September 6, 2007 - Lovers Key
For years I've not liked getting sick. For all kinds of reasons. What I'm now discovering is that it takes a bit longer to get back up to speed than it used to. For the last several days I've been feeling fine after a bit of a bout with an intestinal infection and, as much as I'd like to be out and about, the stamina isn't there yet. While that's the end of the "organ recital" that all us more mature people enjoy to one degree or another, it also explains why I'm at the computer for an extended period of time, being bored out of my skull! Thus, another update which will bring us to the point where we'll not be able to do another one until we go someplace or do something so we can gather some more pictures.
Poor Barb. She missed out on this goodie. Here's the story: Billy, the guy on the other side of the counter, lives in a chair because his legs don't work. Billy, on the other hand, does work. Even helped me haul the water tank and pump out of the EZ-GO once. And paddled his kayak on the backwater tour with the group. And he puts on cooking seminars using Dutch Ovens. And the reason I know that is that I was in the shop one day and asked him if he was collecting money at the North Gate today; he said he'd be going over as soon as his peach cobbler was done. Then he headed over to the bar-b-q that's behind the shop, and I could see some smoke coming from over there. Since I'd never seen a peach cobbler on the bar-b-q, I trotted right over to see what was going on. AHA! So that's the trick. He said he'd be taking it up to the ranger station. I don't remember what I was doing in the shop, but it either didn't get done or I finished it pretty quickly because I love peach cobbler! While we didn't have any ice cream to go with it, we really didn't need it. Wonderful stuff, and as you can see, pretty good palm tree art besides. Billy pulls a travel trailer with his specially equipped van and spends most his time at another State Park nearby. Great sense of humor, and while we didn't work on anything together, we sure enjoyed the time we did spend with him. He's also got a huge Rottweiller dog that will lick you to death if you let it.
Strange things happen on the beach at Lovers Key. Even without any imbibing! The staff is excellent about putting on seminars and "Show & Tell" kinds of things. We've shown Barb's shell club on tour with Pam telling them about the beach environment, and we've got other pictures of some of the tours we've enjoyed as well. This is Ranger Mike's opportunity to share some of his extensive turtle knowledge with us. His training started on the East Coast near Canaveral; they have several different varieties of turtles that nest on the East Coast that we don't have here in the Gulf.
After giving us an overview of the nesting habits of our Loggerhead turtles and showing lots of great pictures, he asked for three volunteers to join him down on the sand. The first volunteer was asked to simply walk across the raked area; the second one, Bob (one of our hard working volunteers) was asked to walk by scooting his feet; the third, a young man was instructed to sort of move his feet in a circular pattern. Then it was easy to see how the activity can be determined by the tracks in the sand. Same with turtles. We can tell what they're up to by their tracks as well as tell what kind of turtle has been here. We occasionally get the Green turtles here, but not this year.
Then Mike shows how the turtle uses its rear flippers as a scoop to dig the nest, lay the eggs, and cover them back up again. He'd used yellow ping-pong balls as eggs so we could see them better--the actual eggs are about that size as well.
Lastly, he's explaining about the cage and sign that goes on every nest we find. The sign cautions people about what's here and warns them of the stiff fine for messing with the nest. The cage is, of course, to cut down on the raccoon predation which worked pretty well this year.
Mike showing the forms that are used to gather data about the turtle nest, including its GPS location, size of tracks, specie of turtle, etc.
Mike ended the seminar with more pictures, and you can see next to him on the table a model of a nest.
Barb and I have been to many Ranger led programs, both here and at the various other venues that have them, and they're always enjoyable and informative. We might be prejudiced, but we think the programs here at Lovers Key rank right up with the best of them.
I showed this Fighting Conch in an earlier page, but wanted you to see what the backside looked like. These are among our favorite pictures that Barb has taken with her little point 'n shoot Canon.
A fitting end to another thrill-a-day here.
One day it wasn't too warm & humid for a hike around the Black Island Nature Trail, a 2.5 mile jaunt through the woods along the edge of the little island, so off we went. I'd just had my camera and lens returned from their various repair shops, and wanted to test things out. Caught this little mangrove crab with its wide-set eyes scurrying along the path, then a vent for one of the several fresh water springs on the island.
This is one of several interpretive signs Barb and I and others have set along the trail. While I've been around rabbits all my life (raised them for meat and hides as a boy), I never ever saw one swimming.
Of course, Mike-the-Manager knew right where the sign belonged, because less than two minutes later, here was a rabbit. Mike would lay the signs at various places in the trail for us to install.
HA! Here it is September 13 and the update still isn't finished. Must have got my energy back. Gee, you think? Yup, been out and about, driving tram, watering plants, distributing rack cards of our event schedule for the month to the various hotels, restaurants, and places tourists and locals as well might be hanging out in.
Anybody wanna guess who this is? Turned out to be an immature Yellow Crowned Night Heron. We'd never seen one before, and it was great fun to see it.
Barb is trying to keep this beautiful Gumbo Limo (known as the "Tourist Tree" because it's always red and peeling) from falling into the canal. We're so afraid one of our favorite trees will end up falling in the canal if (when) we get a decent hurricane. The red in the wild Poinsettia is actually a part of the green leaf, not a separate leaf. Real striking when they're in a bunch like these are.
The grey Nickerbean seed pods are ready to drop their seeds and give us more of the thorny vine, dang it. If we'd not stayed for the summer, we'd have missed seeing the seed pods in this configuration. During the late fall and winter, they're a beautiful bright green and the stickers aren't hard like they are now. Regardless of the fact that we've both lost blood because of this plant, it's still pretty to look at.
Speaking of pretty to look at..... Barb's favorite feather to collect...is still on the Roseate Spoonbill and I'm still trying to get a decent picture of one.
And I'll keep on trying until I do get a decent shot of this pretty bird. Notice how it appears to be following this Snowy Egret around? Well, it is doing just that. We often find the Spoonbill following other birds like the Ibis and others. The spoonbill feeds on small crustaceans and small fish and does so by feeling them with its broad-tipped bill. By following other birds, I'm guessing that the little animals it eats are stirred up and easier to find. I see them doing this quite often and am only guessing as to why they follow other birds around.
OK, who made those tracks? Crab? Nestling that got lost? When I asked Pam (you know, our resident expert on things unknown), the kind doctor told me it was probably some guy from outer space. She got like that just before taking off to celebrate her 60th birthday by spending 60 days in Australia and New Zealand. Can't blame her.
Hooray! Another emergence (the official term for sea turtle hatchlings emerging from their sandy nests)!
Yep, hatchling tracks--all over the place. Long way for those little critters to scramble to the relative safety of the water but, near as we could tell, they all made it.
The end of another beautiful day.
Naw, I don't think that gull is mooning me.... but it might be. It had been sitting on the sand before I began trying to get its portrait while waiting for that sunset you saw above.
Can a gull give you the "Eagle eye"? Yeah, the sunset is getting better all the time.
Bit later, the sun is probably right on the horizon at this point.
Barb never appears reluctant to go watch the sunset with me. Never ever. And I often wonder if she's ever seen a sunset other than here in our pictures. That lady is one dedicated shell seeker. Or is it "sea-ker"?
We have feral cats in the park. These are regular pussy cats that somebody has abandoned by dropping them off in the park and they've grown wild. Living on our baby birds, turtle hatchlings, lizards, and anything else they can catch. And as you know, cats don't always kill because they're hungry, they also kill just for sport. So we set traps for them so we can turn them over to the animal control people. Along with cats, we also catch anything else that likes to eat cat food. Like raccoons and opossums. If we trap a raccoon, that's a good thing as well, because the population at one time was so excessive they were hunting during the daylight hours and would challenge the picnic people for their lunch! They'd come out on the beach and try to steal people food as well, and the park was concerned about the potential for a rabid animal biting somebody on top of the nuisance factor. So, the raccoons are "relocated" if they're caught and, based on the turtle nest predation, the population is probably manageable now for a while.
That brings us to this pretty little critter. The opossum. Stupidest animal I ever trapped. This particular one was caught right alongside our coach. When I went out at dawn to check the two traps I'd set here at "home," I opened the trap door and blocked it open so the 'possum could escape. By breakfast time, it was still in the trap, just sitting there. Not unusual behavior I've discovered. Because Barb was concerned for it, she asked me to go chase it out of the trap. Only, of course, it wouldn't move. So I grabbed the trap, gave it a mighty jerk, and pulled it right out from under the 'possum who landed right there and still refused to retreat. When I came back inside, Barb decided she wanted its picture. Not hard to take a picture of wild life that refuses to run away, eh? In that last photo, you can see it has its mouth open. That seems to be their main defense mechanism. For good reason, too. The hairy little guys have more teeth than any other mammal, Pam tells us.
We went back in to finish our breakfast and, about a half an hour later, the critter ambled off into the brush where it belongs.
Gee, you think we've been here a while? Actually, the patio mats we use are designed to do just this. Not kill any grass that's under them. It's just that we've seldom stayed anyplace long enough for the grass to actually grow up through the mat! Shortly after these pictures were taken, I pulled the mats up, pulled all the grass out of them, and re-laid them. Mostly did it as part of our hurricane preparation. If we have to leave because of a hurricane, we're taking everything (except the canoe) with us because, well, who knows what will happen. Since it's tough to roll the mats up in a hurry if they're full of grass, they needed to be released from their bondage. Next I need to sort all the fishing tackle so it can easily be stowed as well. I've managed to gather enough tackle since we've been here that I'm going to need to be creative when it's time to stow it.
Just realized this update didn't have any of Barb's shell club whimsy, so here's a slide show of some.