On the Road Again

It is certainly getting warm again down here in Florida.  Time to head north, which a lot of winter residents in our mobile home park have done.  Local weathermen in the Tampa Bay area claim that temperatures quickly jumped from springtime into summer levels, apparently not the usual pattern.  John and I have gotten a little peek of Florida springtime, however, when we visited Sawgrass Park a couple of weeks ago. 

We were most fortunate to see three nests belonging to anhingas,  In one of the nests a mother bird was busy feeding her young.  The little ones in the nest pictured above seemed quite contented, Mom must have already visited and fed them.  The nests were tucked into low-hanging branches of trees located along the shoreline of a lake.  How exciting to see the young birds, we generally just see them as adults.

And we are usually never fortunate to see more than one evidence of wildlife at a time!  In the picture above we caught a turtle hanging out with a little blue heron.  Both seemed oblivious to the presence of the other.

The picture above is that of a yellow-crowned night heron.  We were happy to see him, as you can see, he is quite hidden among leaves and brush.  Every time we have hiked in that park we soon find ourselves talking to strangers and sharing the sightings of wildlife which we see, otherwise we would miss a lot.  Another time we were able to see a mother alligator and her little ones because had someone had told us where to look for them in the swamp.

 

I spent one more time at the beach with Melissa and Nathan before we left the Tampa Bay area.  I could tell a difference in the ocean now, it is definitely getting warmer!  We will miss Nathan, as well as his Mother and Daddy.   And will also miss the story hours which we have attended with him at local libraries.  In the picture below the children are enjoying the thrill of popping bubbles.  

 

As you can tell, because of our young grandson our experience this past winter here in Florida has been most different than past winters.  We had to take time out of our usual touring around to do the things which are more to his liking, and we have enjoyed doing them with him.  Not sure now whether I am happy to be on the road again, what with having to leave our grandson behind!  However, our plans are to return to Florida by August to welcome the birth of Nathan's sibling.