint is really obvious, isn't it.  Amazing, this photography stuff.  I'll never live long enough to get it all figured out, I'm sure.  You should know, too, that I spent little time in Photoshop with this shot.  Just a quick "Auto" fix because of some of the shadows.

Oh, we're not sure why it's called the "Boat-Tailed Grackle" but when the male is in flight, his tail is not flat like most other birds.  It's in a trough formation, like the bottom of a boat that has a deep "V" hull.

Another odd air plant, and then an unusual flower in an unusual place.

See that "flower" up there?  Almost looks out of place to us, but it sure was bright!  Barb's leaning on a palm tree in the next picture, and behind her with those "extra" roots cascading to the ground is a pine tree.  Yeah, I know it looks like a funny shaped palm tree, but it's called a "Screw Pine" with the candelabra top.  This place is all kinda fun!!

Any time a zoo will give us hunters a fair shake, it's worth my while to give them some big KUDOS!!  There are numerous hunting organizations that do a lot for the environment and the resource, and I don't think the general public hears nearly enough about the good things done by these groups.

And then there's the other side of the coin, eh?  So much is ruined for the sake of greed, isn't it.

A cactus has climbed this palm tree (virtually all the green you see is cactus, not palm).  In the shot on the left is the result of quite a bit of time, the center is one where it's just getting started, and on the right is a "Travelers Tree".  So called because of its capacity to hold water for a long period of time.  We found it interesting because it's essentially two sided.  And not two sided like the old joke......"How many sides does a tree have?"  "Two.  Inside and Outside".

Like a ladies fan, eh?  From one angle, the fan shape, and from another angle, it's no wider than the trunk.

Almost orchid like flowers on this one.

Such vivid colors in these blossoms.

Pineapples?  Maybe........maybe not.  No identification tags on most these plants, and we found that strange, frustrating, and a little sad.  For $18 each to get into the place, you'd think they would, but I suppose keeping the animals alive, and paying the staff, and, and, and......... 

And there you have the various stages of a "Dutchman's Pipe" all on one plant.  Is this a great lifestyle or what???

Thanks to a lady eating a ham sandwich, this big guy was all attentive right up close and personal.  Yeah, it's sorta sad these animals are in cages rather than in a savanna setting, but let's face it.  They're captives any way you look at it, and with cages like this we get pretty close physically to them, and in the savanna settings I'd have to break out the tripod and the long lens to get facial shots like these.  And frankly, I'll confess I'd like that better for some reason that defies logic.

Ever seen a square flower?  Well, not the flower, but its base?  (Or whatever you call the thing the flower grows out of.)  Or how 'bout a rock getting a major tree hug?

Cats are cats.  Domestic house cats and these big ones.  At least in some respects.  The female was fixing her face while the guy was getting really, really bored with it all, and finally started to pace.  Wonder where they were going on their date.......

Might as well toss these bird shots in here someplace, eh?  Can't remember the "correct" name for that coot on the left, but that's a female Red Bellied Sapsucker coming out of her nesting hole.  I think.

Calico Tortoise, from Africa.  Got a bit of a hump on the back, eh?

Red River hogs from who knows where, but we sure liked their little tufts on their backs and their hairy sideburns and ears.

Then it was off to see the snake show.  Couple of young women having a great time, as did the small group of us in the bleachers.  Bunch of private school kids, about the same age as that batch of 5th graders, and a smattering of us old codgers to frown at the kids when they got rowdy.

That yellow thing with the shield on it, is a camera.  There were several TV screens around the place, and it gave us a chance to see head shapes, etc., up close.

These aren't "lizards," they're skinks.  Unusual tails in that they can be used in a 360 degree angle.  See the two of them twisted together in the second picture?

These rat snakes are really fun.  Last year we found one on the service road that was all kinked up like it had been running full tilt and hit a wall.  None of these snakes are venomous.

Once in a while the TV's would show a short segment of something or other, and this is a snake who has swallowed an egg that is much larger than itself.  This was a demonstration of how a snake can unhinge its jaw.

And then the venomous ones.  Florida native diamondback rattler, I think.

Beautiful markings, and larger than any I've ever seen in the wild.

The biggest held for last, a python.

She did it!  She touched it!!

The skin has an irridescence to it, much like that boat-tailed grackle we saw earlier.  Very active snake, and kept its handlers busy all the time.

One last shot at some fuzzy flowering plant, and we're outa there.  Great time had by all, and worth every penny of the admission price.

Naples has a city pier that anybody can fish from without a license.  Look familiar Guy & Carol?  (Barb's sister and her husband from New Hampshire used to come here for a month during the winter.)

Who's watching who, eh?  Pretty scruffy looking osprey if you ask me.  Sitting on top of the shelter at the end of the pier. 

You may have heard/read about Florida having trouble with some wildfires.  I took a picture of the sun with no filters, and no Photoshop enhancement to let you see how thick the smoke is even where there's no fires.

One of the young men tossed one of his bait fish up for the osprey, but a crow zoomed in and grabbed it and flew away.  And that's it for this update!

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