September 28, 2014.  73 – 88°F  Water temp 83°F  Sunny Sarasota, FL

A sunny day welcomed us into Sarasota, FL.

We are staying at Marina Jack.  Very nice marina in Downtown Sarasota.  We are not the smallest boat nor the largest boat at this marina.  We have neighbor boats that make our home look like a dingy.  Fascinating!!  These gargantuan boats have full time crews that wash their boat every morning.  EVERY morning!!  What else would the crew do if they are in port?  Make the boat ‘shine’ for the owner should they show up.  They don’t offer to come over to wash our boat, tho.  Darn it!

Being in the city makes it an easy 1/2 mile up the road to a Whole Foods.  On Saturdays there is a Farmer’s Market.  Guess where I will be that morning!

We are experiencing a different flavor of nature.  There is an osprey around since I hear it in the morning.   We have a quirky group of “green heron”.  Who knew?  Pictures don’t show the mute colors.  The bird looks more brown than “green” but it matches all the descriptions in my bird book.  It hunches its neck preferring to dangle over the water waiting for a minnow to swim by.  We counted 5 the other evening roaming the docks.  Finally seeing one dip its head down and catching a fish.  It was polite enough to rinse the minnow off before swallowing.

Little fellow with neck stretched out

Dangling over the water waiting

There are larger white herons that flutter around but these quirky little ones have captured my attention.  I don’t remember seeing these kinds of birds before.

We saw Pelicans around the bridges as we transited the ICW.  This fellow gave us the evil “eye”.

Pier fish.  We are just off the ICW so the fish are a bit different.  I understand a porpoise with a bent dorsal fin does come to visit from time to time.  I will keep an eye out.  We saw some thin iridescent blue fish today that we haven’t seen before.  Pictures didn’t come out. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe a “needlefish”.

A large dinner plate sized jelly fish said hello to us after we arrived. Had I known it wouldn’t be back, I would have captured it on film. Alas, we haven’t seen a large one since.  Probably a good thing.  I saw some small dollar sized ones today.  No, I didn’t dangle my toe over the swim platform to find out either.

We see these yellow striped fish nibbling on pilings.  Several of them, in fact.  I think they are a “pin fish”.   They are constantly nibbling.  The Asst Dock Master was telling us “if only I could train them to clean the bottom of the boats…I’d be rich!”

But these fish are not nibbling closer to land.   The piers are massed with crustaceans.   Is this tonight’s “Oysters Rockefeller”?

Barnacles or Dinner?

By the way.  An observation for those beer drinking friends of ours.  I cannot find MGD ( Miller Genuine Draft)  anywhere in the local grocery stores. Although, the restaurant here hosts a lovely “Sweet Water IPA” that I have enjoyed more than once.  😉