A Tale of Two Chemists: Unexpected Treats

Unexpected Treats

Friday 19th March 2021

With the luxury of a car at our disposal (thanks Paul, Fran and Clark!) we decided to spend the day birding. After consulting the Florida Birding Trail we decided to drive out to the St Sebastian River Preserve State park, about 30 miles from Vero Beach. The lady in the visitors center recommended we make a trip out to the TM Goodwin Water Fowl Management area (aka as stick swamp). This turned out to be about 6 miles up a dusty dirt road, but within minutes of arriving we were already convinced that this was a great place. The area was swarming with wading birds – herons, egrets, limpkins and most spectacular of all, roseate spoonbills. I was busy snapping some shots when a gentleman approached and asked if it would be helpful if he took me in his boat round the side of the island where many birds were nesting. My first inclination was to say no thanks, but the opportunity seemed too good to pass. Larry assured us it wasn’t an inconvenience because it didn’t look like a good fishing day because it was windy. He launched his bass boat and Gloria and I jumped aboard. We can’t believe how lucky we are … Larry turned out to be absolutely charming and spent the next two hours or more driving us around the wetlands. At times we would ghost past the nesting bird colonies using his electric trolling motor for propulsion. At other times we would cover the water at 20+ mph with the aid of a 70 HP Yamaha outboard. It was a fantastic experience. Larry and his wife Sarah are from Alabama and made the trip over especially to fish these waters. Yesterday their daughter joined Larry and she caught a 9.5 lb bass … and we saw the photographic evidence! Larry is now retired having spent many years with the Navy in aviation and then some time in sales working with bulk chemicals. His love of nature was obvious from the first few minutes we met him. We had a fabulous time and are truly grateful for his generosity in taking us around.

In the mid-afternoon we returned briefly to the St Sebastian River Preserve and for the second time on this trip (in fact ever) we saw red cockaded woodpeckers. We also saw a yellow-throated vireo and swallow tailed kite, both new species for our year afloat. We then headed over to Paul and Fran’s house for drinks followed by an outstanding pork and pasta dinner. All told it was an excellent day.

We are looking forward to Larry and his wife Sarah coming over to Cotinga tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Mike

27 39.509 N, 80 22.272 W

I took a lot of bird photos today! I don't have time to work them all up now so here are a set of Roseate Spoonbill photos along with a shot of Larry - without whom the other photos would not have been possible