Monday, Jan 7 - Already the end of the first week of the New Year. Thinking of kids and teachers heading back to school, with some sadness and some gladness. Hope all goes well as we head into the reality of this year...US problems, election year in Canada. Could be a very exciting time.

I'm going to make this more of a pictorial entry rather than my usual blathering. Thanks to the Forsyths, we discovered a really good nature area, the Circle R Bar Ranch Preserve. This is an area near Lakeland that was once a pristine watercourse area until converted to farmland for commercial use. After about 40 years, they recognized the damage they'd done, so the owners of the ranch deeded it back to the government, and since then it's become one of the largest reclamation projects in the U.S. Florida needs to do more of this. They've been chewing up the landscape for decades to support the growth in population (now up to 24 million living in Florida).

The result is a park that skirts a large lake, and contains wetlands, cypress swamps, and loads of wildlife. So there were some good photo ops, which I'll share now.

The first photo shows an anhinga with a sizable fish. He works it around, this way and that, to try to get the head facing towards his throat, so that he can ingest the thing. Meanwhile, a very patient great blue heron is standing nearby watching the anhinga's efforts. The anhinga gets the fish part of the way down his throat, but there's just no way he can swallow it, as his throat just isn't big enough. He tried several times, all the while being watched by the heron. Finally, he gave up, at which point the fish was fair game. The heron lunged, and with one gulp, down the hatch it went. Fun to watch.

The next shot is of a lovely osprey, followed by two black-backed whistling ducks (unusual in Florida in these parts...there was a sizable flock of them nesting in the area). Then the usual large gator (had to put one in or it wouldn't be Florida), then a rear view of an anhinga, with its beautiful display of feathers. And finally, two sandhill cranes. We got quite excited when we spotted the cranes, as they resemble whooping cranes. But when we checked their coloration at the center, alas, they're only ordinary sandhills.

We are now in Homosassa, about to go to the local wildlife park for more birds, fish, and manatees. Seems we can't get enough of such. So stay tuned. More later.