FL Birds etc.

I had the opportunity this past week to put in several days paddling on two spring fed Florida rivers. I'm more at home doing coastal trips, but am getting comfortable on the local rivers. The state has done a wonderful job in protecting most of it's rivers and they are in pristine condition. The ecosystems seem healthy and the wildlife is abundant. It is strange, coming from Northern MI to find tracks and pockets of wilderness completely surrounded by residential areas. The thing that surprised me the most was that there was no noise spill into the wild areas. I could have been 50 miles from nowhere. On one afternoon there was no wind and the only sound was a few leaves bailing off the trees and rattling down through the canopy. I also found that if I paid attention, I could paddle with zero noise. Not even paddle drip. That combined with a gentle current, enabled me to float along and approach the wildlife quite closely . River otters, alligators, turtles and all manner of bird life. There were quite a number of juvenile herons and making a solid ID was interesting to say the least . I was surprised to learn that tallapia grow to seven or eight pounds. I know they are farmed and are a big commercial fish, but didn't know they got so big in the wild. They are vegetarian and you catch them with algae for bait....

In Florida there are thousands housing areas that are targeted to a specific buyer. Golf, boating, adult only, active lifestyle, you name it and you can find a community of like minded residents... I saw one yesterday that would do well in MI...” ***** Palms, A Deer Restricted Community.”...With all the lawyers down here, (Davenport has 78 pages of attorneys in the local phone book) I feel that I should start a class action suit for the deer so they can have adequate housing access.

I'm not getting much in the way of hours at EPCOT, but that will change as we get into December and the crowds increase. I'm using my off time to go paddle. Anne hasn't been able to hire on at Disney as yet, but we're hopeful. The weather has been nice, but as the cold up north pushes South, we get the tail end of it for a day or two. The local weathermen have a ball with the temperature drops and use words like; dangerous cold, freezing wind chill, record temperature drop.....of course we are talking about overnight lows of 46...Isn't that Spring???? 

Great Blue Heron

    

Green Heron

Wood Stork  (the only N American stork)

Little Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron