A Sunny Thursday morning, 64 degrees after a cold front delivered shivering temps to the snow birds, flora and fauna. It's 0900 I'm sitting in the cockpit enjoying a cuppa, the waxing moon in setting over the gulf, silently suspended above the tops of waving palm trees. Across from me two noisy crows decorate mast tops complaining/conversing about who know what, sailboat halyardsconstantly clank, in the distance a red-bellied wood pecker distinctively calls, and from above the plaintive calls of osprey as they endless glide silent wind ribbons. A gaze upwards rewarded me with the sight of a pair of wood storks gliding across the sky, a very unexpected sight. A pelican lazily swims nearby, the occasional splash of the jumping fish interrupts my reverie and I glance up at my little visiting heron friend (Green Heron) to amuse me. Picture below as he is perched on the Hobie which is tied behind the transom.
On the 19th of January we arrived in Dunedin on the west coast of Fl. to visit my aunt Rose and uncle Art, 93 year old brother of my father and his wife of 63 years. Coincidentally, the little "noise" that I have been hearing as we idle and change gears has been steadily increasing in intensity from a slight metallic loose change in your pocket jingle to a metal plates thrown on a metal deck sound (no longer to be ignored.) A mechanic diagnosed water in the transmission, a new event as that is checked every day, so this means major transmission overhaul......ok...so we are "stuck" in Dunedin.
Upon transmission removal and delivery to Mastry Engine Service....we retrieve our car from Ft. Myers, meanwhile stopping at Sarasota to revisit our respective childhood memories, mine at a share condo at the south end of Lido Key that is still there and looks the same; Kurt found the property that his Dad owned and the house that his sister Rita owned:) Unfortunately there is a red tide that is plaguing the area and thousands of dead fish littered the Gulf beaches.
So if you have to be "stuck" someplace, let me recommend Dunedin, there is a delightful town full of wonderful restaurants and shops within an easy walking distance from the lovely, lazy marina, a paved hiking/bicycling trail of 39 miles runs that runs right through the town; everyday we have walked or biked. The trail leads to the access of a number of county and state parks. While hiking through Hammock Park, a 90 acre nature preserve of coastal forest park featuring 5 miles of trails, we spotted an male Anhinga drying his wings as a majestic blue heron glided in to perch nearby him. The deep forests are home to the illusive gopher tortoise, and small animals and birds; we saw a Hairy woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker (18") and during one bike ride a RedTail Hawk swooped down in front of us and picked up a snake flying to a nearby fence where he unfortunately (fortunately for the snake?) dropped it, he sat on the fence, 50 ' from us willing us to leave him alone. We finally had the sense to stop gawking as hunger gave way to bird watching and we biked to the local barbecue stand and had a pile of ribs to cancel the goodness of any exercise for that week. On another ride Kurt had to yield to a flock of oblivious ibis who decided just as Kurt came by that the bugs were more tasty on the other side of the path.
Exploration with the Hobie-sail (at the entrance to the marina a pair of Oystercatchers have found a low tide feeding extravaganza) and the inflatable led us to Honeymoon Island and Hurricane Pass where for a brief time a small pod of dolphins accompanied us out in the channel as we went out into the Gulf. That excursion whetted our appetite and yesterday we returned to Honeymoon Island, a State park of 2,810 acres where we hiked on the "Osprey" trail and were lucky enough to meet two gentlemen photographers who were observing a nest of Great horned Owls (mom with two chicks) we were offered the opportunity to observe the nesting mom through the SLR 800mm lens magnification, it was magnificent to see the owl majestically perched upon her stolen throne with her two gray downy chicks, Kurt eventually spied Dad Owl high up in a pine tree a distance away; if my life depended on it, I never would have found that well camouflaged . The gentlemen also offered us a view of a Yellow-rumped warbler which reminded me of the one that which hitch-hiked with us in the Chesapeake a couple of years ago after he flew in through the open wheel-house door; it was very windy and I suspect that the poor thing needed a rest.
As we were finishing up our walk on the Osprey trail, aptly named due to the numerous active/occupied osprey nests, a Great white heron landed on the trail in front of us and decided to saunter with us for a while; because I was focused on her, I stumbled upon a rotund armadillo who was busily foraging on the side of the path; it's likely that I would have sauntered by him/her without notice if not for the heron.......Mr. Armadillo had the cutest pink nose, I suppose if you live in TX you do not think armadillos cute, keep in mind, NY'ers don't see them in the "wild."
No comments:
Post a Comment