Largo Nature Preserve May 12th

Katie took me to Sam's Club for a Kayak. First, we have to find someone to help us. Then, we have to convince "the man" that the kayak I wanted is red, not orange. They did have an orange kayak, but it was a sit on top built for two. ( Linda doesn't want to kayak. She says it it too close to the gators. I'll have to go it alone.) I guess Katie and I subscribe to the same philosophy, you don't argue, just let "the man" think he is right, and you will get what you want. We paid for the kayak, and wait. A woman shorter than me, (I'm 5'4") comes over with they kayak on a cart. I can see that it's red through the bubble wrap.

Of course, I parked as far away from the store as possible. We get it to the truck, I tell the Sam's woman that I'll have to remove the bubble wrap. (I wouldn't be able to tie it down in the truck bed.) The Sam's woman and I get it into the bed of the truck, when I wake up. It's the wrong one. Yes, it is for one person, but it is a sit on top kayak. Didn't know they had a single sit on top, they didn't have it on the floor. I paid for a sit in kayak, not a sit on top. We all head back to the store.

Once we enter, the woman that guards the door, insisted that a sticker is put on the kayak, and we go stand in the return line. The Sam's woman tells her all she has to do it put it back and get the correct one. The sparring between the two goes on and on, until Sam's woman calls a superior. She trumps the Sam's guard.

Again Katie and I wait.

Finally, I'm in the water at Largo's Nature Preserve. Thank goodness there weren't a lot of people around to watch me in the beginning. (The picture below shows the area for launching a canoe or kayak. You can also see how desperate we are for rain. Water levels are too low.) It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it. I would row to the left and then row to the right. Finally I figured it out. I sat back, put my feet on the foot rests, and my further down on the paddle. Hey I could paddle straight.

I spent time chasing the Belted Kingfisher. He would fly from one tree to the next as I tried to get closer. The picture included is best I could get of that elusive bird.

By the time I got around to the Tricolored Heron I was feeling pretty good about being so close to nature, and more than a little repulsed by my fellow human beings. There is a lot of trash in the water. Lets try to forget that, and concentrate on the beauty of it all.

It was the first time I had ever seen a tricolored heron. I kept snapping away, when I looked up to see two people walking on the trail. Someone was taking a picture of me. I squinted to get a better of that someone's walking partner. She looked familiar. The sun and looking through a camera lens was making my vision a bit blurry, but I swear that was Mayra. If you look closely to the right of the picture you can see Mayra and Linda's (not the aforementioned Linda) reflections in the water. Mayra has a few select words for me, because I'm in the water and she is on a trail. Too bad.

I love this picture. Birds in flight are so hard to get, and to get 3 species, at one time, just floats my boat.

Largo, FL looks like one big ugly strip mall. And yet sitting on 31 acres, off of East Bay Drive, in the middle of this strip mall is The Largo Nature Preserve . The access road into the preserve has an abandoned Winn-Dixie on one side and a gulf course on the other. The sign is a wood monument type. (Largo's City Commision doesn't like free standing signs.) As you can see from this picture, power lines run through the preserve and on the right there is housing. One can canoe or kayak for 5 miles.

There is a board walk around Alum Pond, and if you take a stroll on the board walk through the woods you do forget that you are in the city. The osprey and Red-wing blackbirds hang out around the pond area. There is an osprey nest on a pole toward the middle of the picture.

It's becoming a habit of mine to see how big the little ones have grown. I'm looking forward to seeing them Saturday.