In this edition: Weather here and there, more birds, the attack of the no-seeums, canoe canoe, Steve breaks the screen house and the story of the redhead in the short blue dress (or lack thereof—story, not dress).
The weather has been mostly good, with some overnight rain and some hot days, but much better than the 3-4 feet of snow that is in our backyard at home. I don't miss that at all. The house has cooled down more than it did last winter. We have a home monitor and control system from Lowes, called Iris, that tells us the temperature in almost every room. Last winter, nothing ever went below 50°. This winter almost all of the rooms have fallen below that, even after Ellen's brother came by and boosted the thermostat by a couple of degrees. We received the January gas bill the other day and it was about twice what it was last February, which was the first full month we were away. No, I don't miss that cold weather.
Monday was a pretty slow day. We took the ranger-led morning bird walk. It had rained on Sunday night and the puddles on the roads were pretty deep, so we took Speedy and drove the the visitor center. Our friend, Alan, joined us. It was handy that we had Speedy, since the walk (ride) included Mrazek Pond which is a few miles north of Flamingo. We didn't any new birds, but we got a good view of a Roseate Spoonbill in full breeding plumage at Eco Pond, along with warblers, the Painted Bunting and the ever-dancing Reddish Egret. It was nice to see the Avocet and the Black-necked Stilts were still at the treatment plant. Mrazek Pond was a new site for the morning bird walk. I'd ridden my bike bike to it before and Ellen and I had stopped by in Speedy earlier. There is a sizable flock of Green-winged Teal there, along with Common Moorhens, neither of which have been at the usual morning walk sites.
That was the excitement for the day, at least until evening came. It was the hottest day we'd had so far, without much of a breeze, so lazing about in Speedy and the screen room were the order of the day. When dusk came, however, the action started. It seems the rain and hot weather hatched a new crop of no-seeums, tiny little biting insects that go right through the usual bug screens—just what we have on most of our windows.
At first we only saw them on the headliner. This had happened on out first night here. Then, we had just wiped drop the headliner with a Windex-damped cloth which trapped most of them and we had no further problems. We figured that they had come in because we'd been leaving the door open while setting up. That wasn't the case this time.
They wiped up okay. But were back in force an hour later. It drove us under the covers. We got out out our Thermacell, which is a device that heats an allethrin pad, the fumes of which keep away the bugs. The directions say not to use it in an enclosed space, but we had a similar plug-in devices in New Zealand that you could use indoors. We had one in our bedroom and never had insect problems. It seemed to work this time. We ran it until we turned the lights out, figuring that it had gotten late enough that they would have abated.
We were wrong. About and hour later, I woke up scratching. Turning on the lights, we saw that they had come in through our back window (screened) and were all over the bedding and the pillows. Ugh. We ended up closing almost all the windows on the hottest night of the trip, except for the passenger and driver side windows, which have magnetic screens that Ellen designed and are made with no-seeum screening. In the morning we found hundreds of dead ones in the track inside the screen. We had treated the screens with permethrin, which we'd hope would stop them, but, although seemed to have gotten many, just as many flew right through.
The breezes had returned and the attack was over.
Yesterday was much like Monday. Ellen went to the bird walk, but I decided that I was overdue for a bike ride.. Ellen gave up early on the bird walk. It was a large group, mostly beginners and was proceeding very slowly—the lack of sleep the night before probably also contributed, so she came back to Speedy and birded from her Kermit chair while sitting in the screen house reading.
My ride was a bit shorter this time, only to West Lake, a 16 mile round trip While stopped at West Lake, I noticed a microphone attached to a pole the building there. It hadn't been there before. There was also a woman climbing down from the roof. Figuring there was a connection, I asked her about it. It is a new project to track bats by listening to their calls. They are putting up several long-term monitoring stations in the park and several portable stations as well. They are particularly looking for the Florida Bonneted Bat, an endangered species.
On the way back, I stopped a Coot Bay and found a new bird, for the visit at least, some Lesser Scaup among other ducks in the bay. They were pretty far away, so I couldn't identify the brown ducks, but the scaup were distinctive.
After that it was another afternoon of relaxing and reading. Ellen is running into a problem. She is running out of books. Our colds have slowed us down a bit, so we've been hanging about more than usual.
Today, we went canoeing. The park has a ranger-led canoe trip every morning along the Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail. Being free, it is almost always completely booked. We made our reservations on Monday morning and today was the first available. Along with Alan and Ruth, we drove Speedy up to Nine Mile Pond fairly early and arrived in plenty of time. This gave us time to look for the White-crowned Pigeons. Unlike the other day, when I saw them briefly, they were coming and going in force this morning.
Ranger Christi led today's trip across Nine Mile Pond, into the mangroves and out to a sea of grass (with about a foot of water, enough for canoes). There were six canoes and two kayaks following Christi through the mangroves. We only had to stop once for Alligator traffic and it kind of grumbled at us behind the mangroves as we passed by. (On the other hand, Christi did stop the convoy and went ahead a little bit...maybe it was to flip the switch to turn on the alligator noises?)
On the way back, we traversed a small pond that supposedly is home to a very large crocodile. We've been told this both times we have taken this trip, but we've never seen it. This does not prevent Ellen from being a bit nervous about getting too close to shore crossing this pond.
It was back to camp in time for lunch.
It is supposed to rain again tomorrow. The last time it rained, the water poured into the screen house. We have the optional floor and fly for it and had installed the floor when we put it up. The floor keeps out the ground bugs and other crawlies and it waterproof. If it rains, it collects water. On Monday morning there was lots of water. the table and chairs were sitting in an inch of water.
With tomorrow's forecast, it seemed prudent to put up the fly. It covers the screen house, with two sides that open completely. It is not as airy with the fly on and the view is blocked in two directions, but it is supposed to keep out the rain. But first, I had to repair the tent.
Yes...repair our brand new tent. Coming out of the tent yesterday, I caught my foot on the edge of the doorway and stepped right on a partially-driven tent stake, driving the stake right through the fabric and leaving a nice 2" three-corner tear. Fortunately, I had a small roll of rip-stop tape in a hiking essentials kit I have for my pack. I've been carrying it around for over 10 years (I think I originally bought it for my 2002 bike tour). It was the wrong color, but it was still sticky. Ellen and I carefully taped both sides of the tear and it is better than new...and I pounded the stake down to ground level.
In a rather stiff breeze, we put on the fly. Once I remembered to remove the corner guy lines, it when on fairly easily. The fly clips right onto the corner stake straps of the main screen tent and the guy lines re-attach to loops on the fly. It should be nice and sturdy for tonight and get its test in tomorrow's rain.
After that it was time for an iced latte. Yes, our compressor refrigerator makes ice! It came with a little ice tray that Ellen chuckled at when we got it. The tray had been bouncing around in a cabinet and she decided to see if it worked this week. It did, taking only a few hours to freeze solid. The ice cubes are just great for cooling a pot of espresso. Add a bit of sugar and a good bit of cold milk—iced latte. I've got more cubes freezing.
Oh yeah, the story about the redhead with the short blue dress...been waiting for that?
There is a campsite directly across the road from us. It isn't very popular because it has a very small parking spot parallel to the road. Late yesterday afternoon, a little white sedan with Quebec plates pulls in and out hops a thirty-something woman with shoulder-length red hair, wearing a blue dress with a very short hemline. (Ellen says she didn't notice this). This is not the normal attire for camping. She goes into the trunk and pulls out a very small free-standing tent which she erects without fly or any guy lines, so when the wind blows it takes on a very tilted look. It was getting on to evening, so we didn't notice anything else unusual. This afternoon, we notice that her car is there and her tent is there, but she isn't outside like most campers and assume that she is off in the park.
But...just after sunset, she comes out of the tent carrying a full-size pillow and a sheet and puts them in the trunk. She must have been there all afternoon. She's not wearing the blue dress, but shorts and a long-sleeve shirt. She returns to her tent, takes it down, stuffs it into the car and drives off. Checkout time is 1pm, it was now about 6:30pm.
That's that story. You were hoping for more?
It led us to various imagined scenarios. Was she staying in the city and just wanted to get away from the hustle for a night? Had she had a tiff with a husband or lover and stormed off? Did he call and profusely apologize, leading her to reconsider and rush back to the bright lights of Miami? Or was it just that the no-seeums got to her last night and she needed the day to sleep before running back to her bug-free air-conditioned apartment? There are endless stories.
Meanwhile, we're just sitting here enjoying a dinner of angel hair with peanut sauce, snow peas, scallions and peppers, topped with chopped peanuts and wondering if the rain will hold off long enough to go looking for Black Rails on the Coastal Prairie Trail in the morning.
Sorry...no photos today.
Okay, just one of Ellen's:
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