My Tern, Conchy Joes and birding friends

We did some beach walking at Jensen Beach on the Atlantic. Ran across a flock of Royal Terns standing on the beach, tried to creep up on them to get a picture but spooked them and they flew. Took a quick snap shot of them flying away and figured it would not be any good, turned out to be a picture I liked.

There is an old restaurant in Jensen called Conchy Joes, they are famous for Conch chowder, they serve it with a bottle of Cream Sherry to douse it with. Nita is ready to dig into a bowl in the picture below, quite good, topped it off with a basket of steamed shrimp.

We have enjoyed bird watching, conversations and campfires with our next door neighbors here at the Locks. Randy and Elaine Fisher have been professional bird carvers for 30 years. In the winter they participate in the many art shows in Florida. Randy does the carving and Elaine does painting. Their beautiful birds look alive. The one in the picture below is a half size Red Tailed Hawk. They travel in a large trailer and produce birds between shows. They left today, hope to meet up with them again in the Keys in several weeks.

Location:St Lucie Locks

On the canal, jumping mullet and Olympic kayakers

We are on another Corps of Engineers park on the canal from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic. There is a damn here to control the lake level and a lock for boat traffic. We are on the fresh water side of the damn, the lock drops the boats down 15 feet to the tidal salt water side. This park has only 9 rv sites and 6 boat slips, tough to get a reservation, after 4 years of trying finally got 2 weeks this year. Our site is on the water with a nice patio to watch all the activity.

The canal has schools of mullet, interesting to watch them jump out of the water. My observation is that the average mullet makes a run of three consecutive jumps, occasionally one will make 4 jumps, probably a youngster, once in awhile just one jump, maybe a senior? Fun to watch.

The German Olympic kayak team trains on the canal here for most of Jan and Feb. There are about a dozen members here. They arrive early every morning and usually have about 3 sessions a day. Their coach follows them in a small motored Zodiac boat. Have talked to several of them, the team members are Army, policeman and some students. They fly home to Germany tomorrow, spend a week there then fly to Spain for 6 more weeks of training, say they love coming to Fl.

That's our routine here, watching mega yachts going through the locks, bs'ing with the rv'ers/boaters, checking out the alligators/ birds and mullet jumping . Doesn't take much to entertain Octagenarians.


The damn in background, fresh water here and salt on the other side.


Kayaks are light, narrow and fast


German on right was 2008 Beijing Olympic medal winner in kayak racing


Mullet


Heron flying by

Location:St Lucie South Locks

Moving day, visits and unique travelers

We have been at Sebastian Inlet for the past 9 day seems like we just got here. We are located right on the inlet and have been entertained by dolphin in front of our site.

Nita got a surprise call from her granddaughter Hanna, she and her friend Brian were vacationing in Miami and wanted to come up and visit. We had a late lunch with them. Toured the Inlet and ocean with them, first time they had seen dolphin in their natural habitat, a real treat to have them visit.

We met Judy last year in the keys. She was here when we arrived. Judy travels in a motorhome with her pooch Noah. Judy fishes, snorkels and is fun to visit with, hope we can cross paths again next winter.

One evening we met a young girl setting up a small tent by us. She travels on a bicycle and carries tent and all on the bike. She is from Germany and has been in the US for several weeks, has been to the Keys, Maimi and is working her way north to Toronto, expecting to arrive there in May. Said she just received her teaching degree and is taking this trip before starting her teaching career. A brave young gal traveling solo.

Another nite we met a couple setting up a tent, both traveling on bicycles and the guy was pulling a small trailer with a big dog. They seemed to be having a ball.

Found another red grapefruit farm store, bought another 1/4 bushel yesterday, delicious, we eat several a day.

Got to pull the plug and move south.








Hanna and the nomads


Better have another one before we pull the plug

Skunk in a ball, umbrella dog and Devils Gut

We are presently residing at Jonathan Dickinson state park located just south of Hobe Sound. The intracoastal waterway bounds the eastern side of the park and across the waterway lies Jupiter Island, home of the rich and famous, were told Greg Norman and Tiger Woods have homes there. During WWII the park was Camp Murphy, a secret Army radar training facility with a population of over 6000 troops on these 11k acres.

We visited the the Hobe Sound Nature center and took a ranger led tour of the scrub dunes and intracoastal waterway. They have a museum and the star is a Spotted Skunk in a plastic ball that speedily scoots around the museum wherever he wants to go, he makes it tough to get a good photo.

We have had some showers the last few days, a lady in the park walks her dog that carries an umbrella in case of rain, she says when it starts raining she has to wrestle it away from him.

In this are you see a lot of yellow/orange vines covering plants and trees. It is a leafless, parasitic, native species vine called Devils Guy or Love Vine. It doesn't harm the plants it grows on and is a beneficial cover for wildlife.



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Upper right is Devils Gut covering plants, Gopher tortoise sunning in lower left

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Location:Jonathan Dickinson state park