A Month of Garden Club

I thought about running Saturday, but fortunately it rained. Sunday we were the morning shift of ambassadors at LAWD. I briefly thought about jogging when we got home, but came to my senses. Monday, MLK Day, we decided to actually visit LAWD, so were up and out too early for any jogging. Whew. Early this morning, I heard rain, but by the time it was light, even though the skies were still gray, there was no rain and no reason to avoid my run. I am at the last outing of Week 4 in my second time through the Couch to 5K app. It’s getting tougher and isn’t as novel; I need to be wary of calling it quits. I remind myself I am grateful I can still jog. I’ve also packed on pounds through my thorough enjoyment of Christmas cookies and candies. Time to bite the bullet, not Hersey’s Kisses. It’s 5 weeks until my next 5K. Easy enough to gnaw off 5 pounds with the old eat-less-exercise-more. I’m still convinced that eventually scientists will find that lying on the couch, eating potato chips is the secret to a long, healthy life. Until then…

We loaded in the scope for our Lake Apopka trip so I could check out ducks. I have to relearn how to use it since I’m back to wearing glasses to counteract my redeveloped astigmatism. Grrr. I know it’s just a matter of practice, but it is annoying. I saw ring-necked ducks, what I think were mottled ducks, and lots of blue winged teals. Coots and gallinules were all over. With the help of another birder, I finally saw the ash-throated flycatcher that has been on the rare bird alerts for weeks. Although it had been reported being seen next to the entrance road, I hadn’t found it. We schlepped back to the barn and went a little cross country. Two of the birds flew into a nearby tree. At first the closer one sat with its back to me, but eventually it turned sideways and posed like all the pictures I’d seen. Finding that little bugger inspired me to stop at the U and spot the Ridgway osprey, a Caribbean subspecies with a lot less dark on its head. Like the ATFL, it had been reported in that spot for a while. Checked off my list.

A great blue had nabbed a small snake down by the pump house pond. It flew off with the snake dangling, so I didn’t get to watch it slurp it down. Perhaps the snake escaped. My money is always on the bird. That species will eat anything, and my nomination for ridding the Everglades of pythons. We also saw a large otter gamboling by the road. Too far for a photo. By the time we drove by, it has slipped off into the bushes.

It was sunny so the gators were out soaking up the rays. Quite a few were hanging out by the road. The really big ones were on the dike along one of the back roads where I’d wanted to set up my scope to see the ducks in the far ponds. Maybe I could do that on a cold, gray day, when the reptiles would stay down in the water. Gives me the willies just thinking about them. We saw 12 of the beautiful, invasive gray-headed swamp hens, most I’ve seen, including the one towards the back of my photo. 

An eagle, more ospreys, palm warblers, all the usual egrets, ibis,  and herons (3 sleeping night herons), anhinga and cormorants, pied billed grebes, a dowitcher, turkey vultures, boat tailed grackles, whistling ducks were most of the rest of my eBird list. Perhaps white eyed vireos, which I need to learn. Gray catbird, cardinals, Carolina wrens, a house wren, some swallows. A good day birding.

Five hours after we got to LAWD, we stopped at the exit gate, so I could take off the tights I was wearing under my jeans. Why do I ever think we’ll do a quick swing through? Lunch was from a crepe food truck in Winter Garden at the MLK celebration. Meh, but available. My garden club was handing out plants to children at a story-reading area. As usual with that group, there were more volunteers than need (what a luxury), so we toddled home and watched football.

Florida has missed the freezing weather plaguing the rest of the country this weekend, including Kansas City where the Miami Dolphins lost 7-26 to the Chiefs in -7° and under temperatures. Or Buffalo, New York, where the Sunday game was delayed until Monday, and the fans threw snowball through out the game. In fact, I was warm on my run this morning, in the low 70’s. Fine by me.