February 13, 2017

February 13, 2017  •  Leave a Comment

It's my final day in Florida and I'm not yet ready to go home. I had a really good time hanging out with my family and looking for wildlife. I was out everyday hiking the trails at the parks and looking for animals to watch and photograph. I saw so much awesome stuff and took roughly 7300 photos. I'm assuming it will take me several weeks to go through these and I'll probably delete roughly 80% since there are so many duplicates and probably stuff that isn't as good as I want.

With today being my final day, I got up early so that I could spend some time with the kids before I had to leave. Tyler was up first since he leaves early for school and so we sat and snuggled on the couch before he had to go. I laid back down for roughly a half hour and waited for Kayla to get up. She had me put minions on the tv for her and we worked on a puzzle as she ate breakfast and got ready for school.

After the kids went to school I spent a little time with my sister and their dog. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone. I could have stayed a bit longer, but I still hadn't found a roseate spoonbill or an armadillo, so I went park hopping on my way to the airport in search for either/both of these animals. People say they both are all over the place in Florida, but they seemed so rare to me, LOL.

I first went to Hammock Park in Dunedin (pronounced as.... done edin). It took me a while to grasp that one because I kept botching the name of the town. I hiked around there for roughly 1.5 miles and didn't find a spoonbill or an armadillo so I continued on. I then went to the causeway and hung out for a bit, but things were slow there so I went to Kapok Park in Clearwater. That park didn't have any cars in the lot and it seemed wide open in the sun, so I left and headed to Cliff Stephens Park. By that time it was after 1 and I was hungry so I sat at a picnic table and enjoyed my sandwich. Once I was done I took a little walk and finally stumbled upon a roseate spoonbill. I quickly went back to my car and got my camera. As soon as I got back over to it, it flew and hid in a tree. I had to maneuver myself to hide behind a tree and it finally came out and landed on the railing of a boardwalk. I carefully shimmied my way over and finally got shots of the one and only spoonbill I was able to find.

I stayed for a bit longer and scanned around the pond to find other wading birds and a roughly 8-9 foot gator. After I got a few shots of him, I was rather satisfied and headed towards the airport. I probably could have goofed off for another 30-45 minutes, but I figured I would just get to the airport and relax. It was a very busy week and although I had so much fun, I am a bit exhausted. I'm gonna miss it here in Florida with my family and all the awesome wildlife, but I do look forward to getting home to my boyz since I miss them so much!


Comments

No comments posted.
Loading...

Archive
January February March April May June July (31) August (21) September (3) October (7) November (5) December (13)
January February March (1) April May June July August (2) September October (1) November (2) December (1)
January February March April May June July August September October November December
January February March April May June July August September October November December
January February March April May June July August September October November December
January (24) February (3) March (1) April May June July August September October November December
January February March April May June July August September October November December