Nature Hike

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blog 03-14-14

It was a great start to the day, I got to wish my sister Pat a happy birthday.

As the morning rolled on I discovered that a hearty breakfast was in order so I made oatmeal pancakes with walnuts on my new coleman grill outside. The grill came with 2 tops, the regular grill and a grittle that is perfect for pancakes. No mess inside.

Then it was time to give Oscar a special treat. He has been walking the same loop here and he needed a change so we went for a 2 mile hike in another part of the park across the highway. We had to drive to get there then find the entrance to the trail but once we did he was off like a bullet. We came to an opening fairly soon and the view was outstanding. picture.

This part of the island was donated by a private person as a sanctuary for birds. It is 3 ft above sea level and floods in most heavy storms. The base is old coral that has accumulated some soil from the air in the form of dust storms then some small plants started to grow. As they grew and decayed more soil was formed and now you have a very delicate but thick growth of vegatation consisting mostly of thatch palm with a few other types of trees able to take hold and survive here and there. There are leather ferns and mosses and a type of tree that produces the favorite food of the white crowned pigeon, which is endangered. The thatch palm grows about an inch a year, although you can't really tell how old a palm tree is like other trees. They can only guess that some of the palms in the park area are hundreds of years old and not any bigger than my leg. The lack of soil is the main reason for poor growth, and an occasional hurricane doesn't help,

There was a bay overlook that was beautiful and while walking around on the edge of the old coral I saw a small shark. The weeds had blown into a small cut out to form a roof so the shark was well hidden from predators and me. Just caught a fast look at him, about 2 ft long.

We wound our way through the jungle smelling all the great smells. Some earthy and damp, some plant that smelled like a skunk and my favorite, the coffee smell. It took us over an hour to walk the path, looking, smelling and generally enjoy nature.

When we got back home I was backing into the campsite and in my side mirror I saw a "shadow" near my heron lawn ornament. It turned out to be a white egret doing a dance mimicking the statue. It formed the exact shape of the ornament and was doing a dance exactly the way the wind was blowing the artificial one. It was amazing to watch and of course I thought how to get a picture of that. I took a shot of the mirror image and it came out ok, picture. When I got out of the car he just stayed around long enough for me to get a good picture, just of him, not the dance.

Since Oscar was tired out I put him in the camper and went to the picnic area to sit in the shade and read my book. That didn't last long. The activity of the day was kite surfing and it begged to be captured on "Film". I had a great time sitting on the beach and snapping away. And of course they were showing off. What amazing athletes these people are. I can't imagine the strain on your whole body, an increadable work out, and they were out there for hours. How they keep from banging into each other or getting their lines tangled in the marker posts is beyond me. The wind was right and they were there.

Then it was a light dinner and back out for the sunset ceremony. No pelicans today, too much wind I guess but the sun did it's thing. I was chilly in the evening so I put on a sweat shirt then looked at the temperature, it was 74. Oh Lord, I've been here too long, my blood has thinned.

Time to go inside and edit the pictures and type the blog. The stars are not bright at all because the moon is almost full and casts so much light it feels like early morning. Beautiful sight to behold, I'll try to get a picture tonight after I take shots of the moon rise

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Photos

black bead in seed
This is a seed pod that unfurls into a unique arrangement

view from the side mirror
The white egret was imitating the fake heron's movements