October 9, 2014 Sarasota, FL 70 – 88°F Sunny Day! Breezy and cool in the shade.
A wonderful day here in Sarasota. A few moments to update you to our surroundings. We are in DownTown Sarasota with bankers to the right of us, condos to the left. Boats scattered in the Marina or in the mooring fields. I think that big blue building in the center is a “Chase Bank”. Almost blends in with the sky color.
Condos and Banks – side by side
Mooring Fields – see Paddler?
A variety of birds. The quirky little Green Heron that my pictures don’t depict well. My picture? What do you expect at night with a Phone Camera??
Green Heron – dangling on a line at night
These Green Heron look squat and round. When they want to they extend their neck like all the other herons we normally see around marshlands and marina. What I think is so funny about them is they will dangle on the boat lines, balancing themselves as the lines moves with the water, and then abruptly swoop down and get a small guppy.
We have been taking strolls at night and have seen another bird. We only see this bird at night. It is bigger and more robust than the little Green Heron. But only at night. I think they call it the “Night Heron”. hahaha Now it makes sense!!
We have an assortment of egrets and white herons.
Egret – looking for breakfast this morning
Looking for lunch
Jelly fish riding the tide
I saw this jelly fish riding the tide into the marina this past week. As I was ready to whip out my little phone, a woman came around the corner with a massive 15 inch lens on her new Nikon camera. My little camera versus her big zoom camera…. hmmm does size really matter?!?! She showed me her picture. I put my lil’ phone camera back in my pocket. Completely intimated…
Needle fish swarm… okay only 7
I am sure you have noticed that I have concentrated this posting on the creatures around us. Well there are a few humans. Just not many. We are surrounded by boats over 80 feet long and some as small as 28 ft. Most of the boats are un-occupied right at the moment. Owners paying crew members to keep their boat ship-shape and ready to go at a moments notice. There are “transients” (boats and their owners) that come for the weekend and move on. Owners that show up to have a glass of wine on their boats only on weekends. There are yachts owned by corporate folks that hire a captain when they have clients to take out on the water. Still a bit early in the season so many out-of-state owners haven’t arrived yet. Many of these humans are just not that interesting.
The interesting humans live on those sail boats out in the mooring field. No electricity unless they have wind or solar power to charge their batteries. The boats are tethered to a ball that is anchored. No running water unless they have a water maker aboard. They come into the marina via dinghy or row boat. Stay a while. Get supplies and motor/row back to their boat. Yes, it is cheaper to stay out there in the mooring field. If you have your trusty recycled coffee container, you have an instant bailing equipment. You don’t have to worry about anyone stealing it and you can always get another one, easily.
Coffee can bailing equipment
To end end this post, I show you a cloud formation…. looks like a shark to me?!!
Shark!
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