Random Florida 2020 - 2nd Paddle Of The Year

It was back to work for me this week after 2 weeks' furlough; all work and no play made Bonnie a boring blogger, so today I thought I would look back to January. Remember January, when everything was normal and we could fly places and visit people we love? Yeah, that was nice.

This was my 2nd paddle of the year. I think it was the same day as TQ and my sister and I went to see manatees. The VRBO where we were staying (click to see)was on a canal and came with 2 recreational kayaks and a canoe. It was a quiet evening and I decided to take one of the kayaks out for a spin - nobody else wanted to come this time, I think everybody was feeling unenergetic after the day's other adventures, so it was just me, my camera, and a whole lot of birds settling in for the evening. Not long, trip log says just shy of 3 miles, but just lovely.

I did get a few more takers when I proposed an evening paddle the next day, but for some reason I did not take my camera - but we pretty much saw the same thing. Spectacular, these Florida birds! Click on any photo for a slideshow view. F 

Florida Day 5 - Manatees and an otter!

Nothing very inspiring going on for me here in Brooklyn. It's been rainy, I've been social distancing and working from home, I have a few more flowers I haven't shared yet, I probably will but rather than change the name of my blog to Flowerma, tonight I decided to dip back into my Florida pictures.

We'd had a couple of near misses with manatees in the preceding days. My friends in Anna Maria Island had taken us to a place where some manatees had been earlier in the week, but they'd moseyed on. The Mote Marine Lab has a pair of manatees, Hugh and Buffett, but their habitat had just closed temporarily for renovations the week we visited. These near misses made me even more interested in seeing manatees. A little online research turned up Manatee Park in Ft. Myers. It was a 45 minute drive, but when I called the park & asked if we would see manatees if we came, the very sweet woman who answered the phone positively guaranteed it. So the next morning my sister and TQ and I all jumped in the car and set off to see the manatees.

Manatees, as we learned from one of the volunteers there, have no blubber. I would never have guessed that, they are so roly-poly looking, but they don't, and that's the reason that when the waters of the Gulf get too cold for them (below 68 fahrenheit) they make their way up into the warmer inland waters. They particularly like the warm outflow from power plants, and Manatee Park is built around one such outflow that runs into the Orange River. We didn't end up paddling with the manatees here - there is a kayak and canoe rental there but as usual, we hadn't gotten the quickest start so didn't have hours and hours and hours to play with, and we found that the manatee viewing from the shore of the outflow canal was fantastic. There were mamas and babies, and the volunteers told us some really interesting stuff (including stories about how wildlife rehabilitators go about releasing manatees - this is a frequent release spot and the newly freed animals are tracked carefully to make sure they're doing ok, all really interesting) so we decided to stick with that, plus a little time exploring the grounds.

That was a good call because they had this lovely short nature walk on a boardwalk through the mangroves where the outflow met the river, and while we were exploring that, we found a wild river otter! We'd enjoyed seeing the ones they had at the Mote Marine Lab the day before, and getting to watch this one going about his wild otter daily routine was just fantastic.

And we got to see a herd of manatees getting spooked by something - that was pretty impressive, they had been floating so peacefully but my goodness, when these big creatures all went diving away simultaneously, they left the water roiling!

Another beautiful day in Florida! All photos after this, click for a slideshow view. 

Florida Day 4 - Residents of the Mote Marine Lab

Hello! I am a Burrfish!

What a face, right? 

Day 4 of our January trip to Florida was another chilly one, so we decided to head north again for a visit to the Mote Marine Lab near Sarasota. This place had been mentioned favorably by my friends who live on Anna Maria Island when we'd visited them a couple of days earlier. I think they'd mentioned it during my 2019 visit to them as well because I'd already had it in mind as someplace that might be interesting; I wasn't going to push for it but when others mentioned it I seconded the idea quickly.

The Lab was named after William Mote, a successful Sarasota businessman who loved fishing and the sea, who started supporting it in the 1960's. The lab had been opened as the Cape Haze Marine Life in Placida, Florida, in 1955 under the leadership of Dr. Eugenie Clark; under her (yes, HER, yes, in 1955, how cool is that? she must have worked so hard), the facility became noted for shark research, and that continues to be one of the things for which they're still noted today.* In fact one of my favorite exhibits there was an interactive one about how scientists use tags of various sorts to collect data about the movements and behavior of sharks and other animals. There were more different kinds of tags than I could've imagined, and then the fun interactive component was a large display screen showing the Ocearch marine animal tracker, where you can click on icons representing tagged sharks, whales, seals, sea turtles, and even alligators, seeing what kind each one is and where it's been.

It's not as shiny and fancy as some aquariums I've been to - somewhere on their website, though, they said that that's not what they're after, they're focused on the research and education. They had a really good range of exhibits and animals and lots of interesting information about the local marine environment. Unfortunately their manatee habitat had just been closed for renovations; this was the 2nd close miss for manatees, my Anna Maria Island friends had taken us somewhere where there had been manatees days earlier, but they weren't there. But we did enjoy seeing what Mote had to offer. As always, click on any photo for a better view. 

Sea zucchini!

Nah, nah, nah, just kidding. There's actually a sea cucumber in the grass, and they must like zucchini.

ENORMOUS spiny lobster

Seahorse. They had an interesting exhibit called "Oh Baby!", which gave information about how various sea creatures reproduce and care for (or don't care for) their young - I don't think this one was part of that exhibit but seahorses were of course featured, with the fathers who actually incubate and hatch their eggs in their brood pouches.

Guitar fish! This friendly fish was in an outdoor touch tank that had a deeper section in the center where any of the rays that didn't feel like interacting could go for a little alone time. Most of the rays in the tank were there but this guy was actually swimming around the edge and sticking his nose out of the water.


Shark! And some tarpon, a prized Florida game fish nicknamed "The Silver King". Handsome fish. These were in the largest of the outdoor tanks in the first of the 2 buildings. Once you were done here, you walked over to the 2nd.

Wyland wall on the outside of one of the 2 main buildings. This is where the manatees are when they're there.

In addition to shark research, Mote does a lot of turtle conservation work, and they have a turtle hospital where injured sea turtles from tiny hatchlings up to enormous adults are cared for.

They release as many as they can - 

but some end up not being able to go, like Squirt 2, who was badly injured by a boat propeller.

I think our favorite exhibit was the otters, though. They had a really nice big exhibit with a waterfall for sliding and rafts. The otters were all swimming around when we got there - 

which turned out to be just in time for feeding time. The otters, who are also all anim had some husbandry behaviors they've been trained to do, and dinnertime is reinforcement time. Maybe I'm projecting but they really seemed to enjoy this - they had an air of eager attentiveness, and nobody ever broke ranks to try to steal anyone else's goodies - and then after the session was over they all ended up playing with each other with so much enthusiasm, like they were still excited from the fun with their keeper. 

So all in all, another nice day!

Mote is closed for the pandemic, but like so many other places, they are still sharing the animals with live webcams and also special "ReMote" happy hours!

*History notes from an expanded version of the history page available in a PDF on that page.  

Florida Day 3, Myakka River Part 3 - BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS!

Just a quick post tonight, still wrapping up February's fun at work but tonight I'm home early enough that I went through my photos from  the next attraction at Myakka River State Park, and I'm just going to share a few of those before I turn in.

Once we'd finished with the boat and the tram, we met up with my folks again (only service dogs are allowed so they'd stayed behind with Belle). We had some lunch (snack bar there is pretty good) and then headed over to the weir at the end of the lake to see how the birds were.

I'd been absolutely blown away the year before when I saw 22 count 'em 22 different kinds of birds in the one day we were there. I enjoy birding but I'm not serious about it enough to remember to do lists, but I did sit down that night to write down everything I was sure I'd seen:

Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Tricolor Heron, Yellowlegs, Great Egret, Snowy and/or Cattle Egret (not sure which), American Avocet, Sandhill Cranes, Killdeer, Brown Pelican, White Pelican, Boat-Tailed Grackle, Crow, Osprey, Anhinga, Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Belted Kingfisher, Limpkin, Black Vulture, and Bald Eagle (juvenile).

Amazing, right?

Didn't see quite as many this time. With it being cold and the wind blasting, a lot of the birds were probably hunkered down in the brush. Still, the area at the weir was sheltered and there were plenty of birds hunting for lunch.

The only one of the birds we saw at Myakka last year that we didn't see anywhere at all this year were the sandhill cranes - here were a couple of pairs we saw at the park, and then there was also a small parade of them wandering across the street when we first went over to my parents' friends' home in Venice. Amazing birds! 

First time I'd ever seen them was at a lakefront resort in Indiana in 2017. I looked out a lobby window shortly after we arrived and saw the resident pair; I made some exclamation, a gentleman overheard me and when I described what I was exclaiming about he told me that it was probably a Great Blue Heron. "Nope, I know what those look like and these aren't those". So he walked over to the window and his jaw dropped and he exclaimed "Those are DINOSAURS!"

Later on I did figure out what they were, and the last day of our stay there I got up for an early morning swim and ended up having to wait for the crane family (parents and a well-grown youngster) to finish their morning dance before I could go down to the water. OK, they didn't so much finish as get interrupted by a brash young deer who came bounding through the dance floor - the nerve of some animals! Amazing thing to see, though.

Didn't see any of those in Florida this time though.

Back to this year, now - this bank had been a popular hangout for the roseate spoonbills and the black vultures last year, too - 

but last year there were also alligators! Not this year, too cold.

I think my favorite picture is the 2nd one down here, which is one glossy ibis hanging out with a flock of white ibises. I took a bunch of photos of that group, I loved the contrast and I got a little bit of the sheen on the dark feathers that gives the bird its name. OH - next picture down from that one was a new bird from last year, making up for the missing cranes - that elegant black and white one with the long pink legs is the Black-Necked Stilt; we'd seen a flock flying during the boat ride. Beautiful birds! I think I'd seen them before somewhere but we had a great view of them here.Just pictures after this, so click for a slideshow view.

Might have to indulge in a zoomier zoom lens one of these days...

Florida Day 3 Continued: Myakka River Tram Ride

My sister on the tram

After the chilly boat ride on Lake Myakka, my sister and TQ and I met up with my folks and Belle the dog. The three of us had reservations for the 2:30 tram ride (no dogs allowed on either the boat or the tram, so my folks weren't participating in those), but after a quick discussion we decided to change to the 12:30 tour, so we wouldn't have to keep a close eye on the time over lunch and birdwatching. One definite bonus to visiting the Myakka River State Park on such a chilly day - it may have meant most the lake alligators had said "See you later", but it was definitely easier to get on the tours you wanted. If you're ever visiting this park on a nicer day, you definitely need to get there early to get on those.

We'd been there exactly one week too early for the tram the year before, and my folks were disappointed because they'd really enjoyed that on earlier visits to their Florida friends. I'm not sure why our timing changed this year but again, this was a bonus to that. This park is one of Florida's largest, hhere's a lot to see and a variety of beautiful Florida environments. Our tour guide knew so much about the various areas she took us through, and she did a great job of taking the local history and biology and weaving it into a well-imagined story of what you would have found here and done here if you were an early settler.

She also found us more alligators - we drove into a Wilderness Area (with a sign with multiple warnings and rules and also vultures circling hopefully overhead) and shortly found ourselves in a sheltered swampy area. This turned out to be a popular nursery for the mother alligators, who are very protective of their babies and take very good care of them.

We also saw one deer - TQ was able to get a photo of her with his phone, I was still fumbling with my zoom lens when she left, but here was TQ's photo.



Before we went into the wilderness area, we drove past a floodplain - dry in the wintertime, it floods in the spring and there's a beautiful explosion of flowers. After the alligators, we drove on through woods and prairie, learning about saw palmettoes (which will cut you up if you run through them) and sabal palms (whose hearts are edible, nicknamed "swamp cabbage", and from what the guide was saying, pretty yummy), and the lichens and air plants that carpeted the bark of the trees, and the wildlife for whom this is home (our guide pointed out a pig trap, and we'd seen some pigs during the boat ride - pigs were brought to Florida by the Spanish explorers in the 1500's and thrived; the park has to work very hard to keep them under control). Even the Spanish moss dangling from the trees got into the story, as harvesting the stuff was one way of making a living in this area. Cattle also provided a livelihood, and in fact before the park became a park it had been a ranch - you can read a short history at the website I linked to in the first paragraph.

I'm so glad we got to do this this time, it was a very interesting tour by a very knowledgeable local.

Note later: It's bothering me as I think about this post how there's no mention of the people who lived here before the Europeans came. The nature of the tour guide's narrative wasn't a complete history lecture, she was focusing on what it would have been like to be a certain person living here at a certain time - but to add in that older history, this was originally the territory of the Calusa. 

All photos after this - click on any of them for a slide show view.