The world of nature seems to interact with us on the waterways more than it ever did on the roadways. Birds stand out most of all. Whether we are making our way along the ICW, walking on a beach or tied up for a rest, unfamiliar birds appear and my curiosity gets the better of me. Fortunately, I included two of my favorite guide books on the boat, so out they come. Brown pelicans, like seagulls in Maine, crowd around fishing boats, waiting for scraps, but unlike the seagull, they seldom make a sound. Some of the mangrove barrier islands are clustered with the white plumage of great egrets, their wispy tail feathers fanned out in the breeze. A black-headed laughing gull adopted us in Pelican Bay. Every time we looked off our “back porch”, he/she would be standing on our dinghy motor coasting back and forth with the tide and the current. We offered lots of chit-chat, but nary a crumb! In St. Petersburg City Harbor we watched two osprey for several hours as they devoured fish, balancing themselves on the tip-top of two sailboat masts. Today as we cleared the Franklin Lock in the Okeechobee Waterway and entered the Corps of Engineers Marina, Wally asked, What’s that sound? It’s like a baby crying.” Come to find out, we are tied off next to a limpkin rookery. These members of the crane and rail family make that carrying krr-oww call day and night. Maybe that’s more information than we wanted to know!
The world of nature seems to interact with us on the waterways more than it ever did on the roadways. Birds stand out most of all. Whether we are making our way along the ICW, walking on a beach or tied up for a rest, unfamiliar birds appear and my curiosity gets the better of me. Fortunately, I included two of my favorite guide books on the boat, so out they come. Brown pelicans, like seagulls in Maine, crowd around fishing boats, waiting for scraps, but unlike the seagull, they seldom make a sound. Some of the mangrove barrier islands are clustered with the white plumage of great egrets, their wispy tail feathers fanned out in the breeze. A black-headed laughing gull adopted us in Pelican Bay. Every time we looked off our “back porch”, he/she would be standing on our dinghy motor coasting back and forth with the tide and the current. We offered lots of chit-chat, but nary a crumb! In St. Petersburg City Harbor we watched two osprey for several hours as they devoured fish, balancing themselves on the tip-top of two sailboat masts. Today as we cleared the Franklin Lock in the Okeechobee Waterway and entered the Corps of Engineers Marina, Wally asked, What’s that sound? It’s like a baby crying.” Come to find out, we are tied off next to a limpkin rookery. These members of the crane and rail family make that carrying krr-oww call day and night. Maybe that’s more information than we wanted to know!
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