Saturday, March 29, 2014

Last Manatee Watch and Goodwin

Despite the very warm temperature, we were surprised to see 2 manatee today. Very cool. After the manatee survey, we headed over to Goodwin for a walk. As always, Goodwin came though with lots of cool stuff. If you didn't GOYB, here's what you missed:

Apparently, there were a ton of fish in this little area, every time this cormorant dove, he came up with another nom. I counted about 6 just in the few minutes I watched him.
 These were 2 turtles with lots of slime and mud on their backs. I think they were red bellied sliders.
Click on this picture to zoom it and take a look at his feet. They are pretty neat looking, they don't look like they should be strong enough to support him.
There were a LOT of gators out there today. This is a young one, probably about a year old.
I didn't realize till I was editing the picture that there were 2 here!
This is a black crowned night heron coming in for a landing.
This picture made me laugh. The meadowlark was singing his little heart out and begging me to take his picture. I love this pose.
 Evil, invasive bubblegum snail eggs. We did see a snail kite carrying a snail, don't remember if it was a local one or one of the exotics.
More gators - this is another picture where I didn't realize there were 2 gators there till I was editing it.
Heather wants to know what this picture is. If you know, please tell us. She was guessing by the smell that it is in the camphor family.
One last shot of a black crowned night heron. Something about his look amuses me, he looks like he would be saying, "Lar-de-dar, just sittin' on my stick.... lar-de-dar..."

So why weren't you out there with us? Were you home sitting on your stick saying lar-de-dar? Remember, you can see cool stuff like gators and turtles and birds (oh my!) on the internet, but you can only experience them if you GOYB and join us! We got some cool outings coming up, make sure you check back and join us!